Next Events

INTERNATIONAL AUTO SHOW. Reduced admission cost for members who sign up early. Lunch first at CARNEVALE RESTAURANT, a Venetian café, (CLICK and turn up your volume!) on Lincoln Road on Miami Beach, which is a short walk from the Miami Beach Convention Center. Watch for the flyer in the mail. Saturday, November 8th, at 11:00 A.M

TOWER SHOPS AUTO MEET [CLICK] First Fridays. Sometimes as many as 300 cars on any given Friday evening. Mercedes-Benzes can be expected now, thanks mainly to the club's participation, although most are American classics and hot rods as well as Porsches and the occasional Italian glitter. Lots to see and do. Different.marques tend to gather on a certain Friday. We plan to exhibit our cars on the first Friday of the month. Reserved parking for Mercedes-Benz cars. Follow the signs. (You do not need to be a member of MBCA.) Drop by and kick a few tires and meet some people. It's also a good place to display your car if you're interested in selling it or to see if anyone has one for sale. Optional: Light dinner with other members on your own afterwards. Contact Joe Schumann (capt_jschumann@yahoo.com) Here are some pictures. Here are some more pictures.

ANNUAL HOLIDAY PARTY This year it's a fabulous luncheon buffet (including a mimosa eye-opener) in a magical location: The garden at LAPALMA RISTORANTE, (CLICK AND TURN UP YOUR VOLUME!) 116 Alhamba Circle, Coral Gables. Sunday, December 7.

PRIVATE CLASSIC CAR COLLECTION. Come and appreciate Member Guy Lewis' collection. These are some of the best cars in existence today and many have been exhibited at national level shows and concours d'élégance. One of his cars was one of the most expensive cars in the world when it was new. Miami, Saturday, January 17, 2009. Click here for a view of Guy's 1934 Rolls Royce 20/25.

MBCA STARFEST2008. San Francisco! Major MBCA National Event. Too much information to list on this page. CLICK FOR DETAILS.

OTHER CLUB EVENTS: There are other events currently being planned, but what would you like to see the club do next? These events are in the planning stages, but your ideas are important to the continued success of the club. Your feedback is always welcome, and it's easy by email.

Other

Paul Rodecki of Road Star section often has news about M-B events scheduled around the state. There are many car events going on around South Florida and you can check them out by contacting Paul at 561-662-1787 or email him at parodecki@bellsouth.net .

Also, if you hear of any other car-related information that might be of interest to the membership please pass it on to

ken@kenrobinson.org

Here are some links to sites of interest to Mercedes drivers:

MBCA's forums page. Interesting. http://mbca.cartama.net

http://www.mbworld.org

http://www.500ecstasy.com

ARCHIVES: The following are some of what we have done during the 2007-08 season:

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING. All members are invited and encouraged to attend our yearly gathering. We are returning once again to the hospitality of Mercedes-Benz of Miami. Bert Martinez, the general manager, has made the board room available to us again as we elect our officers and directors and map out our plans. Stay with us for a complimentary luncheon to follow the business meeting and, while we're there, check out the many new and pre-owned cars that are available. (Note: Inquire about the MBCA courtesy discount on service available to South Florida Section members.) Saturday, September 20, 2008, 11:00 A.M., Mercedes-Benz of Miami, Board Room, 444 NW 165th Street, Miami.

CRUISE SHIP LUNCHEON

IMPORTANT! CRUISE SHIP LUNCHEON: Aboard Carnival's Liberty. This gala event is not available every year, so don't miss out. Act right away as soon as you receive the flyer. (Some club members were turned away last year.) May 31, in Miami. The official registration flyer containing full details has been sent and should have been received by members at this time. NOTE: MANY MEMBERS AGAIN MISSED THE DEADLINE FOR THIS LUNCEON AND THEIR REGISTRATIONS HAD TO BE RETURNED. TRY NOT TO "MISS THE BOAT" IF WE HAVE THIS EVENT AGAIN. BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT WITH CARNIVAL CRUISE LINES.

CLUB TECH SESSION

Tech Session. April 19, 2008. RENNtech of Lake Park. High tech upgrades to Mercedes-Benz cars. Click here for links to RENNtech's web site to learn more about this company and its dedication to high performance automotive engineering.

CLUB ROAD RALLY!!!

Our club Rally will be held on Sunday, March 2nd, at noon. It will begin at Mercedes Benz of Pembroke Pines. Come, support the club and enjoy a pleasant and scenic two hours in South East Broward County. Prizes, trophies, refreshment, surprises and more await you. Send an email to Director Steve Bromfield for further information. Also, CLICK HERE for further details.

*South Florida Section ANNUAL HOLIDAY PARTY. Watch for your flyer and return it as soon as possible so we can give an accurate count to the restaurant. This is the same restaurant we used last year..

Click for photos of the 2006 holiday party. Once again at the picturesque Casablanca Café on Fort Lauderdale Beach. Saturday evening, December 1, 2007.

Lake Mirror Classic Auto Festival. Lakeland, Fla. October 19-21, 2007. Tünde and I have already gone twice and we'll be going again for the 2007 edition. Look around this page for info on the 2006 event. Let us know if you're thinking of going up If you weren't able to join us this year, try to make it for next year. Tünde and I are already planning to go in October 2008 for the fourth year in a row.

Oktoberfest, Oakland Park, Saturday, October 6. This year marks the Club's first involvement with this great event. People who have attended in past years plan to return again this year. Your car on display for the day will offer a new dimension to what is already a wunderbar party which is also a fund-raiser for worthy charities. You may attend and/or you may display your car. Full details are available in the Oktoberfest official press release, which you can access by clicking HERE. Contact Ron Constantine at 754-423-1109 or email him at rconstantine1@comcast.net

The following are archived events of the 2006-07 season that we've had so far. You may find some future tenses here as they have NOT all been edited after the fact. If you have a lot of time on your hands, you can click on the links to read more about any of them (Recommended.)

Funcours: Mercedes Festival of Stars, Las Olas City Center. Saturday, March 3, 2007, an important club event tied to the Las Olas Arts Festival. The flyer was sent to you in advance of the event. Show your car (informal concours), people's choice awards and more. Make a day of it! Contact Joe Schumann at 954-297-5666 or email him at star.eventsfl@gmail.com for preliminary information or to offer to assist at this major event. Here are links to some discussion groups on all things Mercedes, including our Funcours:

*Annual Holiday Party. At the picturesque Casablanca Café on Fort Lauderdale Beach. Saturday evening, December 2, 2006.

Lake Mirror Classic Auto Festival. CLICK for pictures of great cars! This was a FANTASTIC weekend. If you like cars, meeting nice people and enjoying good food, this is the event for you. We have already reserved our hotel for next year, just as we did last year for this year. Saturday, Sunday, October 21-22: Concours d'Elégance, Downtown Auto Show (They closed off the downtown streets as usual to display the cars), Classic Wooden Boats, Classic Motorcycles. Sunday, October 22: Rally, Brunch, Tour of Pinewood Estate at the Bok Sanctuary. Sponsored by Mercedes-Benz USA. Downtown Lakeland, FL, weekend of October 20-22. Click here to access this event's extensive website for complete details.

*International Auto Show. Lunch first at Carnevale Restaurant on Lincoln Road, then on to the Convention Center for the show. October 7, 2006, 11:00 AM (Note that this date was about three weeks earlier than past years' dates.

*Annual Meeting. September 16, at 11:00 AM. At the board room of Mercedes-Benz of Miami. The new board was elected and an award of appreciation was presented to Joel Moskow, General Manager of Mercedes-Benz of Miami. Lunch followed the meeting.

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Here are last season's activities. We hope you were able to attend some or all of them. If you haven't attended, plan now to join us next time around, as some of these particular events take place every year.

*Gourmet Cruise Ship Luncheon May 1, 2005. Aboard Carnival's newest ship, Valor. This was one of our best-attended events of the season, and a spectacular tour and luncheon it was! We are glad that so many of you were able to attend in May, especially since this special event is not available every year. See Ted Pappas' articles in the Star Magazine and in our own Star News.

Tech Session: Car Restoration. Would you like to see up close what it takes to completely restore a valued car...or perhaps to bring a car already in reasonably good shape up to show quality? That's what brought us to Creative Workshop, in Dania Beach. Jason Wenig took us on a tour of his facilty and showed us all the steps that go into an award-winning restoration. We learned a lot from this session and had an enjoyable experience at the same time. We met for breakfast at 9:30 at Grampa's Bakery and then walked or drove over to Creative Workshop.

Details: Saturday, January 29 at 9:30 AM for breakfast at Grampa's Bakery, 17 SW 1st Street, Dania Beach. 954-923-2163.

Tech session at Creative Workshop, 118 NW Hill Street, Dania Beach, 954-920-3303. Session began right after breakfast, at about 11:00 am. The Wenigs served us refreshments, good music, camaraderie (they are MBCA members) and a fascinating and informative workshop. Thanks Jason and Kim.

Holiday Party. December 4, 2004 Get the holiday season off to an early start by joining your South Florida Section for our annual Holiday Party. Gabriel Gomez will again surprise us with his usual "Bag of Toys". Plus if you bring a gift (value about $15) you get to pick and choose from the gift table. Click here for a map to the Miami Shores Country Club

South Florida International Auto Show. Our annual trek to the auto show at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Special admission cost for section members. We had lunch together first at Carnevale Restaurant and then walked to the show.

Details: Saturday, November 6 at 11:30 AM. We'll meet at Carnevale Restaurant, 607 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach. 305-672-3333 (Corner Pennsylvania Avenue)--a short walk from the Convention Center. Watch for flyer in the mail and be sure to RSVP early.

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Annual Meeting. September 16, 2006. We met in the boardroom of the Miami-Benz of Miami dealership. We gave our annual reports, elected our directors, announced the plans that were firmly set and had a nice catered lunch.

These are archived events of the 2005-06 season. You may find some future tenses here as they have NOT all been edited after the fact. If you have a lot of time on your hands, you can click on the links to read more about any of them (Recommended.)

*MBCA South Florida Section Day at the Races.

Our big day at the races. GulfstreamPark., Hallandale Beach. : Saturday, April 22. Lunch, exciting horse racing and, most important, great camarderie and a lot of laughs. Ask anyone who "won" the Trifecta.

Fort Lauderdale Antique Car Museum

Pictures here

*ANTIQUE CAR MUSEUM (Website) Date: March 18. This was a fun event!!! We met for breakfast at Waffleworks (click for review) at 9:30, a unique car-theme restaurant/diner, 3265 Hollywood Blvd (954-963-9161) and then motored up to the Fort Lauderdale Antique Car Museum, 1527 SW 1st Avenue, Fort Lauderdale (954-779-7300) at 11:00. A nice way to spend a few Saturday hours with your friends, new and old (well, not really old).

Amelia Island Concours d'Elégance

Click here for photos of this great classic car event. Plan to join us next year!

Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Amelia Island, Fla. This concours and the driving and social events that go on all weekend rival that of Pebble Beach, and features stunning classic cars. This is a major event that attracts exhibits and spectators from all across the United States and beyond. Weekend of March 10-12. Note: Several of our members attended this fantastic event. Check out the beautiful Amelia Island Concours website at http://www.ameliaconcours.org/

FEATURED SOUTH FLORIDA SECTION EVENT *Tech Session. European Auto Service, Inc., offered us a tour of their modern maintenance, repair and restoration facilities. A barbecue lunch (lots of great food!) was included. This shop specializes in fine European cars, and specialize in Mercedes-Benz cars. (Note that MBCA members receive a discount.) Saturday, January 28, 2006, 11:00 AM Click here for website.

*Holiday Party. December 3, 2005. The festive Holiday Party will be held at Tropical Acres Steakhouse, Florida's oldest steakhouse restaurant and a local landmark. Mark your calendar now and plan to join your fellow MBCA members. Tropical Acres Steakhouse (Click for map and directions), 2500 Griffin Road, Dania Beach, FL 33312, (954) 989-2500

*Annual Meeting September 17, 2005, 11:00 AM. This is the meeting where we elect our Directors and Officers for the coming year. We again met at Mercedes-Benz of Miami. General Manager Joel Moskow and his staff have been supportive of our club and offered us not only the use of their facilities for the meeting, but also a tour of the site or an in-depth presentation of a newly introduced car. (If you are shopping for a car, introduce yourself directly to Joel and identify yourself as a member of the club.) RSVP, please, to Gaby at 305-371-3592 Extension 313 or email mercedesclub@kenrobinson.org

Lake Mirror Classic Auto Festival October 14-16. Classic car event in the streets of beautiful downtown Lakeland. 500 cars are expected to participate. This is a major event that you will not want to miss if you can fit it into your schedule. (See article in newsletter.)

*Miami International Auto Show Saturday, November 5. At the Miami Beach Convention Center. We are usually able to get deeply discounted tickets for the first members to sign up for the show. Lunch together before the show (at your own expense) and then it's a short walk to the Convention Center.