ascMcLaren Enthusiasts

Hi All-

I hope all of you are doing well and hope everyone had a good holiday season. Sandy, I am really glad to hear you are still "Vertical", it's good to hear your winning your fight. You will make it through, Hell, you have too much work to do here yet!

Personally, I am glad 2008 is behind us. After 15yrs with Chrysler (been laid off the last 13 months) I took the buy-out offer, I did not have much chance on getting back to work until 2010 or 2011 (If the company exists that long). My wife also lost her job in December as a manager with Linens N' Things. So here we are 15 years later and older starting over again in a pathetic economy and a ever shrinking job market. We did manage to raise the boys, get them through school and are enjoying
being grandparents x 4.

I started my own business recently. I have been a coin & currency collector for 30+ years as an investment and hobby, we figured we would take a shot at expanding it into the retail realm. So after 8 months of construction and development High Ridge Coin, Collectible & Currency is coming on-line, I have spent the last 2 months developing my on-line store and informational websites, you can check them out at:

www.stlcoin.com & www.hrccc.net

Please feel free to check them out and let me know what you think, I could certainly use the feedback!

I still have my 86 Eurocoupe (#19), she's in winter storage at Gateway Classic Cars in St. Louis, they require it to be on consignment and they shot a you-tube video of it, here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jsv4Ddda41E

At least I get to "visit" her via the video, I also go over there every 6 weeks or so, just to eyeball her. I have had a couple of offers on it, as being out of work so long is a temptation for selling it, but I have fended off the urge. I also just received an invitation to the Indy Mustang Show which has been moved from July 3-5 up to June 5-7 at the Speedway.

My store is starting off well, I have some good interest and really spent a lot of time in development, I never worked so many 14-16 hour days before this venture, but it does beat "working for a living".

I hope all of you are healthy and prosperous this year..... Hopefully, we will cross paths with some of you and your ASC's this year.

Best Regards,
Jim

Looks good Jim Good Luck with everything!

Your website looks great. Best of luck in the new venture.

Keep us posted if you do decide to sell the EuroCoupe. I'm not sure if you recognize my screen name, but we have talked through email on and off over the last few years regarding the car. It's beautiful and I've wanted one for a long time - but like you, I also work for Chrysler so the wallet is closed for now. If the right opportunity came about, though, I may loosen up.

I don't know what you guys did for Chrysler. However, I can tell you that my parents, my cousins and my aunt were devoted to Mother-Mopar.

I have in the past owned 5 Impeials, but my parents owned many more than that. My father's cousin drove nothing but Imperials and his wife always had some kind of Plymouth Sport Fury. In our basement, along with a ping pong table ans such hung a metal sign that proclaimed MOPAR SPOKEN HERE.

While Dad was a commercial real estate attorney and Mom was a Patent Attorney as was Dad's Sister #1 - dad was also a silient partner in a ICP store (Imperial-Chrysler-Plymouth). Dad died in 1985 and by that time had sold is 1/3rd of the ICP store. With NO more Imperials.

I owned NEW a 1968 Crown Convetible, a 1972 LeBaron, a 1974 LeBaron 2-Door Hdt. - a 1976 LeBaron Crown Coupe (St. Regis) and finally a 1982 Bustle-Back Imperial..
Then I migrated over ti Ford. I now own 2 Fords, 1 Mercury and a Lincoln.

But.....right now, there are no 2009 L-M cars I like, x-cept the Town Car and they stripped that naked for the 2009 edition.
But we were solid MOPAR people. Cousins defected to BMWs,

Good luck to you Jim! Hope to see you both at a show this year.

Beautiful car there. I'm 99% sure, but thats the same one I saw at WFC in 01, 02, and 03, right? I talked to you a bit one of those years about the 84 Capri I had at the time.

Congrats on starting your new venture! While I have never worked for Chrysler, I have been out of work since March, and like you I have also started to venture out on my own.

Shiny Side Up!
Bill

Kevins89notch5.0 wrote:Beautiful car there. I'm 99% sure, but thats the same one I saw at WFC in 01, 02, and 03, right? I talked to you a bit one of those years about the 84 Capri I had at the time.

My Eurocoupe is in fact the one you saw at WFC 4- 5 - 6 - 7 & 8 (2001-2005), I took it to WFC X at Indy as well. I do remember speaking with you about your 84 as I had just sold my 84 RS in 2001.

We are getting ready to pull it from Gateway in a couple of weeks, I don't know if we will get much opportunity to show it though as my business has been quite demanding of my time, I do want to hit Bob Chandlers (aka Bigfoot) show since it is for Childrens Miracle Network and possibly Dave Sinclairs show at McDonnell park.

Hope to see you out this season...

Jim

ProTouringASC wrote:Congrats on starting your new venture! While I have never worked for Chrysler, I have been out of work since March, and like you I have also started to venture out on my own.

Shiny Side Up!
Bill

Hi Bill-
Hope all is going well with your business. Ours is expanding steadily, lots of 14-16hr days x 7 days a week, but it sure beats "working for a living" LOL -

Keep moving forward, I started developing my business while laid off from Chrysler (Fiat / Diamler - whatever its called this week!) I was laid off 15 months before taking the buy out offer, never have looked back....

Do you still have your vert? I saw a few months back you had it on the market? We have an auction coming up in June (MotoExotica) in St. peters, Mo. I am contemplating running it, I don't cherish selling it, but have had it stored at Gateway almost 2 years, due to the business does not allow the time to go out on the show circuit like years past.

Everyone on site here can check our new business out on-line at:

www.stlcoin.com or if in the STL area, stop on in, love to talk shop...

Best Regards,
Jim

Yes, I still have my 'vert. In fact, it has pretty much become my daily driver! I just purchased new tires for it (wow, what a difference!), and ordered a new piece of weather stripping to replace the torn and leaking stuff on the windshield header.

Glad to hear your business is going well! Your site looks great! Reminds me too, I have a couple of engagement rings from way back that I need to get rid of. With the current price of gold, I think now is the time to do it.

Shiny Side Up!
Bill

Jim what can you tell me about this?
I have had it for years, found it when I was working for a place that rolled coins years ago, it got hung up in the hopper.

capriman86 wrote:Jim what can you tell me about this?
I have had it for years, found it when I was working for a place that rolled coins years ago, it got hung up in the hopper.

I see Mike beat me to it. Some background history on this piece is copper coinage from England, the Netherlands & West Dutch Indies were commonly used in the states for commerce and were considered in trade at face value due to the lack of U.S minted coinage prior to the early 1800's before the U.S cents were produced and circulated.

Many early coppers from these regions were heavily circulated in the U.S, such as your piece exhibits, values are generally low for low grade specimens ($5-$10 range), but do markedly increase based upon condition.

Hope the info helps, funny how some coins are just as scarce as our beloved McLarens, yet do not command perceived values... just my 2c

Jim

So much for retiring on it huh?

Thanks guys!