The Madison Avenue Sports Car Driving and Chowder Society

2025 Cannonball Reunion & Judy's Birthday Dinner
2025-10-11 18:00 - 21:30 (America/New_York) | Crab Shell Restaurant, 46 Southfield Avenue, Stamford, CT, 06902, United States
Join us on Saturday evening in Stamford, CT at the Crab Shell Restaurant for a special evening. We will be getting together this evening to celebrate the 46th anniversary of the 1979 Cannonball Sea-to-Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash with Cannonballers old and new, and the birthday of Chowder’s own Judy Stropus.
Drinks will begin at 6:00 pm, dinner will be served at 8:00 pm. RSVPs are required and can be made via the Cars and Coffee Darien website.

Cars and Coffee Darien Cannonball Edition
2025-10-12 07:00 - 11:00 | Goodwives Shopping Center, 25 Old Kings Highway North, Darien, CT, 06820, United States
Details as they become available

November 2025 Luncheon
2025-11-11 11:30 - 14:00 | Sardi’s, 234 West 44th Street, Manhattan, NY, 10036, United States

68th Annual Holiday Party
2025-12-09 11:30 - 15:00 | Sardi’s, 234 West 44th Street, Manhattan, NY, 10036, United States
The 2025 Chowder Christmas Party is nearly upon us. Date is 9 December. We will, once again, be meeting at Chowder’s Historic Club House, Sardi’s on 44th Street. It should be memorable.
We are promised a bounteous buffet. In addition to the ever desirable Sardi’s Steak House Creamed Spinach we will enjoy what this particular chief Chowderhead considers the finest cannelloni on the face of the earth. There will also be the usual salmon, chicken, and such.
Santa Claus has promised to make his usual jolly appearance and likely will have his elfin helper/sidekick. Santa will be handing out presents to good little Chowderheads (at least those with an acceptable alibi for whatever they may have done during the year). We’ll settle for an indictment without a conviction as good enough.
Pricing isn’t finalized at this time but should be less than $100/person.
*** Additional details to follow ***

January 2026 Luncheon
2026-01-13 11:30 - 14:00 | Sardi’s, 234 West 44th Street, Manhattan, NY, 10036, United States
The January Chowder Meeting will take place, as usual, on the second Tuesday of the month. In this case, the 13 of January. As always we will meet at the Chowder club house, Sardi’s at the usual time. NOON
Our speaker is Leigh Diffey. Leigh Diffey is likely one of the best known auto racing and track and field commentators in the world . He is best known for being the lead play-by-play announcer for much of NBC Sports‘ motorsports coverage, currently calling NASCAR Cup Series, IMSA sports car races for the network and AMA Supercross. Before this, he was the lead voice of NBC’s Formula One and IndyCar Series coverage. Diffey has also worked play-by-play for NBC’s coverage of the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, most notably becoming the network’s lead track and field sportscaster prior to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Diffey’s broadcasting career began by calling motorcycle races in his home country. His career has included stints with Network Ten in Australia and the BBC in the United Kingdom covering various forms of motorsport. In the United States, Diffey joined Speed Channel in 2003 before moving to NBC when Formula One’s US television rights were transferred to the network in 2013.
He is looking forward to an interactive session with Chowderheads and will be happy to answer questions.

February 2026 Luncheon
2026-02-10 11:30 - 14:00 | Sardi’s, 234 West 44th Street, Manhattan, NY, 10036, United States
Our upcoming meeting is this Tuesday, the 10th of February at the Chowder Clubhouse, known also as Sardi’s. The topic of our discussion should be of some interest. Few of us would claim to be ignorant of Bugatti history, but not very many may know that, when he couldn’t sell enough Bugatti Royales to use up his supply of already fabricated engines, he used them for a most amazing railroad car.

The result is, or was, the Bugatti AutoRail, a very high speed and innovative train. There is today only one example left. It sits in the National Railway Museum in Mulhouse, France. That’s just about 500 Km from Paris. It’s been there a very long time. 2026’s Retromobile in Paris celebrated Retro’s 50th anniversary. What better excuse might there be to carry the AutoRail all the way to Paris and show it at Retromobile at the Porte de Versailles? Have you ever thought about how one might move a very large railway engine along the highway? Somebody at Retro did.

March 2026 Luncheon
2026-03-10 11:30 - 14:00 | Sardi’s, 234 West 44th Street, Manhattan, NY, 10036, United States

April 2026 Luncheon
2026-04-14 11:30 - 14:00 | Sardi’s, 234 West 44th Street, Manhattan, NY, 10036, United States
This month’s speaker will be Don Meluzio, who owns one of the two or three remaining Porsche 901 prototypes. Meluzio’s 901 of was one of the actual prototypes for the now ubiquitous 911. The 911 started its life as the 901 but that changed (see history below) This will prove a tale of Automotive Archeology. Don will tell about his experience finding this one and then identifying what it actually was. It looked like a 911 but there were some very odd details. He’ll have lots of photos for us. Anyone with even the slightest love of the Marque will want to be here.

May 2026 Luncheon
2026-05-12 11:30 - 14:00 | Sardi’s, 234 West 44th Street, Manhattan, NY, 10036, United States
RETROMOBILE, ARGUABLY THE BEST VINTAGE MOTORING GATHERING IN THE WORLD HAS BEEN GOING ON IN PARIS FOR THE LAST FIFTY YEARS.
Many of us have attended and dreamed of a similar venue in the Capital of the World, New York City. Our May featured speaker is Tim McGrane, who is one of the chief organizers of the new RETRO NEW YORK now scheduled for November of this year. He will also have with him the event’s CEO.
This is a most exciting opportunity and it will also be one of our last meetings at Sardi’s unt il their restorations are done in the Autumn. They will close at end of June for several months. This meeting is NOT one to be missed.
PLEASE RSVP so we can five Sardi’s an idea of how many to expect

June 2026 Luncheon
2026-06-09 11:30 - 14:00 | Sardi’s, 234 West 44th Street, Manhattan, NY, 10036, United States
