Director of Information Technology

President

Paul West

Introduction

Paul is a founding member of, and currently the Director of Information Techology (Web stuff!) and President of the Merkur Club of America.

Paul emigrated from England in 1983, where he drove a Ford Cortina – the predecessor to the XR4’s Sierra body style. After five years of driving a Nissan, his desire for the feel and handling of a European car got the better of him and he bought a Radiant Red 1989 XR4Ti. The dealer, Summit Lincoln Mercury in Summit New Jersey made a hard sell of the Ziebart underbody and paint protection package, and the 6/60,000 warranty and he signed up for both.

This kept the car in great shape both mechanically and cosmetically, but it really wasn’t until he discovered the Merkur Owners listserver and attended the first of the gatherings at Lime Rock in 1995, that his love became a passion. Without the support of the IMON community, he would have sold the car long ago.

The car is a true daily driver and now has 110,000 on the clock. It has been autocrossed, driven hard at Watkins Glen, and attended all the Carlisle and Lime Rock events, winning six awards in the process.

Paul does the basic maintenance work on his car himself, but leaves the bigger jobs to Nick Mannarino’s capable hands at Modern Performance.

Paul works at Honeywell’s Aerospace Electronic Systems in Teterboro, NJ as the Strategic Planning Manager for the defense industry. He is married with two sons and the car bug has already bitten.  Paul's son Daniel attended Carlisle 2003 in his white Scorpio, and his youngest son  Andrew is currently designing an XR4 for when he starts driving in 2004.

To learn more about Paul, his interests, Merkurs and pictures of various events, check out his home page at: http://members.aol.com/PaulThBrit