Fox Brits Car Club Headquarters...WOW!

[YankeeTR]

I recently joined the Fox Valley British Car Club here in Wisconsin.

I had the pleasure of getting a look at the club headquarters on Saturday...all I can say is WOW! The building (I'm guessing 5000 sq.ft.) used to be a motorcycle dealership. It boasts a carpeted showroom for storing the members cars, a fully equipped shop with TWO lifts, plasma cutter, MIG welder, torchs, jacks, yada, yada, yada...

Oh yea, it's heated and air conditioned, too.

There is also indoor storage for your project cars.

All of this is available to members at a very reasonable cost...store your car and have help working on it...how good is that?

In the show room were quite a few members cars...two restored TR3A's, one TR4A, a couple TR6's, a handful of MG's (several B's, one TD, two TF's and an A coupe), an Austin Atlantic convertible, two Fiat Topolino's, a Nash Healey, a Kaiser Darrin and several more...neat!

I'll get some pics after my next visit...

 

[Brosky]

I wonder who underwrites that endeavor? Wow, what a club benefit that is!! Can you get any details on how they put that whole deal together, their financial planning and how they insure the place?

 

[tomshobby]

So, where in the Fox Valley is this? And how far do they accept members from?

 

[71tr]

No kidding, I live in Chicago and am thinking of converting my membership to Wisconsin.

 

[AngliaGT]

Wow - that's cool.
I thought about doing something like that
here.Build a shop & make it like a "club-
- house".
Only problem is that you'd have to trust
whoever else had keys to the place.

- Doug

 

[tomshobby]

Brings to mind a thing that happened here in Madison about 10 years ago. A classic car restorer had a big warehouse/showroom with the shop. They went bankrupt and were foreclosed on.

It just happened that they had dozens of customer collector cars in storage and in the shop, vettes and others, and they were also seized. Turned out the customers could do nothing and lost their cars.

 

[YankeeTR]

Brings to mind a thing that happened here in Madison about 10 years ago. A classic car restorer had a big warehouse/showroom with the shop. They went bankrupt and were foreclosed on.

It just happened that they had dozens of customer collector cars in storage and in the shop, vettes and others, and they were also seized. Turned out the customers could do nothing and lost their cars.

Yep, Tom's correct. It was a Corvette specialist.

Wisconsin law is written so that when you are selling a car on consignment, and the consignment dealer goes belly-up, the lienholder can take YOUR CAR. When you consign your car the dealer, under Wisconsin law, OWNS your car...

A bad deal for several folks who lost their cars...

 

[YankeeTR]

I wonder who underwrites that endeavor? Wow, what a club benefit that is!! Can you get any details on how they put that whole deal together, their financial planning and how they insure the place?

I don't know all of the details but I do know that one of the members owns the building. I would assume he lease's it back to the club.

The amazing thing is the member cost for storage and shop privileges is $50.00 per month...it would be impossible to do that on your own.

I am fortunate to have a pretty complete fabrication shop next to my home...I can do most anything I need to do in-house. But I didn't always have that set-up and, quite frankly, I probably would jump on te bandwagon at FoxBrits if i didn't have my present shop.

As one guy who used to build stock cars outside, in the winter, I can appreciate a warm building...

 

[tomshobby]

That's right, I forgot they were consigned. There were some really angry people and I was surprised there was no violence.

 

[tomshobby]

As one guy who used to build stock cars outside, in the winter, I can appreciate a warm building...

Don't you just love cold antifreeze running down your arm in 20 below weather! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/nonod.gif

 

[YankeeTR]

As one guy who used to build stock cars outside, in the winter, I can appreciate a warm building...

Don't you just love cold antifreeze running down your arm in 20 below weather! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/nonod.gif

NO!

 

[Brosky]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:] That's right, I forgot they were consigned. There were some really angry people and I was surprised there was no violence.[/QUOTE]

Tom, there may not have been at the time, but if that happened in RI, I can guarantee that there would have been some "unmentioned violence" late one evening, much to someones surprise.

 

[70herald]

As one guy who used to build stock cars outside, in the winter, I can appreciate a warm building...

Don't you just love cold antifreeze running down your arm in 20 below weather! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/nonod.gif

Picking up tools "pre-heated" by the desert sun in the summer isn't much better! I have "craftsman" branded onto my palm! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/shocked.gif