In the 1970s Central Florida was experiencing population growth similar to Miami and Tampa. Those cities each had a coast but Orlando in Central Florida had Disney to attract people. As a result, several local Mercedes Benz owners requested from Mercedes Benz Club of America (MBCA) approval to form a new section to be identified as the Central Florida Section. John Bonomo, a local dentist, made the request and on June 23, 1976 he received a Certificate of Incorporation from the State of Florida, Department of State. Membership was established for about one hundred people at the time. David Gray, who eventually became the fourth president of the club, was an original member of the founding section.
MBCA-CFL Inauguration Ceremony October 1976
After John Bonomo served as section president from 1976 to 1997, Lorraine Tersell served as President until 1999 followed by Joseph Paul until 2001; then membership numbered about 200.
During David Gray’s presidency there were typically annual activities, including the Lake Mirror Auto Festival Lakeland, the Auto Fest in Zephyrhills FL, the Central Florida Auto Show, the Winter Park Concours and finally, the Holiday party at Mission Inn Country Club, Howey-in-the-Hills.
In 2006 David Gray edited Around the Benz and was awarded a plaque by MBCA as one of the top ten club newsletters.
In 2015 David Gray, after serving as president for fourteen years, retired. Filling in as an interim, Mel Crawford became president; however, he had a job relocation to the Midwest and the club became inactive for a while.
In the fall of 2017 Dan Cabrera, South East Regional Director, called a meeting of members who had contacted him about re-starting the section and after much discussion, Bob Hartmann was selected as the sixth section president.
Bob quickly put together a management team who planned invigorating activities. The January/February edition of Around the Benz newsletter was 18 pages! This newsletter and subsequent ones can be found on our MBCA-Central Florida web site. Membership in 2017 was 184.
In 2020 the arrival of the Delta COVID Virus severely curtailed club activities for a period of two years. In 2022, the MBCA Central Florida Section was back planning activities. Besides the standing monthly meeting at the ACE Café in downtown Orlando, a “Spring Fling” car rally was recently completed, driving the back roads of Central Florida and ending at Hollerbach’s German restaurant in Sanford.
Over the past two years, MBCA has found itself in the midst of a major renovation. The introduction of a new Director, Katie Carruth, has revealed major issues that our club has long ignored. Currently, our club bylaws and organization are becoming updated and streamlined in order to better serve our Mercedes community. While change is always difficult, the path forward is necessary because we as a group can no longer afford to do things the way they were done in the past. Currently, along with several other active members, we are also reshaping our Central Florida Section in order to better align with the path of the National Organization of MBCA. This has (and probably will continue) taken some time as many past organizational rules and procedures are being reviewed/updated as we speak.
The current President, Bob Hartmann, has outlined a plan to move us forward and asks for your continued understanding and support as we ramp back up once again to become a viable and fun section.