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ViperGal

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Okay so those of you who were able to make it happen should be back in your rooms and are hereby *obligated* to fill us in on all the details. :eater:

We don't mind pictures either!:2tu:

Thanks in advance from those of us that had to be armchair participants.

:drive:
 

kcobean

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Went to the Prefix open house Tuesday PM. CAAP tours and Banquet yesterday....an absolute blast!!! At the banquet, we watched the vid of the ACR doing Nurburgring in 7:22, great presentation by Ralph Gilles, and had a great time hangin' out with everyone. Track day today....should be fun. Here are 200+ pics from Prefix and CAAP:

kcobean/VOI-Wednesday - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
 
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AFL in NJ

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Great presentation tonight, started with the "ring" video which was very exciting considering how tight a budget was used to get the record. We also heard from a few VP's and sadly got confirmation that Dodge is listening to offers (not accepting) regarding some company buying the Viper from Dodge. We'll see what time brings about, but I don't know as just an enthusiast (rather than an industry insider) whether financial difficulties in the parent corporation would temporarily put the Viper on hold if times don't improve, or whether some other "partner" buying and subsequently producing the Viper until Dodge could purchase it back would be better.

VP of Design Ralph Gilles then spoke about the Viper's past, recent development and some hints at what SRT engineers believe the future of the Viper will look like. Let's hope that Dodge sells a TON of Challenger SRT8's and every other SRT vehicle. Very exciting presentation by Ralph!

Food was pretty decent too, the salad was nice mix of varieties of lettuce with walnuts, cheese, fruit topped by balsamic vinagrette dressing. The main course I believe was beef tenderloin, with poached salmon, with mashed potatoes and a decent-sized garlic/butter shrimp on top. Dessert was creme brulee, fresh berry mix and creme with a biscuit.

After dinner we went out to the parking deck which was so full with Vipers that we had to double park to fit us all in.....pictures of this have already and will continue to be posted.

Regards,
Aaron
 

mike & juli

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Thank you Kelly and Aaron for your observations and fantastic photos!~! (NEVER enough pics!)
Thanx for sharing what you've heard and seen for us who have to live the experience THRU you! ~juli
 

alpine7822

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Went to the Prefix open house Tuesday PM. CAAP tours and Banquet yesterday....an absolute blast!!! At the banquet, we watched the vid of the ACR doing Nurburgring in 7:22, great presentation by Ralph Gilles, and had a great time hangin' out with everyone. Track day today....should be fun. Here are 200+ pics from Prefix and CAAP:

kcobean - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

GREAT PICS! Looks like you guys are having a blast. Tell Bernie and Dan I said hi! What did Bernie drive up by the way? He always has the coolest car.
 

Schulmann

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Yesterday night Ralph Gilles speech was impressive. He is a really car lover ! ( and not a golf player like most executives). He gave the best speech in the VOI history.

Otherwise we had a lot of bus tours and tech sessions. The VOI trully turned into green. No more Viper driving at VOI, we use too much fuel ... :)


We just got back from our "track" day, if you can call it so ...
In the morning we had some rain so the drag race was cancelled.
We managed to convert the drag race into a "skippad" session.


The autocross was really nice and well organized.

The SRT-4 experience looked like a Six Flag attraction for 8 years old and less. It could have been feathered on the TV show believe it or not. The driving area was as small as your driveway. That was not up to our standards.

The road course was not very challanging. It was hold on some old section of the prouving ground. The track was short and the top speed was around 80mi ... You can rent this type of track for 1$/min in our area. The track was not up to our standards. The big oval was used to test some Chrysler cars and was not open to VOI participants. That oval could have been the crown of VOI 10. But for some "business" reasons it was not accessible for us.

In my opinion the track day was a shame ....


I am really curious about other opinions on the so called "track day".
 

Bobpantax

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Moderators: Please post the text of Giles' speech. I am sure that if you ask for it, it will be made available.
 

GTSnake

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Hello? Fellow Viper owners in Detroit? ... details??? Pictures? ...

Sorry, we're too busy having fun to post updates... :rolaugh:

We had a fun day yesterday running autocross at Chelsea then drag racing at Milan. It rained in the morning so the group that started at Milan couldn't do any drag racing but ended up doing donuts or something I heard.

At Chelsea there were 2 autoX courses set up and you had to run one after another instead of running on one continuously then switch. It was kinda confusing because you had to try to memorize 2 courses at the same time. I still can't figure out why they did that... In the early going people were a little tentative just trying to learn the course but after a few runs the tire squeeling and smoking finally started to really look like they were having fun. And lap times dropped accordingly.

After that it was on to the road course where an instructor lead a pack of cars through 3-4 at a time followed by another instructor in a chase car. It was a great learning experience for some to actually see how you're supposed to drive a road course. Although some people were still very tentative and didn't/couldn't follow the line that instructors were showing and held up more experienced drivers.

After lunch came the SRT driving experience where people were pitted head to head against one another on a very small autoX course. Two SRT Calibers started opposite each other and the first one to complete the course won. Winners moved on until only one was crowned. I heard of one story where someone tried to drive in 3rd gear and basically burned up the clutch. The instructors had to put that car aside until the smoke cleared :doh2:. Good thing they had an extra car on hand.:lmao:

In the afternoon came Milan. As we caravaned to Milan there were a group of Vipers that started following a Mi local member. Little did they know he was actually headed home and not to Milan. 15 cars split off from the correct route and started driving north instead of south on M-23. I think they finally caught on and realized they were going to wrong way :rolaugh:
In addition, I need to thank one of the MI members for taking one for the team. It seemed that the local State Troopers got wind that there were a gang of Vipers cruising the highways around Ann Arbor and came out in force. Within 5 minutes of leaving Chelsea the MI member was pulled over while the rest of us went passing by undisturbed.

Milan was a great time. There were some decent times ran although track prep was all but none existent. With the morning rain it seemed like they didn't do any prep. Basically every car there were running street tires except for one car. That was me...
By 3:30 most everyone left the track and headed back to the hotel. However they missed out at watching a special guest star that showed up around 4pm. Mr. Chrysler VP of Design showed up with his black ACR. He made a few passes and ran a best time of 12.05.

Dinner was on the Detroit Princess. We went on a 3 hr dinner cruise without the professor and MaryAnn. It was good food and a warm night. After dinner most everyone spent some time hanging out on deck in the warm breezes.

That's about it for now. Today was track day for the other group and plant tours for the first group.
 

mike & juli

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Very nice write-up, thank you! Felt like I was right there with you all (well, okay, not really ;) :D)! ~juli
 

CitySnake

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After checking Kelly's photos, I have more of nearly the same (except his are framed far better) :D.

Here's a few more for those not in attendance (sorry about some of the exposures):

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kcobean

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A-group's Friday so far... (a little downtime, so I thought I'd catch up here.....)

We went to the Chrysler museum in the morning, neat place...the Boss Chrysler Garage in the basement of the museum was cool.

Then on to the Saleen facility where the '08 Viper panels are painted. Impressive facility there with lots of Mustang work going on in addition to the Viper work, and they're building a new 1932 (I think) Deuce Coupe replica....$175K per unit. We saw their Supercharger build room, their engine room, paint facilities and Mustang conversion line. Again, an impressive, first class operation. Here are the pictures I took from the day....oh, and sorry no pictures from track day yesterday...I was in the group that went to Milan in the morning and got rained out on the drag-strip. About 10 of us went out into the parking-lot-converted-to-skidpad and had fun getting our cars absolutely filthy. :D I actually learned quite a bit about the handling of my car there. NO pictures were allowed on Chelsea proving grounds so we didn't get any pictures of the Auto-X, SRT4 head-to-head or the track sessions.

Anyway, onto the pics from today....

kcobean/VOI-Friday - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
 

Live2Race

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Here is my timeslip from Milan .. This was with a Bone Stock 08 Viper (It was one of the track experiance cars) I was racing another one of the track experiance cars.. This Just shows what the potential of this car really is.. Considering this car was beat on pretty hard thru out the event I think it could have even been better. Oh . I was in the green car. I had a great time. I even got to sign a intake after I helped a guy get into the trunk of his viper to get his keys which he happen to place in there..

"Dos Keys"
 

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kcobean

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Saturday was......HOT HOT HOT!!!

Got some great footage of the Indy and ALMS cars during warm-up and qualifying.

The food was great at the Chalet and had a great time hanging out with everyone. The ALMS Viper didn't have a very good race, but it sure was awesome watching a comp-coupe tear around the track.

The banquet last night was amazing. It was great to see all of the VCA officers, directors and other contributors to this awesome club get recognized for their efforts. The commercials submitted were awesome and the winner was hilarious. Father Viper's speech was incredible.

Congrats to the winner of the BYO Viper raffle, who was present at the announcement.

Congratulations to the 11 inductees into the Viper Hall of Fame. All of them deserved it 100%. I know a few more names that I'm certain will end up in their ranks in the coming years.

JRT obviously made quick study of the scheduling problems of the previous days....I think we all had time to get cleaned up before getting there for dinner. All in all a relaxing day.

I can't wait for VOI-11!!!
 

Y2K5SRT

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Moderators: Please post the text of Giles' speech. I am sure that if you ask for it, it will be made available.
We don't have the full speech handy (I suspect much was ad lib), but here is a highlight:

Ode to Viper

By Ralph (& Doris!) Gilles at VOI 10


Oh my precious Viper
So many lives you have changed.
Many a financial priority
You have managed to rearrange.

Most of us joined the Viper Nation
For you, our beloved car.
We stayed, however, for the friendships
Made at tracks, road trips, car shows...and bars.

Created by the truly passionate
And the snake-bitten.
The best welcome -
The weak, unceremoniously forbidden.

Led by the likes of Roy,
John, Dan and Kip.
But still motivated by the echo
Of the great Grailkeeper's whip.

You've always had "The General"
In a cold sweat.
Constantly working on
Reinventing his wimpy little Vette.

You have grown from 400 horses
To 600 to great applause.
With your raw power and speed
You are a rebel with just cause.

You have recently learned to fly
With your weapons made of carbon fiber.
You'll have super car owners around the world saying
"Shoulda bought a Viper!!"

RT10, GTS, GTSR, ACR,
SRT10, Comp Coupe, and ACR again.
After 2008,
What then?

Though the Grail may be up for sale we will never say "Goodbye."
I leave you with this life lesson:
Happily there is no real antidote
For this seriously potent venom…
 

Bobpantax

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Thank you Chris. Someone posted that there were hints in his speech about the future. Do you recall what they may have been?
 
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