President’s Corner
Lee Elrick Jr., Section President
Greetings Wichita Section members! Wishing you a happy holiday and a successful new year in 2023.
I was really pleased with our many August and September events. Our section did a great job representing the Mercedes-Benz brand at the 1st annual Wichita German Car Show on September 17th. There were over 218 cars on display including some new models rolled out by our local MB dealership. One of our cars (1971 3.5 cabriolet) won the MB members choice award.
Additionally, the club enjoyed a scenic road trip up to the Flint Hills, with an enjoyable lunch in Council Grove at the historic Hays House restaurant.
Our section also participated in the inaugural Medallion Rally in support of the Alzheimer’s Association.
We’ve already started putting plans together for 2023 and I look forward to seeing everyone at our membership meeting in January. Hope to see you all there.
Lee
Recent Events
Morrison Car Collection and Lunch, Saturday August 13th, 2022
Our section was invited to visit Roger Morrison’s private car collection up in Salina. After gathering at our usual spot behind the Cracker Barrel, our group convoyed up to Roger’s place. As usual, Roger was an extremely gracious host, showing us around his collection and answering many questions. Afterwards the group grabbed lunch in downtown Salina. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures from the collection, but I did get some pictures of the group before heading up north.
Section Membership Meeting and Lunch, Saturday August 27, 2022
The Wichita Section gathered for the semi-annual membership meeting and lunch at Firebirds. Fifteen members attended this meeting. We discussed upcoming events, the overall state of the club, and the election of three new board members. Congrats go out to Jeff Siebels, Randy Roths, and Joseph Kausse, our newest section board members!
Wichita Area German Car Show, Saturday, September 17th, 2022
The section participated in the first (of what is hoped to be annual) Wichita area all German car show. It was an excellent show with a wide variety of vehicles and outstanding weather. The show was jointly hosted by the Mercedes, Porsche, BMW, and Audi clubs. Over 200 cars participated with a very good showing from Mercedes-Benz. BMW won the award for most participating cars and Lee Elrick won best of show for Mercedes-Benz. Really looking forward to attending this show next year.
Sonnenblumen German Car Show, Saturday, September 24th, 2022
Three cars drove up from Wichita to Salina to participate in the Sonnenblumen German Car Show, hosted by the German Car Club of Kansas. At the show itself we met up with 2 more Wichita section cars. There were several other MB’s there as well, but this show was definitely dominated by Beetles! The Sonnenblumen show always has some interesting cars and this show did not disappoint with several NSU cars and some obscure VW’s.
Alzheimer’s Association Presentation, Thursday October 20, 2022
The Wichita section participated in the Mercedes-Benz Club of America’s Medallion Rally in support of the Alzheimer’s Association. Several members gathered at the association’s Wichita chapter office as our Vice President, Will Tobin, presented a check to the local chapter. After the meeting the Wichita chapter board members went outside to admire and pose with some of our MB’s. This is a great cause and hopefully next year we will be able to raise even more money.
Trip Reports
Visit to Amsterdam
by Kirk Filbey
Anne and I had a wonderful trip to Amsterdam during the Thanksgiving timeframe. The canals provided a picturesque scene to match the amazing architecture in the old city. We also visited several art museums and made some day trips to Delft and Utrecht. I always keep an eye out for interesting cars. As expected, there were a lot of newer MBs but I also managed to spot some older cars….
Section Membership News
Our section currently has 65 members.
Welcome to our newest members: Chris Glanzer and Darrell Swank
Here’s a heartfelt thanks to all our renewing members since our last newsletter: Richard Ahlstrand, Tom Beskett, Brian Boisvert, Larry Fear, Michael Grant, Harvey Nero, Gil Perez-Abraham, Martin Perline, Randy Roths, John Rudd, Dwayne Rumsey, Will Tobin, Icer Vaughan, and Samuel Williams. Thank you so much for your sustained membership.
Please continue to promote our club with other Mercedes owners so we can increase our numbers. If you meet someone who has specific questions about our club, please direct them to contact us at MBCA.Wichita@aol.com. If you have other ideas about how to improve our membership numbers, please don’t hesitate to contact me (Kirk Filbey) at rkfilbey@gmail.com.
For our current members, please don’t forget to renew your membership so you don’t miss out on future events. Renewing members are the core part of our section.