Hi C.F.C.A. Members,
The Winds of March have passed and so has Drag Race Night, the St. Patrick's Day Parade, Waterford Car Show, 12 Hours at Sebring and Daytona Spring Spectacular. If you missed any of these events please come out and join in the fun at future events.
The second meeting of March at Michael's Restaurant had a great turn out. We were happy to see our members from the East Coast. Hutch gave out some trophies for Drag Race Night.
We had two guest speakers, one was Mike Wilson from Eckler's, the other was Tom Ronzino from Matthew Thomas Productions, Executive Producers of the TV show, Corvette "The American Dream". They have something new for Corvette owners, it's called Corvette Owners T.V. Guild. I will have sign up sheets at the next meeting for anyone interested. It will be $39.95 per person, husband and wife may be $60.00.
Two of our members (Jon & Pat Gardner) are going to Bowling Green for the C-5 Birthday Bash. Let's hope we can get some information on the new 2002 Vettes! A trip is in the works for a drive-out to DeLeon Springs on Sunday April 29.
I would like to wish all of our members a Happy Easter. Before you know it summer will be here, and the daylight will be shining on our cars 'till late in the evenings. If there is a special event you would like to have please contact any of our board members.
Let's Go For It
Wavin'-2U
Save The Wave
We have 160 members to date. Our newest members are Mike Lindsey and Art & Cheryl Bailey. Art was a member back in 1984. It's good to have him back! Make sure you introduce yourself when you see them.
I am in the middle of ordering the long sleeve T- shirts with the same logos on them as our club shirts. They are $18.00 and come in black or white. There is an order form at the meetings or you can email me before the last meeting in April and I will put your order in. Please make sure you have made your payment by the end of April. Since we are having shirts made, I wasn't sure if there is any interest in tank tops. We can discuss at the next meeting. I will have to limit the colors but if there are enough people who want them, we should use our $60 set up fee for all its worth!!
We need idea's for our 30th anniversary in 2003. As you know the Corvette is 50 years old that same year. I think we should have a blow out party and we should start planning now. If you have any thoughts on where or what we should do, please bring it up at the meeting. I know we are still interested in making anniversary pins. We had some ideas on that and we are still going in that direction.
Just a note: if you see a guest come into a meeting, please encourage them to sign in and take some time to try and make them feel comfortable. We can be a bit scary to people who don't know us!
I still have some shirts for sale. So if you're interested just see me at the meeting.
Well that's all for me. Hope to see all of you out at our events in the next couple of months.
Save The Wave!
Lisa
I've been telling you folks for weeks that "Not much is happening in the NCCC National or Regional front", and that when I come back from our next Regional meeting there will be "some news" to share with you. Well I'm back, and boy do I have a story to tell. Our last Region meeting was coupled with the Awards Banquet for last year's competition season. This year's Florida Region Awards banquet was hosted by our North Florida friends, and was held at St. Augustine's World Golf Village. While our club was adequately represented at the party (practice, practice, practice) more importantly our very own Mike and Marcella Gay took home the State Championship for Wash & Show in Class 'E'. This class is quite large, so Mike and Marcella's persistence and hard work was rightfully rewarded.
During the next day's Region meeting we again got some rather disappointing news that the National Convention yet again loses big bucks, almost $17,000 this time. Couple this with the previous years $33,000 loss and you quickly and majorly become disappointed with NCCC management. As some of you may remember during last years planning for this Convention, we wrote a letter to National Council voicing our displeasure with their planning. This was during the early stages of Convention planning activity and at a time when the Convention Steering Committee was making decisions that virtually guaranteed failure.
Now if you can believe it, they are in a cost cutting frame of mind. One such folly is to perhaps combine certain regions within the USA. The thought being that expenses necessary to support so many regions is unnecessary. "Lets have fewer Regions," they say. Boy the fighting has only just begun. If they want to save some money, do away with the National Convention. We can hardly afford them and certainly not justify spending so much money on so few people. There is a fiduciary responsibility on National Council's part and it seems that they are clueless to that principle.
The next thing we learn is that the NCCC is trying to find sponsors for the Future Corvette Owners of America (FOCA). The reason being is that postage required to support this young group is putting a strain on NCCC. If losing $17,000 on a week long party is acceptable for National Council, you would certainly think that paying postage for the FCOA group would not be too big of a stretch. After all, look at the name of this group. These kids may just be the very future of our hobby.
I'm torn. My obligation as your Club Governor is to be that liaison between National Council and you a CFCA member. Along the way I should be extolling the many good virtues of NCCC membership and in general be a worthy ambassador for that organization. But these are trying times. I have always thought that a cautious but critical eye toward those that are supposed to be watching out for our best interest is healthy. It looks like it's letter writing time again. I will keep you posted.
There is one thing that you can count on, and that is that your Florida Region is a well-organized machine. You have in your Florida officials people that care, that are competent and share a common dedication to the concept that our cars are fun to drive in, compete in and to show, all the while fostering a mechanism that ensures longtime friendships among its members.
Jon
Congratulations to Andy Pilgrim and Ron Fellows of the C5-R Corvette Racing Team for finishing a very respectable 2nd and 3rd class place in the 12 Hours at Sebring race March 17th.
-Hutch-
CONTRIBUTED ARTICLE
THUNDER IN BITHLO!
Well, there was a lot of noise, anyway....
On Friday night, March 2nd, a few intrepid adventure seeking souls from CFCA ventured west to the Orlando Speedworld Drag Strip to enter into battle on the tarmac, waging war against an electronic nemesis commonly referred to as the "Christmas Tree" (no relation to the town of Christmas just a few more miles down the road).
Of course, of all the nights we could have chosen to hit the strip, we had to go the night before the Ford Mustang Nationals which meant every "Rustang" within a 1000 miles was probably there that night. Randy Stone tried to warn me but it was too late to reschedule the event. Can you say crowded??? Sheesh, we were there from 6:30 until they closed the track at 10:00 and only got two, count 'em, TWO runs in all night. Seems like every other time a Ford product would race, it would leave half its innards (and nearly all of its oil) all over the track, forcing yet another delay to what ended up being a loooong night.
But in spite of all the, er, competition, we still managed to have a great time and kept our cars between the guard rails, which is a good thing in drag racing!
Final results for the night's battle were:
CONTRIBUTED ARTICLE
Borrowing a new Z-O6: A Dream Come True
Maybe!
Bill
It all Began with a phone call from the dealer, that they had received new Z-06 and wanted to know if I would like to take it for a spin? I thought very quickly and said yes.... As we arrived at the showroom, there it sat, in all it's glory. A black Z-06 with black and red interior.
We rolled it off the showroom floor with 5 miles on the odometer. My wife and I were handed the keys and told to enjoy. As we headed down 436 to the Bee-line, (where else would a guy handed the key's to a new Z-06 want to go?) We drove it with care (until it got to normal running temperature that is). As we entered the Bee-line going toward Cocoa, we went thru the gears, checking out the performance. Yes, it did perform. As we got to the 520 cut off, we exited and returned to the Bee-line heading back toward Orlando.
Wouldn't you know it, just as we merged back onto the highway, we came side by side with a 454 corvette, (not sure of the year). Well, I'm sure he was just as curious about us, as I was about him and his performance and how it might match up to this car. We both slowed to about 40 mph and got into 2nd gear. I looked at him and he signaled, off we went. Wow, what a screamer! This car jumped like it was shot out of a cannon. I immediately hit 60, went to 3rd, was immediately at 100, went to 4th and checked the speedo- now I'm at 120 mph. Wow! The earlier 454 vette was 7 or 8 car lengths back. We slowed back to about 60, he pulled along side, we were both impressed, we couldn't believe how fast the Z-06 was. My wife spoke up and said, "you'll have to keep what you have. Can't have you out on the roads racing every-one."
Now.....would I really do that?..... YEAH!!!!!
The NCM recently announced a history making event, "The Visit", to be held April 27-28, 2001 - a first-ever visit to the "Home of the Corvette" by the Porsche Car Club of America. The PCC was founded in 1955.
NCM UPDATE
"POOCHES" at the NCM?
Another "first-ever" event will be a gathering of the late 3rd generation "Sharks" at the upcoming "82 Collector Edition Corvette Rendezvous", June 28-July 1, 2001. The last editions of a unique era of Corvettes will be highlighted during the celebration, in addition to a special tribute to the Bowling Green Assembly Plant for twenty years of Corvette assembly since 1981.
The National Corvette Museum just had an unexpected visitor who had been spring cleaning.
Doug Hudgel of Anniston, AL brought several "goodies" including GM Corvette Parts Catalog 1953-1954 (effective date of 6/1/54), along with an original 1960 owners manual, NCRS Judging Manuals used in 1983 for the 1953-55, 1958-60, and 1965-67, a book "Corvette from Six to Sixty" by Martyn L. Schoor and several other manuals for performance tuning and miscellaneous magazines profiling the Corvette.
Do you have anything you would like to donate for the RESOURCE CENTER at the National Corvette Museum?
If you would like to donate any Corvette books, manuals, advertisements or memaborilia please contact Betty Hardison at 1-800-538-3883 or e-mail at betty@corvettemuseum.com.
Annual Giving Campaign Update: To date, the campaign, begun last October, has brought over $68,000. There have been 521 individual gifts and 21 gifts on behalf of various Corvette Clubs.
Raffle Update: The NCM has two raffles in progress this year. A silver Z06 at the Birthday Bash this month and a magnetic red convertible at the Labor Day celebration. I have tickets left for the mag red convertible - see me at any meeting and help support the NCM!
Remember, the National Corvette Museum is a nonprofit foundation under 501(c)(3) statute of the Internal Revenue Service and donations are tax deductible as allowed by law.
Gary
- Gary Wollenhaupt, NCM Ambassador
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