Great day attending BCA Portland show Aug 18th, 2012

[SeanR]

As a last minute catch, I read a post on here about the Portland BCA all Buick show and made a last minute decision to attend. So glad I went! Great drive at 5am from Seattle to Portland to make it for my 830am arrival! Touched up my 88 Firemist blue coupe an hour prior to the show. We were lumped into the 70+ everything but Grand National or Riviera class. Personally, I think that Reatta's either deserve their own class or be thrown into a more recent decade category such as 80's, etc.

In all, six Reatta's made it into the judging. Weston Buick GMC also had their red 91 coupe on display. Some light rain didnt stop us from wiping down and touching up. It was great meeting all the other Reatta junkies and comparing technical details under the hood. It was a great success!

1st place Black/Tan Reatta convertible.

I won 2nd place -- appreciated very much!!

After the show ended abruptly from the 2nd rain shower, I was at a gas station when I decided I would try and locate the original owner. I was looking at the warranty booklet and remembered they were in the Portland area. I drove to the house of the original owner. This nice woman named Betty was extremely surprised and happy to see the car. Her husband had passed away almost 11 years ago and had 7 garages for all his cars. She said he was well known by every dealer and salesperson in WA and OR state because he was constantly trading them in. I offered to snap her photo standing with the car and sent her the picture to share with her family. She stated her family was going to be in disbelief at what dropped in today! :cool:

After a pleasant discussion about their former Reatta, we said our goodbyes and I headed home to Seattle.

[Bushwack]

Fantastic! Looks like a great time had by all. Not a dirty or dented Reatta in the lot.

[ol' yeller]

Sean, it was great to meet & talk to you and Gary as well as the other Reatta enthusiasts at the show. 6 Reattas at a Chapter show has to be a record. All of them were beautiful examples of the finest Buick made in the late 80's, early 90's. Yours is an immaculate beauty. I found it interesting that of the 6, there was only 1 white one (mine) and 2 red ones. The most fun for me was talking and comparing cars to learn about differences of a handbuilt car line. I discovered on your car that it never had the "front engine shock" and all the rest did. Your's didn't even have the frame mount for it. We all puzzled over the green wire end next to the air filter box and how it's placement moved from 88-89 to 90-91 and its function.

The trip was awesome from Seattle and my new Vert delivered 30.02 MPG handcalculated over the entire 434 mile trip. Sharing the trip with my good car buddy, Mike was just icing on the cake.

How neat to surprise the former owner of your car. It is interesting how people form such attachments to automobiles as reminders of the good times in their lives. As we live close, stay in touch. I hope to see more of you at future Buick events.

[Ronnie]

Is this the green wire end you were puzzled about:

Fuel Pump Prime (Test) Connector Location - Reatta Owners Journal

Or just puzzled about the change in location?

[ol' yeller]

Bingo Ronnie, on both counts.

[NCReatta]

Boy oh boy!! Looks like so much FUN! congratulations on getting that many Reattas there! That's fantastic!

[Booreatta]

Sean what a nice thing to do. You made her day. Old cars bring back old memories. Glad to see you guys got the Reattas out.

Chuck Kerls

booreatta@cox.net

[SeanR]

Sean' date=' it was great to meet & talk to you and Gary as well as the other Reatta enthusiasts at the show.[/quote']

It was great meeting you as well Greg and Mike - always cracking jokes. LOL Gary really had a nice black/tan to win 1st place. Will any of you guys be at LeMay August 25th? I am trying to get both my Fiero and Reatta on display - just trying to work out the driving logistics. I don't think I've ever seen a Reatta at LeMay! LeMay Family Collection Foundation | Marymount Event Center

[ol' yeller]

I'd like to go but I have a family vacation planned for that weekend in Anacortes. If you haven't been, you are about to enjoy the car guy's epitome of heaven. I have been to the Open House many times and still haven't seen it all. I have never been there with a Reatta.

For those who don't know about Harold LeMay, he made his fortune hauling garbage in Western Washington. Through hard work & dedication he owned & operated several waste companies. He then had the finances to pursue his true passion, automobiles. He became an icon of the collector car hobby. He would travel the country, with an Auto Trader in his hand, buying individual cars or entire collections. If he needed to, he would buy a barn or garage to house his newest acquisitions until he could bring them home. Cars would be packed in so tight that one had to crawl over them to get to a particular car. This caused some consternation for his family when he passed away as they had to locate all of these locations to bring the collection home. I don't know the actual number of cars he owned but my guess would be in the thousands, not hundreds. A multimillionaire, he owned several Classic Cars but the vast majority of his collection were the cars America drove, sedans, wagons, coupes and convertibles. Every August he would open his home and 2 other of his locations to the public to view his cars and memorabilia. If you can think of car from your youth, you could find an example of it at his Open House. He owned everything from Ramblers to Dueseys (yes, there is a Tucker). He would provide busses (several English double deckers) to transport people between the locations, the largest of which was Marymoor. Marymoor was a convent on beautiful grounds that Harold purchased to house his cars. All of this was provided and paid for by Harold, in the sleepy town of Spanaway. If you held a CDL, a prime job was volunteering to drive one of these busses during the event.

You'd never know that Harold was a rich guy. It was not uncommon for him to sidle up next to you at a swap meet and strike up a conversation about cars. He roamed the country with a friend or two in his rollback truck looking for his next purchase. He was carried to his final rest on the back of that same truck followed by a huge procession of collector car guys in their vintage autos.

Upon his death his family decided to honor his memory by creating a foundation to build the Harold LeMay Museum in Tacoma, WA. They sold some of the collection, donated money, cajoled the city to donate some land and solicited donations to build this tribute. The dream was realized last year when the LeMay Museum opened its doors. Some of the display are Harold's cars but many are owned by other collectors as well.

The LeMay family still honors his memory by holding the annual Open House in late August although I think they do ask for a donation to the foundation for an entrance fee. It is well worth the modest price. Harold's life is what every car guy would dream of if they hit the lottery or suddenly came into money. I belive it is classified as the single largest collection of automobiles in the country. If you go, you're going to have a great time!

Edited August 20, 2012 by ol' yeller
fat fingers on the keyboard (see edit history)

[Gary D]

Thanks Greg Mike and Sean for coming down from the Seattle area. It was great to have a strong turnout of fellow Reatta enthusiasts!

BTW Greg & Mike...you were right on my hood problem...the latch was all gunked up. It's now clean and working properly!

[ol' yeller]

That was Mike's catch. Glad to hear you got it fixed!