Stratos-y Type Peeps,

I noticed recently, while reading posts by you lot, that the "join date" of the, er, shall we say, "more senior" club members, only(?) goes back as far as 2011. Having only joined meself in 2016, and being aware that there was a previous incarnation of the club, I therefore wondered if 2021 might actually be the club's 10th year. So having dropped Ian "The Slug" Ford a mail to check, it turns out that it is indeed that very occasion!

I didn't know this, but it seems that back in 2011, the old club's website disappeared overnight. Turns out that we were piggybacked onto someone else's website, and said "someone else" did a runner without telling anyone, and the site and all info were binned. So Ian created a new website and forum, and got it all up and running from scratch, in 24 hours, and all funded by him. Pretty impressive! I think we've paid him back since...I hope...

So here we are, 10 years later, and the club and forum are doing pretty well. We seem to hover around 200 members (paid ones, anyway) from all round the world, which is quite gratifying. Our cars are becoming more appreciated, even as replicas, with values to match, and we're even affiliated with FCA Heritage (or that's what they were called before FCA became part of Stellantis), and we get invited to some pretty cool events. Who'd have thought, eh? I think we should mark this occasion somehow - dunno how yet, but we'll see - and in the meantime, Big Thanks to Ian for getting the whole thing going, and all the committee members past and present who've given of their time for free to make the club what it is. And also to you, the sad nerdy Stratos-loving geeky members, cos without you not only would there be no club, but there'd be no point to it either!

Ta muchly, and give y'selves a pat on the back

Chairman Norm