Out of the Woodwork 2009 Report

Washington Crossing, PA: September 25-27, 2009

‘Out of the Woodwork’ is now behind us, and there were two things that stood out from this year’s event:  (1) it was DRY and (2) we had approximately 15 more cars on the show field than we did in 2008.

The event was held again this year at Washington’s Crossing Historic Park near the banks of the Delaware River in Bucks County Pennsylvania, about an hour north of Philadelphia.   Activities began on Friday with another Historic Covered Bridges Driving Tour led by Events Chairman Tony Hess.  About 10 TVRs took part in the tour through the beautiful Bucks County countryside and everyone who participated had nothing but good things to say about the experience.

I finally arrived after midnight early Saturday morning to be greeted by a group of Canadians who had kept a bucket of iced down beer waiting for me.  We then proceeded to stay up and talk until about 4am after which I unloaded my 280i off the trailer, unpacked, got a shower and breakfast, and was then ready to lead the convoy of volunteers from the hotel to the park for the Saturday show.  After we got everything set up, cars began arriving.   In a quite uncharacteristic fashion, the weather even cooperated with us and we had mostly sunny skies and a nice crisp fall day for the show.   All told, about 47 TVRs were on the show field, up from 32 last year and a few non-TVRs were in attendance as well.   The TVRs on display covered the range of models from a Grantura 1800s through a Griffith 500.

A local Boy Scout troop did a great job of providing food for the show participants throughout the day.  We also had a great group of volunteers who helped throughout the morning getting cars parked in their correct classes, helping with registration tent duties, regalia, and with cleanup at the close of the show.

When the show was over, awards were handed out and Best of Show honors went to the beautiful 1968 Vixen S2 belonging to Tony Hess and Candace Kennedy.  The Marq Ruben Award for the most outstanding TVR on the showfield was also awarded to Hess/Kennedy for the S2 Vixen.   Other awards presented at the Saturday night banquet at the hotel, included the long distance award, presented to Wayne Leppard of Calgary, Alberta, Canada who trailered his 1978 Taimar 5000 on what ended up being a 7,000 mile round trip by the time he returned home.   And the Trevor Award was presented to club member Tony Hess.

We were very pleased to once again have Colin Lyons, the Overseas Regional Organizer for the TVRCCNA , join us from the UK and serve as our auctioneer for the Saturday night TVRCCNA Auction.   His efforts netted the club treasury some $2,200 as he separated club members from their money throughout the evening for all kinds of interesting TVR related memorabilia.

The ‘Out of the Woodwork’ event will be held again next year at the same venue in Pennsylvania, the last weekend in September.   Next year’s event will mark the 30th year since the very first ‘Out of the Woodwork’ was held at Forest Lodge, NJ in 1981, so I hope many of you will put this on your calendars and plan to be there to help celebrate this milestone.   Keep tuned to this website for all the information on next year’s event as well as other events throughout the year.

Some Pictures:


Here are the yellow 5.0 litre 280i of Drew Estes and the white 280i of Phill Warren in front of an historic biplane along the Covered Bridges Driving Tour

This picture shows the modified bonnet of Wayne Leppard's Taimar 5000 on the show field.

Here is the TVR lineup along the way during the Covered Bridges Driving Tour
Some of the M-series class on the showfield.
The above pictures are from Drew Estes.
The rest of the pictures are by Marshall Moore.

Here is the Wedge lineup at Woodwork 2009

This is Tony Hess' Best in Show and Marq Ruben Award Winning 1968 Vixen S2

Wayne Leppard's Taimar 5000 was brought all the way from Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Here is Dave Hunt's incredible 3000S on the showfield.

Here is the Late TVR Class at Woodwork 2009

Tony Hess accepts the second annual Marq Ruben Award