The following article (written in January, 2007 by Bill Van Moorhem) describes how the club came into being and outlines the philosophy by which we are organized.
The founders of the BMCU at their first outing, Sundance, August 1988. Left to right are: Bill (can anyone provide his last name?), Bill Van Moorhem, Rich Holder, Pete Gerity, and Kees Versteeg.
In the summer of 1988 Salt Lake City was a very different place for British car owners than it is now. Bruce Schilling was running Partsmaster, a foreign car part shop, on State Street. British cars were simply old cars and the prices were low, at least by today’s standard. Other than the few racers and diehards, British car owners were few and far between. I only knew of two other British car owners at the beginning of that summer. One was Pete Gerity, who worked at the U. with me, and the other was Kees Versteeg, who I had met somewhere. Pete had a TR-3 and several other collector cars, and was (in the most positive sense) a long time “gearhead.” Kees had several MGAs and Bs. He was wheeling and dealing with them, and I couldn’t keep up with exactly what he had at any one time. I had my original ’73 MG Midget and had just finished up the ’57 MGA Coupe.
In late June or July I began to think of trying to start an MG car club. On one of my regular trips to Partsmaster I told Bruce about my idea. He took me over to the end of his counter and showed me a note from Rich Holder who had beat me to the idea. I contacted Rich and we decided that a drive over the Alpine Loop, which neither of us had ever done, would be a good way to begin. I told Rich that I knew of two other people that would likely be interested, Pete and Kees. We sat a date, in August, and put up a note in Partsmaster about the drive.
On the day of the drive, with rather dicey weather, one additional car with its owner turned up. So the original group consisted of Rich and Shirley Holder, Kees Versteeg and his daughter, Pete and Lillian Gerity, Julie and I, and a fellow by the name of Bill who had a black ’80 Limited Edition MGB. As I remember Rich and Kees drove MGBs, Pete his TR-3 and I my Midget (the “A” had some sort of problem).
At that time Alpine was a rural community and the Alpine Store was a tiny, rather seedy, Mom and Pop operation, with farmland on the other three corners. We stopped there for gas and a pit stop, before heading over the loop. Although the store and the intersection have changed, the stop is still made, but the group won’t fit in the parking lot anymore. At that time, there was no fee to drive or stop on the loop. The last time I drove the loop, the road and scenery really had not changed much, but the traffic is much more dense and the pickup trucks much bigger.
We stopped at the Sundance ski area for our picnic lunch, sitting on the big rocks surrounding the parking lot. Rich proposed we form an MG club but Pete, with the TR, disagreed. He felt that a British car club was more viable. Since he was the only one there with any experience with car clubs, we took his suggestion. Rich wanted to name the group British Motor Club, with the initials BMC. At that time, I believe the British Motor Corporation, BMC, owned MG and, maybe, TR. This was the original name of the group but in the first year or so we learned that British Motor Club was a popular name around the country, and “of Utah” was added to the name.
In the Sundance parking lot Pete also suggested several things that continue to define the group. His first suggestion was that we have the minimum amount of organizational structure possible for the group. He strongly felt that most car owners don’t want to attend business meeting or be officers. (Pete tells an interesting story about this. Sometime after the BMCU started he received a call from a member of another Utah car club that wanted to invite him to a meeting to explain how we were “organized and structured”. He told the fellow that he could save him a lot of time since there was no real organization, and no real structure to the BMCU, and no dues. He went on to tell him that the BMCU was a newsletter, a bunch of enthusiastic LBC crazies and that we would like to just keep it like that. There was a very long incredulous silence on the other end of the phone. Then, he said “no, really we would like you to come and explain your ‘organization and stucture’ to our group.” Pete said that he had just explained it and that there wasn’t anything more to really explain. The other fellow seemed to get it at that point.) Second, we should never have any kind of judged car show, these only make the people who don’t win angry. Third, all events should involve food. The group continues to follow these basic principals as close as it can.
Rich and Shirley volunteered to publish the original newsletter for the group. From Sundance we drove on to Provo Canyon, Heber and back to SLC. Of the original group, Pete and Lillian are in New Mexico, Rich and Shirley are still in the SLC area and Julie and I are in Oregon. The three of us are still members of the BMCU. I hear stories about Kees occasionally, but he is not currently involved with British cars. The other Bill never attended any other event after the original Alpine Loop.
The next run described in the newsletter was a trip into Emigration Canyon in September 1988. The newsletter says there were eight cars driven by: Scott Gilmore, Eric Heusser, Duff Lawson, Steve Nuessle, Neal Wheeler, Rich Holder, Kees Versteeg, and myself. The BMCU was growing quickly! Other events that first year included a Poker Run, and an attempt at a Funkana. In January 1989 the first Tech Session was held. Later that year I became newsletter editor and the Lucas Calendar became part of the newsletter. In March 1990 the first set of renewal postcards were sent out, another of Pete’s ideas. Eightyseven newsletters were being sent out before this first pruning of the mailing list. In the summer of 1990, two years after the initial event, the mailing list exceeded one hundred people.
1990 was the first BMCU presence at a GoF West, in Bend, OR. The GoF West, Gathering of the (MG) Faithful, began in the ‘70’s and is the annual gathering of owners of MG T-series, pre-war MGs, and now, any MG in the West. Two cars attended the Bend GoF West, Anne deBruin (TC Annie) with her TC, and Julie and I with the TD. We think Anne was into her 70’s in ‘90 and drove the TC to Bend and back. She died a few years later. Since 1990 I believe the BMCU has been represented at every GoF West. These trips included two of over 1000 miles, one-way, where everyone drove.
The first Memorial Day Southern Utah Tour was in 1991 with Julie and I driving Highway 12 from Panguitch to Torrey. No one else was willing to try it, but the next year several people with their cars joined us. This began an annual event. In 1992 the first British Field Day was held, organized by Bill Davis, again beginning a series of BFDs that has grown with the sixteenth scheduled for 2007.
The BMCU has become a very successful organization. I (and both Pete and Rich, who had the opportunity to review this) feel very honored to be part of its founding and to have many very good friends among its members.
– Bill Van Moorhem