| NOVAMOG held its first meet of 2002and a great time was had by all. The cold wet weather did little to dampen spirits as 24 Merkheads gathered under the hoods of 10 XRs and 4 Scorpios at Dave Planakis' shop in Fredericksburg, VA. We even had our own marquee sign on the side of the road announcing our "Merkur Meet Today!" The meet kicked off at 10:00am and everyone immediately crowded around Larry Davis's 89 XR who drove in from Virginia Beach with his wife and son. This car qualifies for "FRANKENSTEIN" status, as there is hardly anything mechanical on the car that is stock. Larry's most recent modification was the addition of Euro headlights that Larry reports are a vast improvement over the stock lighting system. Larry is a true Merkhead in every sense of the word. And, Larry's wife, Ramona, just shakes her head, grins and bears it! Speaking of wives, we could almost have started a separate club named the NOVAMOG Wives Club today with 5 spouses/significant others in attendance. I hope the girls had as good a time as the boys, but I think that's best left alone... Steve Frank in his "Cobra 89 XR" qualifies "Farthest Traveled" award arriving from all the way from Philadelphia. We also had Gary Poindexter arrive with his red 87.5 XR that is very clean and up for sale. Greg Larsen from Martinsburg, WVA, arrived in his silver 88 XR and I had an opportunity to take a quick cruise in it. Very smooth ride with recently replaced suspension bushings and it pulled hard all the way to, umm, well lets just say it ran really good. Brian Boyer and wife arrived with both an XR and a Scorpio. There were 4 Scorpios total and all of them were looking very sophisticated and well maintained. We tried something new this time and had Dave P. and myself give a talk on the XR vacuum system. The talk focused on the common problem of wind in the vents and the recirculation door solenoid on the fender near the battery that will often be the cause of the problem. Replacement solenoids and vacuum balls are available throught BAT, Inc. but Dave P reports that with a minor modification, Motorcraft Part DY-509 also works as good substitute. Dave also provided advice and hands-on help to several of the Merkurs in attendance. All in all, everyone had a great time thanks to Dave and his outstanding hospitality. We're all looking forward to our next meet, tentatively scheduled for late March 2002. location TBD. |
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| Click To Enlarge |
| Sunday 10 February 2002 NOVAMOG at Dave Planakis' Hartwood Automotive |
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| Larry Davis' 89 XR Click photo to enlarge |
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| L-R: Rob Mcdonald, Steve Franks, Larry Davis, Ramona Davis Ramona tells Larry " Forget it!" |
| Steve Frank's 89 Cobra XR |
| Greg Larsen's 89 XR with Planakis Snorkel |
| L-R: Jim Gosses and Ed Lejewski with Jim's 89 Scorpio |
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| Close up of the Planakis Snorkle |