1

So far this year we have

had a really mild winter.

Not too many places in

the United States that

you can put the top

down on your R-107

and go for a ride out in

the Hill Country. Wow it

was so much fun driving

my recently purchased

500SL for 2 hours that I

had to drag out the R-

231 and put the top

down on it—and I actu-

ally drove it over the

same route to compare

the two cars. Some of

you know that I recently

purchased my 1983

MB 500SL this fall and

have been driving it a

lot. What a thrill to hear

the growl of that

smooth V-8, especially

with no resonators on

the exhaust system as

it is a Euro model. I

think my R231 was

getting jealous so I

thought I would do a

comparison drive of

the two SL’s. Well the

two do not drive any-

thing alike. Neither

one is better than the

other. They are

“different” is the best

way to describe their

handling and feel of

the hills and the curv-

ing roads of the Texas

Hill Country. I did

manage to stay within

the posted speed lim-

its…yea right… but I

have to admit that the

newer (2013) SL 550

handled the curves

much differently and

the suspension was a

lot smoother. The

500SL also known as

1st Quarter

ME S S AG E FRO M T H E PR E S I D E NT

February 2020

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

President’s Message 1

Section Officers 4

Member News—November

5

Member News—December

8

Classified Ads—1989 Mercedes-Benz SL560

11

Upcoming Events 13

New & Renewed Members

14

Member Benefits 15

Website Information 16

1 9 5 6 M E R C E D E S G U L L W I N G O N D I S P L AY A T M B O F S A C . D o v e

A visit to Mercedes-Benz of S.A. to purchase a new battery for my S550—and on display in the showroom was this beautiful 1956 Mercedes Gullwing. Not for sale—

and valued at well over a million dollars. The Gullwing features a 3 litre fuel injected inline 6 cylinder 183 cu in en-gine with 212 hp, with a top speed of 163 mph.

EB for short, I named

her EB as in Euro Benz.

There was a totally dif-

ferent feel - not better

not worse, just differ-

ent. The dips and

curves on the roads in

the Hill Country seem

closer to you in EB and

has a different feel

when driving the older

SL. I think the ‘pipes’

added to the feel and

thrill. The suspension

is a lot more firm and

there is an aggressive

feel with EB. The growl

adds to the experience

in the older SL, but the

newer SL had a more

refined growl…

Cont’d on page 2

Mercedes-Benz Club of America

Texas Hill Country Section Proudly Serving South and West Texas

On display at

Mercedes-Benz of San Antonio

Don Dionisi

2

….let’s hear it for exhaust sounds!!! I enjoy

taking my cars out and driving them in our

beautiful Texas Hill Country, I even took out

the 1972 Benz….Verde B. Some of you

may have seen Verde B the green 280 SE.

Maybe it is time for a road trip for the sec-

tion later this spring so we can renew the

feelings of our Texas Hill Country. Let me

know if anyone has a ‘drone’ and would like

to film our section out driving the Hill Coun-

try. I bet we would get a spot in The Star

magazine with some views of the hills and a

bunch or Mercedes rounding the curves and

topping the hills. Okay back to reality……on

another note I took my S 550 into Mercedes

-Benz of San Antonio last month to have a

non functioning trunk switch replaced.

(Normally I don’t do testimonials, but when I

get excellent service I’m not bashful and I

will mention it). Tyler was the service advi-

sor and he estimated the time for replace-

ment of the switch at one hour and 30

minutes. The door panel had to be removed

and replaced and tested on the computer

before they released the car back to me. So

I decided not to take the shuttle home and

decided to have some coffee on MB of SA.

I did pass up all the other treats that were

available at the snack bar and just had cof-

fee. Tyler also kept me informed about eve-

ry 30 minutes on how the repair was going.

Much to my surprise the car was done in 55

minutes. In the past this would have been a

2 to 3 hour repair job. I asked Tyler what

was going on and why was the repair so

quick? Seems MB of SA is really working to

improve their service times and really push-

ing customer service and doing the job right

the first time. I was really pleased; however,

while I was sitting in the waiting room I took

advantage of the captive audience and passed

out (4) MBCA Membership applications. While

talking to these other customers, they all seemed

to be aware of the improved customer service at

the newly remodeled dealership. They also

mentioned that MB of SA was having specials on

A and B services, I noticed that as well, so if you

need a service check out their website. Please

remember that as a member of the Mercedes-

Benz Club of America that Mercedes-Benz of

San Antonio gives only our section a 20% dis-

count on service. So don’t miss out on this won-

derful opportunity. I don’t know of any other sec-

tions in our division that receives such a nice dis-

count. Your annual membership dues are more

than paid for with this generous discount.

Speaking of discounts my S is going in for a B

service this week so I am going to test the new

service again, so stay tuned for another report!

Charlie will include some of the upcoming activi-

ties for the next few months in this newsletter.

Also, watch your E-News for more details. One

particular activity I am very excited about will be

the Classics and Coffee event being held on

March 21st from 10 am to 2 pm. Mercedes-Benz

of San Antonio will host the first of an annual

classic Benz showing of the Texas Hill Country

Section Members’ Classic Benz automobiles to

the general public. MB of SA will advertise this

event to their customers. We will have a table

set up with plenty of MBCA applications to hand

out. We are always looking to sign up new

members. Please contact me or Charlie if you

would like to bring your classic or special or lim-

ited edition Benz down to the dealership to show

it off March 21st from 10 to 2. We hope to have

at least 10 classics to show off. Come down and

check out our member’s classics and take a look

at the new models that are now available.

Cont’d on page 3

Page 2

PRE SID E N T ’S ME SS AG E CO N T ’D .

3

EB and Verde B will be there all de-tailed out and looking really sharp. I understand there will be some special pricing for new models and a wide se-lection of CPO Benz models again with special pricing. Don’t forget that as club member, you get an additional $500 off of a new Benz.

Remember if you don’t have a favorite

sales representative at Mercedes-Benz

of San Antonio, Paul Spencer is our

section’s representative. You can

reach Paul at (210) 241-4476 or

pspencer@mbofsa.com . Just mention

that you are a Texas Hill Country Sec-

tion member and Paul will provide you

with stellar service.

When you bring your Benz in for ser-vice and you don’t have a service advi-sor, just ask for Tyler Jordan at

(210)725-8222, or email him at

tjordan@mbofsa.com. They have ex-press service so just mention express service….and no appointment needed.

See everyone soon at one of our events, be safe and enjoy your fabu-lous ride.

Best,

Don Dionisi

PS: Verde B and

EB on the right.

Page 3

PRE SID E N T ’S ME SS AG E CO N T ’D .

4

Don Dionisi

President /

Board Member /

Activities Director

Page 4

SE C TIO N OF F IC E R S

H A P P Y H O L I D A Y S T O A L L !

1s t Quarter

Club members from years past and visits with Santa.

Charles Dove

Vice President /

Newsletter Editor

Board Member

Martin Rios

Treasurer /

Webmaster /

Board Member

Robin Schroeder

Board Member

Joe Aaron

Board Member

Dan Coburn

Secretary / Board

Member

Norm Glorioso

Board Member

Who are these guys anyway?

5

We had great weather for our November event in New Braunfels. We had a nice group of club members too. We first made a visit to A & E Classics to check out their large selection of American Classic cars. One of my favorites was a 1954 Buick Converti-ble that was absolutely gorgeous! When I was about 7 years old, my dad had a 1954 Buick 2 door hardtop. White with a red top. I always thought that car was so beautiful. Also in the col-lection was a 1956 Chevrolet Nomad. Vin-tage Mustangs and an assortment of classic Camaros were among the many interesting cars. It was a really nice experience to see those great cars from the past in such excellent condi-tion… and all for sale. We all shared many memories from the past of those beautiful cars. But to be fair, we also have to mention the many beautiful Mer-cedes-Benz automobiles that were parked in the

lot outside. Those of course belonged to our club members. Now those were some fine cars to be seen too. And we checked them out as well.

After our tour through A & E, we drove on down the road into down town New Braunfels to the Alpine Haus restaurant where we were seated in a private room. 28 club members joined up together for lunch. This Historic Ger-man restaurant has an ex-cellent menu of German cuisine. We all had a nice lunch and great conversa-tion and a visit with our many friends. We met new members Don Cooper and his friend Pamela who drove in with Don's beauti-ful black 1997 SL320. We also had members Don and Michelle Vallee from the Lone Star section. We hope they will join us again. Don's 2014 biturbo SL550 would be a great addition to see at club events. Kathy and Douglas drove in from Clear Lake to join the group. They are members of the Houston club as well as our Texas Hill Country Section.

Page 5

O U R N O V E M B E R E V E N T — A & E C L A S S I C C A R S C . D O V E

Charlie, Bill and Don

Louis and Martin

Left:

Dan, Yaeko

and Bill

Right. Don

Valee and

his wife from

the Austin

Club, and

Kathy

6

Gas pumps from the past. You can trust

your car to the man that wears the Star...

A&E CLASSICS Douglas checks out the Corvette section

1954 Buick

Options for Buicks of this era included an automatic Dynaflow transmission, 321 cu Fireball V8 engine with 200 hp. 0 to 60 in 6.2 seconds.

New for the 1954 Buick—the Dagmar Bumpers. The Buicks also featured dual bullet taillights.

7

Page 7

O U R N O V E M B E R E V E N T — L U N C H A T T H E A L P I N E H A U S C . D O V E

8

Our December Holiday dinner was held at Don and Louis's house on Saturday night. Barbe-cue with all the sides were provided to mem-bers by the club. We held a white elephant gift exchange. The hit seemed to be a pink in-sulated Mercedes-Benz tumbler. Another hit was a 1954 300SL model that was making the rounds until it reached the third trade. Martin Rios was the proud own-er at that point. Other gifts included Christmas ornaments, Mercedes-Benz accessories and even gift certificates from Mercedes-Benz of San Antonio were given out.

In addition to about 30 club members, we had Paul Spencer, our sales representative from Mer-cedes-Benz of San An-tonio. He brought a new GLS450 for everyone to check out. A beautiful vehicle loaded with all the bells and whistles. We were also honored

to have Bret Jurick, our South Central Regional Director join our party. Eve-ry year, he will visit with one of the regional clubs. The main reason for his visit was to present our Club President Don Dionisi with the Officer of the Year award. Don has worked very hard for our club to make it successful. We were all very proud - and Don was surprised!

We also presented our Member of the Year award to Louis Forrai. Louis gra-ciously accepted the new position of Member Chair who will welcome new members and make the introductions to the other members. He will also be our event coordinator. We appreciate Louis for what he does.

Dan Coburn was present-ed with an award for Direc-tor of the Year. The Texas Hill Country Section values Dan and all his efforts to help make our monthly events a fun and interest-ing experience - and we thank him for it.

Page 8

O U R D E C E M B E R H O L I DAY E V E N T — D O N & L O U I S ’ H O U S E C . D O V E

Lucy, Yaeko and Bill

Above: Rinda & Ken

Left:

Matt and

Don’s 1972

280SE that

held the

gifts…

Left:

Herman &

Barbara

9

Page 9

Paul Spencer from MB of SA showing the new

GLS450... Rinda and Alex checking out the GLS450

Yaeko, Helene and Angel Bill and Lucy with the 1954 300S:L model

More Holiday Photos

10

Happy Holidays!

Our

Group

11

Classified Section For Sale

For Sale: 1989 Mercedes—Benz SL560. The Mercedes-Benz R107 SL-Class was produced from 1971-1989 and is now settling into the role of an appreciating classic. Many of these still show modest miles, as many were used only seasonally and on pleasant days.

This 560SL is such an example: 18,500 miles, black exterior and convertible top, which has never been wet, with gray interior leather showing little if any wear. This vehicle since 2010 has been impeccably serviced by MB of SA to include annual maintenance and service with recent AC update. All service has been performed by the same senior technician who takes care of all of our vehicles.

Mercedes-Benz of Germany selected this 560SL to showcase in a special You Tube feature which was released in Germany, December of 2018. The focus of the show was to showcase an example of an original, unrestored, exceptionally well maintained example of the R107 SL class with the 560SL earning the reputation as the Star in the heritage of this M-B model.

(AUTO WEEK said this past year, that the 560SL is one of the five cars of the 1980s you should be buying right now…)

Bill Rasco

210-860-3400

Member of MBCA for over 40 years

12

Classified ads for Mercedes-Benz automobiles, Mercedes-Benz parts and/or accessories can be placed in our newsletter. Ad content should be sent to: riopaloma@sbcglobal.net by the 10th of the month before the quarterly newsletter is published. August ads should be received by July 10th. If possible, please include 1, 2 or 3 photographs to go with your ad. Ads are offered FREE for Club Members. Our newsletters are published quarterly – February, May, August and November.

Classified Section Continued

Contact Bill Rasco for more information about this 1989 SL560 - 210-860-3400

13

Upcoming Events:Upcoming Events:

February 15, 2020—Tech Session at Mercedes-Benz of San Antonio 10:00 a.m. *

March 21, 2020—Coffee and Classics at Mercedes-Benz of San Antonio 9:00—12:00. *

April 18 ,2020—Picnic at Rebecca Creek Park. *

May 1, 2 2020—Road trip to Clear Lake, Texas and Keels and Wheels car show. *

June 13, 2020—Texas Transportation Museum and lunch at the Brown Bag. *

July 16, 2020—Lunch in Blanco, Texas. Redbud Café and tour of the Ben Milam Whiskey

Distillery. *

August 2020—Lunch (TBD) and tech session at Mercedes-Benz of San Antonio. *

September XX, 2020—Lunch at the Petroleum Club. *

October 24, 2020—Texas Clay Festival. *

November 2020—New Braunfels Christmas Market and Hill Country Gardens Holiday House. *

December 5, 2020—Holiday Party and dinner—Matamores Restaurant y Cantina. *

* More on these events coming to your inbox with your E-News.

14

Welcome

New Members!

Michael Hood

Jeffrey Feinstein

Josue Flores Rivera

Howard Troup

Roberrt Payne

Josh Bueche

Robert Insemi

Kevin Schuble

Willkommen

And

Dankescho

n!

Loyal Member Renewals!

Alan Fon Charles Dove

David Lewandos Robert Demmel

George Acker Ron Feldman

George Finley Ralph Williams

Gail Hepner Val Salazar

Jerrell Snodgrass Frederick Mullin

Mark Barnes Jeff Aykroyd

Meyer Marcus William Ohlemueller

Mark Woods John Flanagan

Norm Glorioso Barbara O’Connor

Paul Weseloh Sak Reeves

Ross Miles Tutti Burkett

Howard Troup Tommy Churchwell

We want to thank everyone for being a member of this Club. Because of your loyalty and support, your yearly membership dues helps to support our section financially and we are able to produce and deliver a Section News-letter; host fun and unique Section Events; and bring you the latest technical, maintenance and general driving in-formation about your Mercedes-Benz vehicle(s).

If you would like to order a

Mercedes-Benz Club name

badge, click the image here:

REMINDER: If we do not have your email address, you are missing out on the majority of the communications from the Club. Please go to www.mbca.org, log in and update your info to stay updated on all that we have going on. Also, please list your spouse/partner as an associate member on the mbca website.

15

Benefits with your Membership

Dealer Discounts on Parts, Service & Accessories at Participating Mercedes-Benz Dealers - The presentation of your membership card may entitle you to 5%, 10% or (up to) 20% off parts, service and acces-sories from the U.S. and Canadian Mercedes-Benz dealers. Even if your vehicle is under warranty, not all service is covered. Call any of our local Mercedes-Benz dealers in advance to confirm their participa-tion in the MBCA dealer discount program. You must present your MBCA membership card before having service performed or paying for parts.

Renew Your Membership – You DO NOT need to wait until your re-newal date before extending your club membership.

Refer a New Member – You will get an extra month added to your membership.

Mercedes-Benz Models & Chassis Forums—Mercedes forums in-clude every model made by Mercedes from A class to GLK, the Sprint-er, Smart Car, Adenauer, Gullwing, vintage and collectibles. Go to www.mbca.org and sign in using your membership card to participate.

See all the benefits available to you as a club member at www.mbca.org/membership.

If you know someone that owns a Mercedes-Benz, invite them to join our club. We have plenty of applications on hand for membership – just ask for a few at our next event. Keep them in your car. Let your friends know the benefits of our club – like the discounts on parts and service. And mention the Loyalty Rewards Program. Any member of the Mercedes Club that has been a member for 12 consecutive months or longer entitles you to receive $500 towards the lease, or purchase of a new or CPO Mercedes-Benz. The $500 discount applies after you’ve made your best deal.

16

Can’t find your Membership Card?

No worries! Just call the national business office at 800-637-2360 or go online at www.mbca.org to request another card.

Keep the card with you to enjoy dealership and other member discounts.

Texas Hill Country Section | MBCA Is On The Web!

National website – www.mbca.org

Section website - http://texashillcountry.mbca.org

http://www.facebook.com/pages/ Texas Hill Country Section—Mercedes-Benz Club of

America

Section Newsletters

MBCA Texas Hill Country Section Newsletter - published four times a year is the official newsletter of the

Texas Hill Country Section of the Mercedes-Benz Club of America.

Opinions - Opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of either MBCA or the

Texas Hill Country Section. Neither MBCA nor the Texas Hill Country Section endorses products or ser-

vices but may, as part of our informational activities, allow them to be cited in articles and notices.

Trademarks - The trade names and trademarks "Mercedes-Benz", "Mercedes", and the three-pointed star

in a circle are owned by DBAG and are authorized for use by its licenses which include MBCA, exclusively.

Reprints - Reprinting original material herein is permitted if a proper attribution (source, including date of

issue) is shown.

Advertising - We welcome advertisers whose subject matter is relevant to MBCA or of interest to members

of the Section. Advertising runs for one year (four issues) starting with the first issue. MBCA members

may place a classified ad for free providing that ad is Mercedes specific. No inference should be made

that products or services advertised herein have been approved by the MCBA/Texas Hill Country Section

board of directors or this newsletter editor.

Articles and Submissions – Copy for our quarterly newsletter should be e-mailed to the newsletter editor

(riopaloma@sbcglobal.net) by the 10th of the month prior to the next issue. For example, submissions for

the May issue should be received by the editor by April 10th. If you have an interesting story about your

Mercedes, we would like to hear about it. If you’ve purchased a new or new to you Mercedes, we like to

hear about that too.