kcobean
Enthusiast
Hey all, I thought I'd write up a quick something about VOI for those that couldn't go this year. I have a bunch of pictures I'll post in the next week and we'll include a bunch in the Hissmas party slide-show as well.
This year we had 3 members drive from VA/MD to SLC and back...A Gen1 (Curtis and Raina), a Gen2 GTS (Mark/wolfc2e), and a Gen2 RT/10 (Al and Janet Adamitis).
We had 3 members ship or trailer cars (Carlos/Judy Ugaz, Andy Apter (owner of Paul Mumfords Sapphire blue GTS, and myself).
We had quite a few attend sans Viper, and these guys lucked out! They got a bit more track/auto-x time than the rest of us, and a few got the opportunity to drive the Nurburgring record setting ACR!!! John, Mark Chatterton, Larry and Sharon McCourry, Gary and Jackie Phillips, and the esteemed Lee Stubberfield. Bernie was there, racing his comp-coupe.
I think that's everyone!
Tammy and I arrived late Wednesday night after sitting in the Dulles airport terminal for 12 hours. We were supposed to arrive in SLC at 10:20 AM, ended up getting in at 11 PM. Thanks Delta.
Thanks to John for coming and picking us up at the airport.
The Grand America hotel was absolutely beautiful. The rooms were well appointed, there was marble and rich wood paneling throughout. The courtyard had an amazing flower garden with sculptures, fountains, etc. Best accommodations in the city for $200/night, taxes included.
Thursday morning, we got registered and picked up our goody bags and the keys to the car. The car was waiting for us in the secured parking area beneath the hotel as promised. We spent the day with John and family seeing a few sites like the Temple square, had lunch in the city, just kind of relaxed. I attended the Presidents meeting as a guest of John's, and then hustled over to the Little America for the web-users meeting. Got to put a lot of faces with screen names there! Thursday night was a great dinner. We sat with most of the folks from our region. There were awards and presentations and fun had by all. Congratulations to Carlos and Judy Ugaz for VA/MD region member of the year. If there is a Viper event going on, you can be sure these guys will be there...********!
After dinner, we went shopping at the Vendor exhibits. Bought a bunch of shirts, hats and I bought an MGW short shifter and knob for my car. Thanks to all the Vendors for coming out with all the great products!
Friday was track day. We started with Auto-X first, a quick sub-30 second track that was fun to drive and got quicker on subsequent runs. I have an in-car video of one of my laps....will post that when the in-car camera gets home (it's in the car). We did go-karting after that...tons of fun. They were fast little karts and the track mirrored the real track. A quick break for lunch and then off to the SRT Challenge where we got to play with the Charger, Challenger (both 6-speed and auto), and the 300C. The course was designed to show the SRT8 line-up's power, handling and braking. I think many folks who had never driven one of the big SRT8 vehicles were impressed with how nimble they are given their weight/size. Last, we did the road course in our Vipers. A very challenging track with lots of late-apex turns. I spun my car once entering a corner too fast/too early. As mentioned, a few of the folks who came without Vipers got to drive the ACR from the Nurburging record. Lucky dogs!!!
After a quick 30 minute trip back to the hotel for a shower, we boarded buses to the Olympic ice-skating arena for a great dinner, the unveiling of the Mopar V-10 "Drag Pak" Challenger, the announcement of the VooDoo #1 raffle winner, and ice-skating for those brave or skilled enough to do so. Lots of opportunities to talk with Ralph, Herb, Chris and Mary Marshall, Marv, Bobby and Lee...the people that made this an amazing event.
I washed the car after dinner in one of the wash-bays....until about 2 AM. While washing, I had an opportunity to chat with Chad from GA, Aaron from NJ, and Bob from OH. I was one tired puppy on Saturday, but you can't go to a car show with a dirty car, that's just not cool!
Saturday was the scenic cruise and car show in beautiful Park City. We stopped at the ski-jump facility and watched the jumpers in training. They wore special skis and used wet ramps to practice their jumps, landing in a big pool. Incredible athletes these folks. We also stopped at a nice park, and once in Park City, had lunch at one of the many restaurants using Park City gift cards provided by VOI. We lined the entire main drag of the city on both sides and the fire department came with a ladder truck and took a whole slew of cameras up the ladder to get aerial photos of the scene. It was quite impressive and the folks there were friendly and curious about the cars. We did the extended cruise after the car show/lunch and drove through some of the UT canyons before heading back to the hotel.
Saturday night was the Dodge sponsored dinner, with Ralph speaking, giving an amazing presentation, and his much anticipated "ode to Viper". There was an auction of some Gen2 and Gen4 hoods airbrushed beautifully by an artist (who's name I can't recall, but he has serious talent). Also auctioned were some body panels off of the prototype ACR, a comp-coupe, a nice Viper-themed desk/chair set. This raised somewhere close to $50K for the VCA, by my count.
Then we got to see "IT". In groups, we were required to surrender our cell phones, go through a magnetometer "wanding", then into a room to see the next Challenger, Durango, Charger, Mini-van (Ralph calls it the "Man Van"....it was admittedly VERY nice), and their first take at the Gen-V Viper. A very beautiful car with lots of updates to the classic Gen-2 body style.
Sunday was "race day". We had "open track" time on all of the 4 race-day events...karting, auto-x, SRT challenge and road course. Then we watched the Viper Racing League race, the World Challenge Series season finale (Kuno Wittmer won in a comp-coupe!), and finally the Dodge Viper Cup race, in which Ralph raced and came in 3rd if I remember correctly (don't hold me to that). The last two laps of the cup race were done in rain that was coming down sideways. We were under the canopy though, so we stayed nice and dry.
A bunch of us attended the Sunday night dinner sponsored by the CO/UT region. Keynote speaker Tom Gale shared stories about the early days of Viper and took some Q&A time to answer questions. What a gentleman! PartsRack gave away a TON of stuff from CAAP, and raffled off wheels, huge discounts on a Corsa Exhaust, Belanger headers, and some other things. A great supporter of the VCA.....thanks JonB!
After dinner, I washed the car (again) because we got rained on coming home from the track and I wanted it to be clean going on the transport so I didn't have to wash it when it got home. Again until about 1:30 AM. I was chatting with the off-duty police officer who was contracted to provide security in the garage, and at one point, he picked up a towel and helped me dry the car. Very nice people in SLC.
Yesterday, we spent a relaxing morning eating breakfast and turning the car over to Passport, then doing a little sight-seeing before heading to the airport to catch a flight home. We got in around midnight....and now I'm at work hoping the day will hurry up and end...I'm pooped!
I hope y'all will start thinking now about VOI-12. Don't know where it will be yet, but hopefully it'll be east of the Mississippi, so we can get together and drive out. These really are a great time where you get to meet all the people you know from the forums, drive your car, enjoy good food and presentations, etc. For the price, it can't be beat.
As soon as I get the video off the video camera (which I have with me), I'll upload some stuff and will post pictures when the still camera gets home in the car.
Kelly
This year we had 3 members drive from VA/MD to SLC and back...A Gen1 (Curtis and Raina), a Gen2 GTS (Mark/wolfc2e), and a Gen2 RT/10 (Al and Janet Adamitis).
We had 3 members ship or trailer cars (Carlos/Judy Ugaz, Andy Apter (owner of Paul Mumfords Sapphire blue GTS, and myself).
We had quite a few attend sans Viper, and these guys lucked out! They got a bit more track/auto-x time than the rest of us, and a few got the opportunity to drive the Nurburgring record setting ACR!!! John, Mark Chatterton, Larry and Sharon McCourry, Gary and Jackie Phillips, and the esteemed Lee Stubberfield. Bernie was there, racing his comp-coupe.
I think that's everyone!
Tammy and I arrived late Wednesday night after sitting in the Dulles airport terminal for 12 hours. We were supposed to arrive in SLC at 10:20 AM, ended up getting in at 11 PM. Thanks Delta.
Thanks to John for coming and picking us up at the airport.The Grand America hotel was absolutely beautiful. The rooms were well appointed, there was marble and rich wood paneling throughout. The courtyard had an amazing flower garden with sculptures, fountains, etc. Best accommodations in the city for $200/night, taxes included.
Thursday morning, we got registered and picked up our goody bags and the keys to the car. The car was waiting for us in the secured parking area beneath the hotel as promised. We spent the day with John and family seeing a few sites like the Temple square, had lunch in the city, just kind of relaxed. I attended the Presidents meeting as a guest of John's, and then hustled over to the Little America for the web-users meeting. Got to put a lot of faces with screen names there! Thursday night was a great dinner. We sat with most of the folks from our region. There were awards and presentations and fun had by all. Congratulations to Carlos and Judy Ugaz for VA/MD region member of the year. If there is a Viper event going on, you can be sure these guys will be there...********!
After dinner, we went shopping at the Vendor exhibits. Bought a bunch of shirts, hats and I bought an MGW short shifter and knob for my car. Thanks to all the Vendors for coming out with all the great products!
Friday was track day. We started with Auto-X first, a quick sub-30 second track that was fun to drive and got quicker on subsequent runs. I have an in-car video of one of my laps....will post that when the in-car camera gets home (it's in the car). We did go-karting after that...tons of fun. They were fast little karts and the track mirrored the real track. A quick break for lunch and then off to the SRT Challenge where we got to play with the Charger, Challenger (both 6-speed and auto), and the 300C. The course was designed to show the SRT8 line-up's power, handling and braking. I think many folks who had never driven one of the big SRT8 vehicles were impressed with how nimble they are given their weight/size. Last, we did the road course in our Vipers. A very challenging track with lots of late-apex turns. I spun my car once entering a corner too fast/too early. As mentioned, a few of the folks who came without Vipers got to drive the ACR from the Nurburging record. Lucky dogs!!!
After a quick 30 minute trip back to the hotel for a shower, we boarded buses to the Olympic ice-skating arena for a great dinner, the unveiling of the Mopar V-10 "Drag Pak" Challenger, the announcement of the VooDoo #1 raffle winner, and ice-skating for those brave or skilled enough to do so. Lots of opportunities to talk with Ralph, Herb, Chris and Mary Marshall, Marv, Bobby and Lee...the people that made this an amazing event.
I washed the car after dinner in one of the wash-bays....until about 2 AM. While washing, I had an opportunity to chat with Chad from GA, Aaron from NJ, and Bob from OH. I was one tired puppy on Saturday, but you can't go to a car show with a dirty car, that's just not cool!
Saturday was the scenic cruise and car show in beautiful Park City. We stopped at the ski-jump facility and watched the jumpers in training. They wore special skis and used wet ramps to practice their jumps, landing in a big pool. Incredible athletes these folks. We also stopped at a nice park, and once in Park City, had lunch at one of the many restaurants using Park City gift cards provided by VOI. We lined the entire main drag of the city on both sides and the fire department came with a ladder truck and took a whole slew of cameras up the ladder to get aerial photos of the scene. It was quite impressive and the folks there were friendly and curious about the cars. We did the extended cruise after the car show/lunch and drove through some of the UT canyons before heading back to the hotel.
Saturday night was the Dodge sponsored dinner, with Ralph speaking, giving an amazing presentation, and his much anticipated "ode to Viper". There was an auction of some Gen2 and Gen4 hoods airbrushed beautifully by an artist (who's name I can't recall, but he has serious talent). Also auctioned were some body panels off of the prototype ACR, a comp-coupe, a nice Viper-themed desk/chair set. This raised somewhere close to $50K for the VCA, by my count.
Then we got to see "IT". In groups, we were required to surrender our cell phones, go through a magnetometer "wanding", then into a room to see the next Challenger, Durango, Charger, Mini-van (Ralph calls it the "Man Van"....it was admittedly VERY nice), and their first take at the Gen-V Viper. A very beautiful car with lots of updates to the classic Gen-2 body style.
Sunday was "race day". We had "open track" time on all of the 4 race-day events...karting, auto-x, SRT challenge and road course. Then we watched the Viper Racing League race, the World Challenge Series season finale (Kuno Wittmer won in a comp-coupe!), and finally the Dodge Viper Cup race, in which Ralph raced and came in 3rd if I remember correctly (don't hold me to that). The last two laps of the cup race were done in rain that was coming down sideways. We were under the canopy though, so we stayed nice and dry.
A bunch of us attended the Sunday night dinner sponsored by the CO/UT region. Keynote speaker Tom Gale shared stories about the early days of Viper and took some Q&A time to answer questions. What a gentleman! PartsRack gave away a TON of stuff from CAAP, and raffled off wheels, huge discounts on a Corsa Exhaust, Belanger headers, and some other things. A great supporter of the VCA.....thanks JonB!
After dinner, I washed the car (again) because we got rained on coming home from the track and I wanted it to be clean going on the transport so I didn't have to wash it when it got home. Again until about 1:30 AM. I was chatting with the off-duty police officer who was contracted to provide security in the garage, and at one point, he picked up a towel and helped me dry the car. Very nice people in SLC.
Yesterday, we spent a relaxing morning eating breakfast and turning the car over to Passport, then doing a little sight-seeing before heading to the airport to catch a flight home. We got in around midnight....and now I'm at work hoping the day will hurry up and end...I'm pooped!
I hope y'all will start thinking now about VOI-12. Don't know where it will be yet, but hopefully it'll be east of the Mississippi, so we can get together and drive out. These really are a great time where you get to meet all the people you know from the forums, drive your car, enjoy good food and presentations, etc. For the price, it can't be beat.
As soon as I get the video off the video camera (which I have with me), I'll upload some stuff and will post pictures when the still camera gets home in the car.
Kelly
