GM Day – 2019

By Virginia Russell

What a brilliant day it was! We are so lucky to be able to hold GM Day at the Museum of Fire in Penrith which has ample grounds for all our big Yank Tanks to park. It’s also a great opportunity to visit the Museum on the day too.

This year, we took our 1918 Speedster and our 1977 Skyhawk. It was the first time in ages that our ’18 had been seen on the streets of Sydney. The ‘18 is aging, somewhat gracefully at 101 years of age! She does suffer a little with hot flushes, but she certainly makes her presence known upon arrival, and departure, and created quite a bit of interest on the day! Hopefully Jim has ironed out all her little quirks in time for her to venture to Tamworth for the East Coast Meet this month. Fingers Crossed!

The Skyhawk isn’t my favourite car. That would be the ’18 followed by the 1980 Electra. The Skyhawk drove well though on the day but because I didn’t turn the ignition off properly in the morning, it needed some help to get going at home time. Thank you to Bob Farrow and Tony Gentilcore for the jump start. It didn’t give grief again for the trip home, thankfully!

There was a fabulous roll up of Buick Members to this year’s GM Day and there were many other GM manufactured vehicles there too. I think there may have been 30 Buicks there which is probably the best roll up in a few years. Really lovely to catch up with everyone who came on the day. As always, we brought our chairs, some brought lunch (as well as knitting or quilting!) and we all congregated under the shade of the magnificent gums at the back end of the park. We have a prime spot with ample area around our chairs and out of the full sun which is fantastic.

There were only a couple of “food trucks” there so we brought along some lunch and a cuppa, but you could have had either Chinese food or burgers and fries for lunch followed by icecream or a coffee. Personally I would prefer a couple more food trucks for variety there but I guess it’s not a big enough event for them to attend, although the queue to the burger truck was pretty long!

As always its lovely to see Marc McInnes (who has hardly missed a GM Day since the beginning) presenting trophies to the various clubs and their members on the day. The presentation ceremony only takes about half an hour as it’s so well organised. This year was the Russell’s year to receive a trophy and that was for Jim and the ’18. He was pretty chuffed to say the least! Paul Camilleri and Mark Laycock were also worthy trophy recipients, and Geoff Ward won the Ken Harding Trophy which is pretty special given Ken was a foundation member of the Buick Club.

So next April, when you are thinking should I or shouldn’t I attend GM Day, please do! Even if your Buick isn’t on the road at the time, please come along, bring your chairs and picnic lunch and join other Buick members under the Gums at the Museum of Fire, Penrith. It is a great day out.

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