HPAC AND ITS STORY
By Dick & Bev Drake
In the spring of 1985, Tom Hand, had gone to Olathe Chrysler to purchase
some parts for his car. The owner approached him, and told him that he would
give him $500 toward having a show, if he could arrange to have a car show at
his place. There was an ordinance that said the car dealers could not be open
on Sunday, except for a special event. This was great news to Tom and his
friends, as they always complained that all of the shows were for Fords or
Chevys, never any for Mopars.
Tom
contacted some of his Mopar friends, and they decided to try to get together
enough Mopars to put on a show. These friends were: Kyle Drake, Dick Drake,
Wayne Perkins, and two friends who worked near Dick—Ron Buffington, and Mark
Redelberger. They met, and had flyers made up. They thought that if they all
brought their cars, and any others they could find, maybe they would have 25
– 30 cars at the show. Kyle, who was working for AAA Diagnostic Clinic at
the time, and drove their diagnostic van to various locations, said he could
bring it to the show, and we could work out of it.
The six of
them put flyers on each and every Mopar they saw. When the Saturday of the
show rolled around, what a surprise there was! A total count of about 125 cars
was at the show. The show was so successful that they decided to have a
meeting to see if people wanted to form a club. At the show, many people asked
how they could "join this club that wasn’t a club."
So a
meeting was held at John Mahoney’s place of employment, and it was decided
to form a club.
Through the
years, membership has grown to over 350 members. The name – High Performance
Auto Club – was chosen because most of the founding members had cars that
were considered "High Performance." An attempt was made to use the
word Mopar in the club name. Our lawyer checked with Chrysler and they were
not allowing the use of their trademarked name – Mopar, at that time. Dick
Drake took the position of President, as no one else wanted it, and he was the
oldest of the bunch. Kyle Drake was the vice-president, and Tom Hand was
treasurer.
The
newsletters were addressed by hand when we first started sending them. Then,
for a time, Charter Member, Denny Daschke, ran labels for us. Later, we
purchased a used computer, and we could run our own labels.
This year
is our 20th show. We have 31 Charter members who are active and have been
active over the twenty years. Their names appear on the back of our shirts for
this, our 20th, show. In all, we had about 100 Charter members when we started
the club. We have many members who joined in 1986 or 1987. However, it was
decided that the Charter Membership would be cut off at 100 members.
The club is
the oldest All-Mopar club in the Mid-West area. However, that same year Mopar
clubs started in several other mid-west cities. They were Wichita, Kansas (Wam),
Minneapolis-St Paul, Minnesota(Midwest Mopars), Des Moines, Iowa, Columbia,
Missouri Mopars, and Omaha, Nebraska (Rapid Transit).These Mopar clubs still
exist today. We have participated in each others shows through the years and
have many friends in these clubs.