Hi all, welcome to this month’s Presidents message.  I trust everyone had a great, safe festive season as we prepare to get on with 2023.  The traffic is getting back to normal (grid lock) after the little kiddies went back to school this week.

We had a mini-run this month whereby we went down to the Beenleigh Tavern with some of the QCA members.  A small group from both clubs enjoyed a refreshing drink on a warm summers day.  There was a follow-up afterwards to the Yatala drive-in.  This small run represents the first time we have actively engaged with the QCA on a run but it could be a welcome and regular occurrence going forward.  We hope to also engage more with the R&S club and maybe the Gold Coast-Tweed clubs this year as we all share very similar principles in the support of Chrysler vehicles.  Let’s see what the future brings, any suggestions you may have are welcome.

We also saw many club members attend the Bayside Vehicle Restorer’s Club (BVRC) day at Ormiston on January 26^th, Australia Day.  Many of us were volunteering as a reciprocal agreement given that members from the BVRC always help us out at Expo (thanks to Cheryl Nott and Albert Budsworth and others). There were approximately 600 cars of all types and ages attending including a strong representation of Chryslers, many I had never seen before.  A great morning was had by all whilst we endured the steamy, hot conditions (I though bayside was supposed to be cooler than Greenbank??).

A group of nine members, including myself, are currently planning a run down to Chryslers On The Murray in Albury-Wodonga for the years March event. Our trip begins on the 15^th of March. A convoy of 4 vehicles will make the week-long trip. Unfortunately, this coincides with the run scheduled for March and also our regular March club meeting. The decision was made at our January meeting to bring froward the run and the March club meeting to the 12^th of March with a BBQ at Colmslie reserve. I hope you can all make it!

Expo meetings will re-commence on February 15^th before our regular meeting.  Please be there by 6.30pm for the Expo planning prior to the regular meeting starting at 7.30pm sharp (I promise not to be late from now on!!).  Everyone is welcome at Expo planning meetings, the more people we have, the better the outcome and it spreads the load across our volunteer team, please do consider coming. The date for Expo 2023 is 10^th of September, lock it in now!!

I hope to see as many of you as possible enjoying our upcoming events and more importantly getting out in your Chrysler vehicles, cheers for now.

Greg Holburt

COCQ President

Foot note (grumble).  I’m off to the shed to pull the head off the Charger, loss of compression on 5 & 6, unimpressed is a gross understatement.  There had to be a reason for the doughy performance and high fuel consumption.  I hope it’s a simple fix.  Anyone got a cheap, full house V8 sitting around???