[Chrysler300] Membership Dust-up Beilby v. Graefen

["Wayne Graefen" <wgraefen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

There is considerable precedent for dust-ups between members to be handled publicly in car clubs and to date the directors and board of this club in this electronic age feels the Beilby vs. Graefen saga is best done this way.   By the way, I was unaware that Mike Burke had been added as a director a couple of months ago.   My internet service has been down all day until moments ago or I would have been commenting sooner.

Everyone needs to understand that I have tried to reason with Mr. Beilby about his supercharged 300C that I saw the car in person and reviewed its portfolio of paperwork and spoke with its earliest living owner and found its documentation all lacking of any proof other than that at one time Briggs Cunningham rebuilt the seized motor, a contract job which his shop did for innumerable cars that were totally without note.  Also the quality of the car when I saw it was extremely poor as a restored car with the most ridiculous asking price I had ever noted for a 300C at that time.   Mr. Beilby refuses to accept my conclusion.  He has sent me no new paperwork or photos to convince me of any new considerations.   I personally believe Mr. Beilby has a problem with me as an authority figure in his area of interest and would have a similar problem with anyone where his self-proclaimed righteousness as "the last best genius" might be challenged.   In the 300C Handbook I call Mr. Beilby's car "The Flying Mile Car" because it was promoted as such for many years in the US by previous owners and marketers.  I accurately state "Last seen in California." because that is where I last saw it.  The fact that it is currently in Australia does not change that for me and I am the author writing the book.

I have humbly rarely ever mentioned my ownership of the Road America competition model 300C in this club but now that Mr. Beilby is challenging it as being no more nor less qualified in importance than his totally undocumented supercharged car, may I say a few words on my car's behalf.   3N57-2863  was special ordered by Carl Kiekhaefer through Mercury Marine purchase order directly to the president of Chrysler, E.C. Quinn, dated May 28, 1957, specifying exact equipment and with an accompanying letter signed by Carl.  I have copies.  I purchased this car from western 300 club member Chuck Hill who corresponded with Mr. Kiekhaefer while he was still living and Carl verifies it was his car.  I have a photo of the car the day it arrived in the parking lot of the Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, Mercury Plant #6, also known as "the race car plant", where Kiekhaefer's NASCAR team cars were housed and prepared, having been driven off the assembly line by a Kiekhaefer employee.  I personally interviewed Kiekhaefer's head dyno man and chief welder, Bill Fenrich, to ask about the boxed front and rear cross members of this hardtop built on a convertible frame which also has its engine cradle frame section full welded instead of stitch welded as was the assembly line practice and Bill said that if anyone would have made those enhancements it would have been him and he did not, therefore they were done at the factory.    There is more to the story of this car and if it were not severely hung up by two professional restoration shops and my own personal situations it would have already been shown in our club's concours but alas it has not.

However suffice please to understand that there is a virtually insurmountable hill to climb for Mr. Beilby to create even an aura of provenance about his abused no-name Daytona sands entry, ex-drag race heavily abused 300C hardtop when compared to my ex-Kiekhaefer, massively documented, professionally restored 300C hardtop.


So why don't I respond to Mr. Beilby personally or day to day on the list server?  Mostly for the same reason that the vast majority of you don't read anything that he writes.  His comments are largely incomprehensible or at best are not worthy of what is supposed to be my pleasurable hobby time.  When I have tried to address Mr. Beilby's concerns he will not take yes or no for an answer nor will he accept black or white for an answer.  Nothing is ever enough.  My logic is never his logic and his logic is most certainly not my logic.  This is far more than a personality conflict as some are suggesting.   Has anyone here ever worked in or visited an asylum?   

There are many intentional omissions in the 300C Handbook.  In its current form it is already well beyond the original vision I had for what it could become and I am amazed at what it is and am regularly thrilled by the comments it receives universally except by its one detractor, Christopher Beilby, who is not satisfied with the scope of its coverage nor its treatment of his personal vehicle.   What is not in the 300C Handbook are areas that I was not qualified to cover; particularly electrical problems and torqueflite concerns, items that I could not find definitive answers for, and judging specifics which are up to this club as well as belonging in the arena of other organizations that will judge our cars.  I considered but did not create a nuts and bolts hardware addendum.  If Mr. Beilby can assemble and document a 300C specific hardware catalog of some sort, more power to him and I'll be a buyer but to just criticize me for not doing so is just a cheap shot.  Step up with some initiative of your own Mr. Beilby and contribute something other than whining criticism.

Wayne Graefen

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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