Four Cylinder Club of America History Project

A LITTLE BACKGROUND

Tachi Shimoyama, among the last members of the Glendale Chapter, recently sent me a small stack of newsletters.  While I found them to all be interesting, one in particular was a true gem, the very last FCCA newsletter, dated December 1999.  About a year ago, Glenn Davis sent me the very first FCCA newsletter, dated July 1951.  Having “bookends” like these is a historian’s dream, and it seemed to me to be a fitting occasion to track the known history of FCCA  newsletters.  Most chapters had their own newsletters, but as a national organization, it was imperative that the club have a common means of communicating with all members, across all chapters.  The inaugural national newsletter was called “Exhaust Notes” and it first appeared as a legal sized (8 1/2 inch by 14 inch) mimeographed publication in July of 1951.  With the September 1952 issue of Exhaust Notes, the club made a huge step forward, publishing the newsletter as a slick magazine, measuring 5 1/2 inches by 8 1/2 inches.  The burden of sustaining such a sophisticated magazine was soon apparent, however, as the volunteer publishers began complaining about a lack of materials from chapter clubs and the cost and time involved in creating the magazine format publication.  The last magazine format issue of Exhaust Notes I have is that for October 1953.  The Glendale Chapter later adopted the “Exhaust Notes” name for its chapter newsletter.  Sometime around 1954, the FCCA national publication’s name changed to “Rally“, in the same size and format as the magazine version of Exhaust Notes.  I only have one issue of Rally, that for July 1954.  This magazine was Volume 1, Number 5, so there must be other issues of Rally out there.  In 1957, the national publication changed its name to “Dash Plaque”, (some issues were 8 1/2 inches by 11 inches and others were 5 1/2 inches by 8 1/2 inches) a slick magazine that was usually limited to four pages printed on 11 inch by 17 inch stock, folded in half.  The first issue of Dash Plaque in the archives is Volume 1, Number 2, May 1957.  The last issue of Dash Plaque in the archives is that for November 5, 1967, Volume 11, Number 5. The club also tinkered with inserting its national news in various sports car focused magazines.  When one of these publications, whose name I have yet to identify, changed its name to “California Sports Car” chapters outside of California were understandably unhappy.  I’m still looking for some issues of California Sports Car.  Below is a photograph of selection of the variously named newsletters of the FCCA, with the first newsletter on the left and the last newsletter on the right.  While, the last newsletter does not have a title page, it was in fact an issue of the Glendale Chapter’s “Exhaust Notes“.  So there you have it, the club began in Glendale and its first newsletter was titled “Exhaust Notes”.   It also pulled the plug in Glendale, and its last newsletter was also titled… “Exhaust Notes”.  Interesting stuff!

THE FIRST AND LAST NEWSLETTERS

One thing I learned in collecting the first and last FCCA newsletters is that I previously had the year the club ended all wrong.  Former members told me the last year of the club’s existence was 1996.  Tachi’s last newsletter proved this date wrong.  In fact, the club lasted almost to the turn of the twentieth century!  The club’s last newsletter was its December 1999 issue of Exhaust Notes and its last meeting was its December 12, 1999 Christmas Party.  By this time, only two FCCA chapters remained, the Glendale, California Chapter and the Motor Sports Enthusiasts Chapter of Lancaster, California.  The Glendale Chapter had dwindled to a club of 18 memberships.  It is unknown how many Motor Sports Enthusiast memberships were on the rolls of 1999, but it was likely a small number.  MSE was an autocross focused group, and Glendale had evolved from an active rally club to one focused on monthly social events.  When MSE lost its autocross parking lot it’s reason for existence disappeared.  Glendale’s membership was aging and new members were not joining, so it, too, chose to follow MSE and go out of business.  Below, for the titillation of your historical curiosity, are the first and last newsletters, bookend documentation of the beginning and ending of the FCCA. 

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