John Debelius participated in the Winter Tour of Florida in February 2017, a rally organized by the Chesapeake Chapter of the New England MG 'T' Register. He photographed sites and activities along the way and wrote an article about the experience. The New England MG 'T' Register published the article in their magazine, The Sacred Octagon, April 2017 issue. Here John is pictured (on page 27 of The Sacred Octagon) in his MGTD on the Winter Tour, at John Pennekamp State Park, Key Largo, Florida.
With a name such as "New England MG 'T' Register" one would think that it is an organization serving people in New England. Well, it might have started that way, but membership kept growing and now includes members from every continent on the globe. Over 13,000 T-Series MGs have been registered with the organization. The cover of the April 2017 The Sacred Octagon, the issue with John's article, is on the right.
All photos in this blog post were made by John Debelius, published in The Sacred Octagon, with images made directly from the magazine, with one exception - the image to the right on the cover of the April 2017 TSO is credited to TSO. All photos used with the permission of John Debelius and TSO.
So, how does the Winter Tour and the article in TSO fit into this blog? The Classic MG Club of Orlando hosted a picnic for the cars and drivers on the Tour to welcome them to Florida - The North/South Picnic. The TSO article begins with a photo at that picnic as seen on the upper left of the two pages here. If you look closely, you might see Jill and Glen standing among the members of The Classic MG Club and the Chesapeake Chapter members on the tour. Then it becomes specific to this blog later in the article by including photos of the Moore MGTC as seen at the picnic.
The theme of this post is a "View from Another Angle." It examines how other people view our MGTC 7162. An earlier post described how a newspaper reporter in Jacksonville viewed the car and linked to the photos he made and published in his blog. Here is a page from the TSO Winter Tour article with MGTCs that the Chesapeake Chapter members viewed at the North/South Picnic. The bright red MGTC in the upper left corner is the Mark and Ellen Tidwell car, a top-of-the-line TC which really grabs one's attention when viewed. The other three images are photos of TC 7162, the Glen and Jill Moore car. As with the earlier post with photos by Dan Scanlan, some interesting angles were used in making the images. Often, a single side shot is used to illustrate a car. In both cases, the photographers took images from non-traditional angles and focused on small areas of the car.
One aspect of owning a classic car is the enjoyment you get from maintaining and driving a classic work of automotive art. The other joy is sharing the car with others for their enjoyment. Dan and John's enjoyment of TC 7162 extended to publishing photos to enable even more people to see and enjoy this particular piece of art.
The magazine's centerfold was one of John Debelius' photos from the North/South Picnic, with the T-Series cars on the Tour in the park in Mount Dora. The car behind the red MGTF is TC 7162 again. It seemed to find itself in many places in this article.
Many thanks to John Debelius for his photos, interest in our MGTC, and sharing the car through his article in TSO. May this blog post extend the reach of his photography and the people those images effect.
Thanks also to The New England 'T' Register publication The Sacred Octagon for allowing the use of the images of John's article which appeared in the April 2017 magazine. The Sacred Octagon, PO Box 1028, Ridgefield, CT 06877
John Debelius Photo
