The club was originally formed after many discussions between four friends Chris Jackson, Richard Vlazlovski, Bill Grzeskowiak and Bill Novak.

The idea of the club was to provide a place where people who loved American cars could feel at home. Whilst there were many single make clubs, there was little for people who owned different makes of cars. Many clubs at this time were getting quite political as well as single minded and basically we just wanted a club that was friendly, unbiased towards any make and was fun and supportive. The first two planning meetings were held in Chris Jackson�s workshop in Aurora Ave., Queanbeyan NSW.

The next informal meeting was held on 11th. February 1989 at the Tradesmen�s Club in Dickson (Canberra)where the first official meeting was planned.

The first official meeting of the club was advertised in the Canberra Times (as well as word of mouth of course!) and was held at the Ainslie Football Club (I think the first Monday of March 1989) where we remained for quite a few years.

The American Car Club was officially incorporated on 18th July 1990, it�s name was registered as �The American Car Club of Australia� because it was always our aim to have chapters of the club all over Australia, which is still being worked on.

Office holders for our first year were:;

• President: Richard Vlazlovski,
• Vice President: Glen Hunter,
• Treasurer: Chris Jackson,
• Secretary: Bill Novak,
• Promotions Manager: Sophie Novak,
• Editor: Sean McGrath,
• Events Organiser: Sasha Brown.

The first run the club ever had was a Bar-B-Q run to the Cotter, initially leaving from the American Eagle at the Department of Defence Buildings (which was the meeting place for club runs for years) The first car show/event I believe we attended, as a club, was John Whelan�s 1989 �Canberra Hot-Rod and Custom Car Show�, where we proudly displayed our banner for the first time ,(thanks to the artistic skills of Michelle Buckingham) and at least one of our members came home with a trophy.

On 22 December 1994 our popular Club President Kent Wright tragically passed away, Kent was an energising President and did so much for the club. To say it took many months for the club to get back into the swing of things from the dark shadow that was cast over the club would be an under statement. We now have a Kent Wright Memorial Trophy for the member who does the most for the club each year.

Meetings After that the next meeting venue was the Yowani Golf Club, and then moved to the Downer Club (in about 1992). Olims Hotel , Ainslie became our next venue followed by our current venue, the Croatian Deakin Soccer Club Grose St Deakin (Now known as: Deakin Sports and Social Club.)

Meetings have always been held at 7:30 pm on the 1st Monday of the month (except public holidays when the meeting is deferred to the second Monday of the month). All are most welcome to attend as it is an open meeting for members and non-members.

The American Car Club took over the running of the American Car Nationals in 2001. The American Car Nationals is arguably one of Australia�s longest running American Car events having been established in about 1992 .If you have not attended previously we invite you to join us. As listed below vehicle attendance continues to grow into the future.

Attendance Records

• 2001 - 112 Vehicles attended
• 2002 - 149 Vehicles attended
• 2003 - 180 Vehicles attended
• 2004 - 253 Vehicles attended
• 2005 - 267 Vehicles attended
• 2006 - 249 Vehicles attended

If you would like to know more about the American Car Nationals please click on the link at the top of this page.