Meet Alison Dino
A Passion for Cars with Soul
by Michael Salemi
With a sincere nod of appreciation to all the wonderful women of the MBCA, the love of automobiles, while not strictly so, is typically a male pursuit. Women are a distinct minority in our club membership and management, which, of course, makes them even more interesting to know. With that, please meet our fellow member Alison Dino.
Not only does Alison have the XX (female) variety of chromosome in her DNA, her passion for cars and Mercedes is there as well. There is a good reason for this genetic reference: Alison is also a cancer researcher, and working with genes, chromosomes, and related matters is her day job. Originally from New Jersey, today she lives and works in Columbia, Missouri, a beautiful city halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City that consistently ranks as one of America's best places to live and work.
Her journey to MBCA membership began in 1999 with her first car, a meticulously maintained 1991 190E 2.6. With that choice, you already know that this is a woman with a story. As much as she admired German engineering and style, she did not set out to buy a Mercedes-Benz as her first car. However, just one look at this W201 performance sedan and she was smitten. After a long day of grueling lab work, she would slide into the driver's seat, take a deep breath of Eau de German Interior, and shift into gear. As she accelerated, the details of the day would magically melt away. Alison and her 190E spent many a night doing late-apex turns on deserted roads before she even knew there was a term for it; it just felt right. This car was her first love, which led her to the only mechanic in town she would let touch it ... who eventually became her second love. Oblivious as she was at the time, she finally figured out that three-hour oil changes on a 190E were a sign of interest the mechanic, Sean, had in her, not mechanical complexity.
Now, the only problem with being a "car couple" is that occasionally there is interest in the same car. Submitted for your approval: Exhibit A, a neglected 1965 right-hand-drive automatic 230SL. The car was sitting on the lot of a local Volkswagen repair shop suffering in the harsh Missouri climate. The story was the owner had brought it in long ago for some serious repair work. It had been disassembled and the engine rebuilt before the project stopped, because a torque converter was needed and the repair costs had snowballed out of reach. Alison knew this Pagoda had only a small window of salvageability, but, as the owner had said for years, the car was not for sale.
As luck would have it, the 230SL owner's son brought a British sports car to Sean's shop for major repairs. Sean inquired about the Pagoda once more, and again the owner turned him down. However, this relentless persistence finally paid off: One day the owner conceded and called the VW shop to sell the Pagoda. Sean beat Alison to the punch with a labor trade agreement. Although the Pagoda was now Sean's, not Alison's, he did promise to sell it to her if ever sold, adding that the Pagoda was more her style than his. In late 2006, he received a call that a 1964 Daimler SP250 (the British car, not a Benz) he had been seeking for years was for sale only to him, so he made good on his promise to Alison. What a nice guy.
So began Alison's great Pagoda restoration. It did not take long for her to confirm her suspicion that the research required for correct restoration would take as much, if not more, time than the actual work. She enjoys the challenge, searching out nice examples at car shows and scouring references for originality clues. She discovered and joined www.sl113.org as well as the MBCA. She works on this research while doing bodywork and interiors on other restoration projects. You see, Sean's shop recruited her because of her skill, ability to learn, and attention to detail. She finds these automotive projects a perfect break from serious work at her day job. Time spent on her personal projects is precious, but she is learning to make finding such time a priority. There are no Pagodas wasting away on her watch.
Her W113 example is very needy but remains surprisingly original, still sporting its dark-blue paint/hardtop, black soft top, and grey-white interior. The car was originally delivered to Great Britain, so how did this 1:1 scale-model kit with a hefty dose of patina and most of its parts in the trunk end up in the Midwest United States? It is a mystery, as yet unsolved. However, she has traced its lineage back through 1987. She hopes the intact British license tag will one day yield the rest of the story.
Her plan is to reassemble the car to assess its structural integrity (and perhaps discover some missing parts), make it roadworthy to get a feel for the health of the preacquisition rebuilt engine and other mechanical systems, then disassemble the car to address the bodywork and interior. The ultimate goal is a purist restoration for pleasure and the occasional show. Now and then, she wonders how crazy she is to restore this example and not another one perhaps in better condition. The wondering does not last long; this is the Pagoda for Alison. She marvels at some of the technical advances on the Pagoda - details such as the fuel injection - and how they are combined with such style. When the work seems daunting, she reminds herself that every journey begins with small steps; yes, there are better examples, but this one must have an intriguing history, and if someone doesn't save it now, then it will be one more Pagoda lost forever. That passion for the marque is one of the things that make club members so special.
When not in the laboratory or doing something on her Pagoda, Alison enjoys detailing, bodywork, tending to her African cichlids, and collecting antique clocks, fans, and cars. Keeping her Pagoda company in the stable are the 190E, a half-share of a 1965 190D (guess who owns the other half?), and a squad of British cars. The loyal and trusty Brits have been an excellent teaching tool in her automotive education. This talented woman would not be tackling her Pagoda were it not for all she has learned from and done on her 1976 Triumph Spitfire, 1978 MG Midget, and 1978 Triumph Spitfire ... and now you know why she is right at home with the needy Pagoda. If a car has soul, the RHD Pagoda feels welcome with all the Brits, truly a happy family.
Because of Columbia's central Missouri location, Alison's quandary is that MBCA events in the Kansas City and Gateway sections are equally inconvenient, with at least a two-hour drive east or west. Her zip code, however, places her as a member of the Kansas City Section. She looks forward to attending an event in either Kansas City or St. Louis one day, sooner in the 190E and perhaps later in that Pagoda. With such a passion for the marque, both sections should be happy to meet this dedicated woman at an event.
By way of curriculum vitae, Alison was born in Sparta, New Jersey, but her family settled in the St. Louis area in 1998 after Alison, the oldest child, graduated from high school. She attended Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. During her time as an undergraduate, Alison worked as a chemistry laboratory assistant for Stephens' Natural Science Department and served as an officer in several honor societies, including Mortar Board and Beta Beta Beta. In 2001 as a junior, she was elected to membership in Sigma Xi, the scientific research society, for her HIV-1 research. Alison graduated magna cum laude in 2002 with a bachelor's degree in biology and a minor in chemistry.
Today, Alison is senior technician and laboratory manager at the Cancer Research Center in Columbia. Her immediate family now resides in the Kansas City area, and Alison can be found motoring west in the 190E on I-70 from Columbia to Kansas City on holidays. She will be the one with both hands on the wheel - at nine and three, of course - in the left lane, and probably ahead of you.
