The BritishV8 Pub

It saddens me to report that Doug Brown passed away in July. Doug has been a a friendly presence on this message board since 2012 when he started building a 1971 MGB with a Ford 302. I got to know Doug a little better when he volunteered to nickel plate my throttle linkage and powder coat my electrical center bracket. The company Doug founded and operated - PowderTech - did an exceptional job and I had my parts back within a week. Although PowderTech is a fairly large scale commercial finishing company, Doug was making plans to set up a custom/discount finishing service specifically for our community. Doug attended our annual BritishV8 meet in June and participated in our track day (with his blue late-model Mini Cooper), but sadly he had to leave early due to a death in his family. I deeply regret that I wasn't able to spend more time with him during the meet, or say goodbye.

Doug's obituary appears here: Douglas Clark Brown of Webster SD (February 10, 1952 - July 1, 2013)

Well that is rather much of a shock. Undoubtedly to his family as well. Our sympathies are with them.

Jim

Any idea what happened to Doug? An accident of some sort?

I contacted the plant a couple weeks ago to speak with Doug, they told me he passed but would not offer any details, so be it.
Dave

Damn.

And he had a LOT of fun with that MINI at the track!

Katie and I met Doug for the first time at the 2013 BV8 meet in Omaha. There was a group of us sitting inside the conference room on Sunday night and “working” on Dan’s whiskey bottle. Doug was talking about his Mini, about his Air Force service in Vietnam and about Eastern Thailand. He mentioned that he would like to go back to Vietnam and Thailand to see South East Asia (he didn’t have time for that during his air force service). It’s so sad he never did that… He was such a pleasant, easy going, approachable and fun guy. Indeed he had so much fun with his Mini, had tons of technical and mechanical knowledge.

I'm glad we had that short time together.

Doug and Katie at The Mid America Motorplex:

Doug and I had discussions about what was desirable in the 5.0L Ford engines. We did not agree on cams because he wanted more radical cam for power. I let him drive mine and he appeared to modify his choice once he had actually driven a well tuned 5.0L. He was all smiles and grinned when I told him the aluminum flywheel was more useful than a bigger cam. Hate to hear of his passing.

So sorry to hear; although I've never met him, he seemed like a quality person that anyone could relate and socialize with, R.I.P. and God Bless!