A few more events are on the calendar this year before the 2011 Driving Season goes into the history books. October 30th will be the third running of our Halloween Run.

Do you remember last year, when we showed up an hour late because we already had set our clocks back one hour? Well, if that happens again this year, you can just ring our doorbell because we decided to start the rally from our house. The coffee will be ready at 10:00 AM and the first MG will roll of our driveway in Prospect Heights at 11:00 AM. You'll find all the relevant details in the announcement in this Driveline.

November will have three events: 1) the Fall Tune Down in Cowboys Garage and on Sunday the 6th, 2) Oil Change Day for the homeless clients from the Arlington Heights PADS organization at Dave's Auto Clinic in Prospect Heights on Saturday November 19, and 3) the Cruise to the Rock on Thanksgiving Day. Information about Oil Change Day can be found in the Announcement in this issue of the Driveline, and If you're not familiar with the history of the Cruise on Thanksgiving Day, please check out the November 2010 Driveline. Those of you who don't save the paper copy of the Driveline, can also retrieve a soft copy from the club's website.

In this Driveline you should find a report or photos of the British Car Fest, an event that I missed this year because we were at the Beaulieu Auto Jumble in England. But that is a whole other story that I promise to tell in one of the off-season Drivelines when there's not so much Driving Season copy.

The Wine, Cheese, and Beer Tour saw well over 20 MG's. Editor Victor promised to publish many photos and write-ups in this issue so that in case you like what you see you can already put the 2012 running of this wonderful tour on your calendars.
Remember the 2012 Chicagoland MG Club Grand Slam that I brought up last month? Well, there is a good chance that we will indeed have all four events. May I suggest that you put a note with the dates on your refrigerator, in your home office, in the garage, and on your desk at work. Don't forget this last place because you may want to schedule your time off so that you can at least participate in one, possibly two, maybe even three, hopefully all four!

  The complete results for the 2011 Driving Events Championships are available on the club's website. To date, including the Wine, Cheese, and Beer Tour, the standings for the Moss Motors and Victoria British Trophies are: 1st. Barney and Theresa Gaylord, 2nd. Victor and Penny L'Heureux, and 3rd. Dino and Lisa Perez. The three upcoming events can help you to accumulate a few more points and may well bring one of the many other Driving Season Trophies into reach. But points or not, I hope that many of you will join us for the remaining events. See you at the Halloween Rally.

"The more you drive, the more you smile".

-- Reinout Vogt

I recently read in one of the car magazines that Jaguar is (hopefully) coming out with a new lower priced two seater. Of course we have been down that road before with the XKF. When the press asked Nasser, then the big honcho at Ford, what keep Ford from building the XKF, he replied "stupidity." Well Ford axed both the car and Nasser. I guess that's what happens when an organization is run by bean counters and not people who put the product first. Which shamelessly brings us to this month's featured book, Car Guys vs. Bean Counters.

When Bob Lutz got into the auto business in the early 1960s, CEOs knew that if you captured the public's imagination with innovative car design and top quality craftsmanship, the money would follow.
But then GM's leadership began to put their faith in numbers and spreadsheets. Determined to eliminate the "waste" and "personality worship" of the bygone creative leaders, and maximize profitability, management got too smart for its own good. With the bean counters firmly in charge, carmakers, and much of American industry, lost their single-minded focus on product excellence and their competitive advantage. Decline soon followed.
As vice chairman, Lutz launched a war against the penny-pinching number-crunchers who ran the company by the bottom line, and reinstated a focus on creativity, design, and cars and trucks that would satisfy GM customers.
Lutz's common-sense lessons, combined with a generous helping of fascinating anecdotes, will inspire readers in any industry.
-- Bill Mennell