Just a Reminder – All Cars On the Field in Lakeland for the Lake Mirror Classic must have Fire Extinguisher. Don’t be disqualified or worse yet, ejected from the field for failing to have essential safety equipment!!
This is how the we think the event will come together!! This Holiday Party will be a bit different from those in the past. It is really only a one-day event. Well, a single overnight. And, that one day (overnight) is a Wednesday, December 6th, 2023. FYI, a good number of folks indicated that a weekday was preferable to a weekend. They had other things to do on the weekend!! So, we are planning this one, in the middle of the week!!
We will all travel to Fort Lauderdale, FL anyway we want. Pick a good road, bring the Morgan or bring the tin top. Your call! We will check into the event hotel, the Marriott Maritime Hotel, Fort Lauderdale Cruise Port, 2161 Maritime Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA, 33312. You will have to click the link: Book your group rate for Morgan MOGSouth GatorMOG or call (954) 533-7846, Ext. 1008 (Carina Tiepolt) and make your own reservation from our block booking!
The hotel is nestled in the 25-acre Marina Bay Resort and takes its lifestyle cues from South Florida’s culture of on-the-water recreation. Soaring eight stories at the water’s edge, the boutique hotel’s distinctive architectural sail and sleek, nautically inspired facade make it an unmistakable new landmark among Marina Mile hotels. It is conveniently located near the confluence of I-95, I-595, I-75, and Route 1, giving us great access from the North, South, and West!
We have a block of rooms reserved on a first come, first served basis. Our group name is Morgan / GatorMOG / MOGSouth (pick one!!). Our negotiated block booking rate is $145 per room (single or double) for the night, plus tax. This rate includes:
The Maritime Hotel has an electric charging station and allows for overnight trailer parking for guests should anyone want to bring their vehicle by trailer.
That evening, Wednesday, we will convene at the entrance to the hotel and convoy over to the Holiday Party pub, leaving at 06:00PM. Yes, a pub! It’s a great location, just a couple of miles from the hotel, with the right sort of ambiance for us. No white table clothes or fancy wine glasses this time! We are going to the ‘Field’ Irish Pub and Eatery, 3281 Griffin Rd, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312!! https://www.thefieldfl.com/ We have a private room (the Nautical Room, I believe) that will be set just for us – with room to expand if things get rowdy! Folks can order off the menu, eat and drink as they please. They have great food and beer – no rubber chicken or soupy green bean casserole this year!
After dinner, there will be a few words of MOGSouth business and then we’re done. You’ll be free to return to the hotel, party on to live music at The Field, cruise Las Olas in your Morgan, or take a drive along Fort Lauderdale Beach! Your call!
On Thursday morning, feel free to take advantage of the hotel’s restaurant for breakfast or visit the excellent Lester’s Diner, 250 W State Rd 84, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33315 just a mile east, down the same street. Departure home is on your own. However, for those who are interested, we will meet outside the hotel at 09:00am on Thursday morning for a real treat!
Special Event:
We have arranged an opportunity to tour a pretty amazing full-service classic and specialty vehicle restoration and coachbuilding business, The Creative Workshop, http://thecreativeworkshop.com/, which is only a couple of miles from the hotel, in Dania Beach. The Creative Workshop was the subject of the recent Apple TV series, Long Road to Monterey (well worth a watch). The seven episodes of this “behind the scenes” show highlight the ups and downs of what it takes to restore incredibly rare and sought after cars – specifically, a 1966 Coach built Ferrari 330GT Speciale and a 1921 Kissel 6-45 “Gold Bug” Speedster – for some of the most spectacular car events in the world.
At Creative on Thursday morning, we will be met by the Owner, Jason Wenig, who will provide a personal tour of their unique, 80+ year-old historic building that has been fully converted into a comprehensive restoration & coachbuilding facility. Cars restored and custom coach built by Creative have garnered numerous awards at international, national and local events – such as Pebble Beach, Amelia Island, Villa d’Este, Cavallino, Mille Miglia and many, many more. Take a look at their website and videos – this is craftsmanship of the highest level.
Did I mention that Creative’s General Manager, Rodney Keyzer, is a former Morgan Motor Car Dealer from South Africa?!! This is a unique opportunity and is well worth the visit! Visiting this facility is optional but highly recommended. Do tell Mark or Jonathan if you plan to attend the visit so we can alert them to the number of folks to expect. The visit and tour will take an hour or two and will be over by lunchtime after which you are again on your own to travel home.
As I am sure most of you are aware. I am a bit hampered by a wonky Right arm, the side effect of a spinal compression operation some 16 months ago. My arm has precluded me from driving my LHD Morgans, primarily because I cannot lift my Right arm up to the steering wheel to help my Left arm in steering the car. This is mostly problematic when I am trying to maneuver around a parking space or in my driveway.
This problem led me to seek out power steering systems. Well, all the usual UK sources declined to deal with a LHD car. ‘We used to but now we don’t . . . ‘ It seems the market is there but only for RHD cars? Then there was the issue of my Roadster and its ‘Air Conditioning’ (?). As I understand it the new four wheelers (the CX chassis cars) have electrical assisted power steering standard, or it is available from MMC, but these cars are not in the US yet.
Those with the older cars (Pre CX) are on their own. I asked around about Power Steering options and got a strong recommendation from a Morgan friend in Australia; EZ Power Steering, in the Netherlands. www.EZPowersteering.nlAs I understand it, these folks supplied Morgan with electrical power steering systems, until such time as Morgan adopted the BMW solution (along with the BMW power systems) for the CX cars.
If you Google EZ Power Steering, you will be faced with many similar sounding businesses. Be careful or you will go down some strange rabbit hole!
After a few diversions I went straight to the Company’s web site in the Netherlands. www.EZPowersteering.nl Don’t be concerned, as they fail to list Morgan as a supported car (they allude to only listing their best sellers?) They showed me pictures of a good number of Morgan systems on their work bench, and I ordered mine on Tuesday and had delivery on Thursday. (I suspect a US distribution point!) Not only that, their Installation Manual had lots of photographs showing the system being installed in a Morgan Roadster, not some obscure vehicle! It took a handful of folks a day and half to install the system and test drive it thoroughly. It works, and seems to work well. The steering in the drive is a one-handed affair! Bottom line: I can now drive the Roadster. I even had my wife test it and she liked it as well! The Dutch Company also has a few other Morgan solutions that look quite positive. They offer an ‘eccentric’ steering wheel mount for those you that need a bit more room under the steering wheel and a very pretty steering wheel center button that hides the screw heads and reduces the sun’s reflection off the shiny wheel. Visit their web site www.EZPowersteering.nl . Cheers, MarkSave the Date. Details are being worked!!