Just to be sure things work according to plan. Everyone needs to RSVP for the VIP Reception so they will be on the list and be admitted. Each car owner should have received the invitation via email and they need to click the ‘RSVP’ button. If there are issues, let me know!!
Cheers, Mark
Those bringing Morgans for Display as part of the Lake Mirror Classic Concours are invited (and their guests) to the the Lake Mirror Classic VIP Reception taking place Friday evening, October 20th from 6-9PM at the Magnolia Building overlooking Lake Mirror and France Langford Promenade.
Enjoy hors d’oeuvres, drinks, etc. Dress is business casual. Live music inside or step outside onto the deck to enjoy all the fun happening below at the Hot Rod Rendezvous. And, a special appearance of the GM Futurliner.
Special guests include the Lake Mirror Classic founder, Ford Heacock III, and the 2023 Grand Marshall, Bill Warner (founder and long time chairman of the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, racer. photo journalist and a legend in our hobby.)
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!!
Wow! The GatorMOG Summer Noggin in Titusville, FL was exceptional. Thank you Adam Hitt!! I am so happy that I didn’t have a conflict or chose to miss this one! I would be kicking myself right now! I would have to say it was one of the best GatorMOG weekends we have had in a very long time. All the others in attendance were equally pleased!!
The weather was exceptional. We had a spot of rain on the way there, but thanks to Andrea, we had the Roadster top up. (I personally prefer it down, with my physical challenges, as I can get into and out of the Morgan much easier with the top down!! Andrea doesn’t like the sun, she takes pills . . .) Then nothing all weekend, except a short shower while we were having brunch on Sunday.
It was pretty much a weekend of air conditioning. It was a bit warm at the Valiant Air Command Museum, when we were out in the big hangars as they only have large fans to circulate the air but really it was not all that bad. I wasn’t even sweating! In the other museum display areas, they had air conditioning. Then at the KSC everything was air conditioned, except the walk across the apron between the Shuttle Atlantis display and the Ice Cream Shop! I found that walk a bit warm, but the destination made it all worth it!!
The primary activities of the GatorMOG event, mostly Saturday’s itinerary, was exceptionally well planned and executed. It was a dipole sort of thing for me, at one end the realization of someone’s dream, in some cases the results of which proved to be wildly successful, in other cases not so much, but all were driven by the necessities of war and were accomplished with the most rudimentary of things. Hand drawn blueprints on vellum, mental and manual calculations (no computers back then), and ultimately the grit and determination of the entire nation.
One of the aircraft on display at the Valiant Air Command Museum was the P-82 / F-82, ‘Twin Mustang,’ two Mustang fuselages joined together at the wing. They indicated that this aircraft is the only F-82 in the world still flying and oh by the way, it is available for sale! It could be yours for only $11M. And you thought the Morgan’s upkeep was pricey?? (To be honest, I’ve seen a good number of aircraft in my time, but never one of these!!)
At the other end of my dipole, the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Again the realization of another dream, accomplished this time with a stubborn determination, repetitive failures, big budgets and massive engineering efforts driven by national pride and patriotism. I guess I do have to admit, that even as an engineer, I was in awe by it all and humbled by the bravery of the crews.
Then at the KSC, my personally beliefs were again aroused, this time by the expansive and theatrical displays of early NASA and then again, with the display of the Atlantis Space Shuttle. It was all exceptionally well done, and it actually brought me to tears!!
If you have not been to KSC, you have to go! There are no excuses not to!
The social activities, the Friday evening gathering at the Playalinda Brix Project, the Saturday dinner at Dixie Crossroads, and the impromptu Sunday morning brunch at Steve’s Family Diner on HWY – 1 in Titusville were all superb! Great beer and food at the Playalinda Brix Project but it was a very, let me emphasize very, popular place! And, with no reservations, we did have to fight the crowds. But in the end, it was well worth it! The Dixie Crossroads Restaurant was great, as always, but we went a bit early this time. Something about a beer?? (And it was still packed??) And brunch just happened. The timing was convenient as it showered while we sat and ate! Then it was clear and bright for our ride home. In all cases excellent food, drink and company!!!
Again, an exceptional weekend. And, one I am not likely to forget anytime soon!!
Cheers,
Mark
GatorMOG’s participation in 2023 Lake Mirror Classic is GatorMOG’s Fall Noggin or activity in 2023. Morgans are the designated Special Display marque for the event. The event will be held in Lakeland Florida on 20-23 (Friday – Sunday) October in conjunction with the 2023 Lake Mirror Classic.
The event hotel is The Hyatt Place Lakeland Center at 525 W Orange Str., Lakeland, FL 33815. Hotel Reservations: https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/florida/hyatt-place-lakeland-center/tpazl?corp_id=g-lm23 Once on the website, update the check in date (20 Oct) and the checkout date (21 or 22 Oct) then click BOOK NOW, then select your room type, and complete the reservation.
Alternatively, you can call (1-877-231-2387) to make your reservations but be sure to ask for the Lake Mirror Classic 2023 rate for October 2023.
The event will start with an informal, Friday evening (20 Oct) noggin’ at the Hotel, in the hotel’s lobby bar. Dinner is on your own. There are lots of wonderful restaurants in Lakeland.
On Saturday morning (21 Oct), the GatorMOG participants will relocate with their Morgans to the Lake Mirror Classic show field and take their designated position at the Special Display area. (Note: there will be a Morgan convoy leaving from the front of the Hotel. Time -TBD) The cars will be laid out by model type and will have specific car placards describing each car, in front of each car’s parking spot. There will be informational signs, telling the Morgan Motor Company story, as well as other appropriate Morgan car details, intermingled around the car corral.
You must register for this show. Show Registration is online. Use the Lake Mirror Classic website https://lakemirrorclassic.com/ to register. The Lake Mirror will print a special placard for each car to be placed in front of the cars where they will be displayed and the collection of the data (no more than 400 Characters) for this placard will be gathered during the registration process. Also, you will be asked for up to 5 photographs of your car. The Lake Mirror Classic folks will publish an online catalog of cars in the show.
After the conclusion of the Lake Mirror Classic show, the Morgans will return to the hotel or go directly to the designated dinner restaurant, Frescoes, in downtown Lakeland. GatorMOG will have a group dinner at Frescoes Southern Kitchen and Bar, 132 South Kentucky Avenue, Lakeland, Florida 33801 at 6:30PM Saturday (21 Oct) evening. (FYI. The Restaurant is about 0.5 miles from the Hyatt hotel. So, leave your car at the hotel, if you can.) After dinner the Morgans will return to the hotel.
Several individuals have indicated a desire to participate in the Lake Mirror Classic rallye on Sunday (22 Oct) morning. There is no formal GatorMOG organization for this rallye so those interested in participating are on their own. Those that do not participate in the rallye can travel home or do wherever. It is their call!
There are already some 20 Morgans registered. Be sure you send an email to Mark so that he can maintain a headcount for the show and the restaurants. See you there!!
Rick and Mark