slaughterj
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I cruised on down to Florida for Mike's Viper party in Tampa on Friday, had a great time with everyone, including "Viper ****" Ryan, "Moulin Rouge" Terry, "I'm not the **** I appear to be" Chuck (inside joke), etc.
On the way I stopped in at Roe Racing, talked to Sean and Mike (newly moved down from NY) for a bit and took a spin in Sean's supercharged Viper - couldn't do too much since it was around 5:30pm, but even putting it up to half-throttle, the rear end wanted to go sideways! Lots o' torque!
On the way down, I found my driver side window wasn't working (stuck up, electrical problem) - ugh! I knew that'd cut down on my top-down driving fun while in FL (window had just worked the day before too?!).
Got to Tampa late (bad I-4 traffic), went to Winghouse with Chuck (who drove #34), had some beers there and at Tampa Alehouse, then crashed at Chuck's B&B (bed & breakfast - breakfast is bananas, beef jerky, and Hershey's chocolate milk at Chuck's).
Tried to troubleshoot my window problem the next day before the party, but to no avail.
Gerald cruised over to Chuck's, so the three of us could drive over to Mike's together - Gerald's ride is audible from quite a distance with the sidepipes roaring! Here's a pic of Gerald's and my car in front of Chuck's (his are slightly visible in the garage):
We cruised on over to Mike's house (he's got a great house!), and soon thereafter a number of other vipers rolled on in, to enjoy the fine eats he had provided for us. Here's a couple of pics of Mike's driveway with 7-8000 hp in it (several supercharged/nitrous snakes):
While at the party, we enjoyed Mike's grilled food and snacks, with some video on the TV, and checked out the snakes, including Gerald's DLM supercharged snake, Vipermed's 2 Roe supercharged snakes, and Tom Welch's nitrous snake, as well as Terry's (tmcalist) amazing mobile entertainment system (best looking install I've seen in the trunk of his 97 RT/10, as well as DVD player, etc.). (Haven't pulled a pic from my video of this yet)
After this, we went for a cruise down to Clearwater (though missing Gerald, who had to leave early, but was to make another appearance ), quite nice with 10 or so snakes weaving our way along, got some cool video while I was driving Afterward, we headed back to Tampa to Winghouse (2nd night in a row for Chuck & I), here's a pic of our crew there (note Ryan (GenXGTS) with the 2 fingers extended):
We had some very nice service at Winghouse, and apparently they do home deliveries, at least to Chuck's
From there, (leaving Chuck behind) we cruised on over to the local Saturday night car show near the end of it, making quite a scene with ~10 or so Vipers pulling in - really drew a crowd! Ryan had been riding with Chuck, then was riding with me, but really he's quite the Viper ****, willing to ride with most anyone driving a Viper We really started razzing Terry about his entertainment system (all in good fun), noting how he could watch Moulin Rouge while cruising down the road
As the car show was dispersing, a couple of us diehards (Terry, Ryan, and myself) decided to head to Mon's Venus for a different sort of exotic entertainment While sampling the wares they had to offer, we spot a familiar face show up, and lo and behold, it was Gerald again! Perhaps it may have been to prove he liked naked chicks? Anyway, Gerald had a lot of fun with the women there, offering to *sell* them dances! LOL! He did take a break to give Ryan a quick ride in his DLM snake, and Ryan was impressed with Gerald's snake That was the finale of the night for us, Ryan and I went and had a few beers, then called it a night, crashing over at Chuck's, who we saw again the next morning after his "date" the night before. Also the next morning, another owner John, from Philly, stopped by - didn't make it the day before though because he was ill.
I proceeded to head out on Sunday about 1pm for the 10-11hr (supposed to be at least) drive back to NC, and drove through 4 hours of torrential downpours through FL and GA (found that new soft-top eventually developed a minor leak or two) - at least my driver window was stuck closed! Once in SC, however, the highway was feeling VERY slick and NC I knew had been blanketed by an icestorm, so I called it a night in SC. I woke up the next morning to find my Viper coated in ice, here's some pics including of icicles hanging all over (most evident in the rear picture, but visible on the front fascia and wheelwells):
Waiting until Monday afternoon, I decided it was time to forge on to NC, and continued to head up 95, which seemed better than the night before. Once I turned off 95N on 40W, though, I saw the first casualties from the icestorm - cars wrecked in the median or off the road. I proceeded cautiously, and finally about 10 miles away from Raleigh, the roads got worse, more slippery, etc., and I dropped down to ~45mph for the rest of the highway driving, following a little back from a tractor trailer. The highways were "reasonably" passable, but then I had to get off eventually to go down a 45mph 2 lane road, and then enter my neighborhood. On the road to my neighborhood there were grooves to the pavement where there wasn't "much" ice, and drove ~25mph on this without any problems. Then I turned into neighborhood's main road, and it barely had tire grooves in the ice, and some patches didn't, including uphill stretches. Of course someone had to drive right on my a$$ in their sedan at this point (uh, what I slide backward down a hill, dude?), but I managed to maintain my pace with very little sliding. Then I entered my own neighborhood, which was a solid sheet of ice - navigating through this, I got onto my street and figured there was no way I would be able to go up my driveway (at least not without risking hitting my truck!), so I simply drove up into the front yard! That way no one would hit me parked in the street - here's some pics:
In sum, had a great trip and a good time with fellow viper owners (thanks for the party Mike!), and made it back safely (me and the car!).
On the way I stopped in at Roe Racing, talked to Sean and Mike (newly moved down from NY) for a bit and took a spin in Sean's supercharged Viper - couldn't do too much since it was around 5:30pm, but even putting it up to half-throttle, the rear end wanted to go sideways! Lots o' torque!
On the way down, I found my driver side window wasn't working (stuck up, electrical problem) - ugh! I knew that'd cut down on my top-down driving fun while in FL (window had just worked the day before too?!).
Got to Tampa late (bad I-4 traffic), went to Winghouse with Chuck (who drove #34), had some beers there and at Tampa Alehouse, then crashed at Chuck's B&B (bed & breakfast - breakfast is bananas, beef jerky, and Hershey's chocolate milk at Chuck's).
Tried to troubleshoot my window problem the next day before the party, but to no avail.
Gerald cruised over to Chuck's, so the three of us could drive over to Mike's together - Gerald's ride is audible from quite a distance with the sidepipes roaring! Here's a pic of Gerald's and my car in front of Chuck's (his are slightly visible in the garage):
You must be registered for see images
We cruised on over to Mike's house (he's got a great house!), and soon thereafter a number of other vipers rolled on in, to enjoy the fine eats he had provided for us. Here's a couple of pics of Mike's driveway with 7-8000 hp in it (several supercharged/nitrous snakes):
You must be registered for see images
You must be registered for see images
While at the party, we enjoyed Mike's grilled food and snacks, with some video on the TV, and checked out the snakes, including Gerald's DLM supercharged snake, Vipermed's 2 Roe supercharged snakes, and Tom Welch's nitrous snake, as well as Terry's (tmcalist) amazing mobile entertainment system (best looking install I've seen in the trunk of his 97 RT/10, as well as DVD player, etc.). (Haven't pulled a pic from my video of this yet)
After this, we went for a cruise down to Clearwater (though missing Gerald, who had to leave early, but was to make another appearance
), quite nice with 10 or so snakes weaving our way along, got some cool video while I was driving Afterward, we headed back to Tampa to Winghouse (2nd night in a row for Chuck & I), here's a pic of our crew there (note Ryan (GenXGTS) with the 2 fingers extended):
You must be registered for see images
We had some very nice service at Winghouse, and apparently they do home deliveries, at least to Chuck's
From there, (leaving Chuck behind) we cruised on over to the local Saturday night car show near the end of it, making quite a scene with ~10 or so Vipers pulling in - really drew a crowd! Ryan had been riding with Chuck, then was riding with me, but really he's quite the Viper ****, willing to ride with most anyone driving a Viper
We really started razzing Terry about his entertainment system (all in good fun), noting how he could watch Moulin Rouge while cruising down the road As the car show was dispersing, a couple of us diehards (Terry, Ryan, and myself) decided to head to Mon's Venus for a different sort of exotic entertainment
While sampling the wares they had to offer, we spot a familiar face show up, and lo and behold, it was Gerald again! Perhaps it may have been to prove he liked naked chicks? Anyway, Gerald had a lot of fun with the women there, offering to *sell* them dances! LOL! He did take a break to give Ryan a quick ride in his DLM snake, and Ryan was impressed with Gerald's snake That was the finale of the night for us, Ryan and I went and had a few beers, then called it a night, crashing over at Chuck's, who we saw again the next morning after his "date" the night before. Also the next morning, another owner John, from Philly, stopped by - didn't make it the day before though because he was ill.I proceeded to head out on Sunday about 1pm for the 10-11hr (supposed to be at least) drive back to NC, and drove through 4 hours of torrential downpours through FL and GA (found that new soft-top eventually developed a minor leak or two) - at least my driver window was stuck closed! Once in SC, however, the highway was feeling VERY slick and NC I knew had been blanketed by an icestorm, so I called it a night in SC. I woke up the next morning to find my Viper coated in ice, here's some pics including of icicles hanging all over (most evident in the rear picture, but visible on the front fascia and wheelwells):
You must be registered for see images
You must be registered for see images
You must be registered for see images
Waiting until Monday afternoon, I decided it was time to forge on to NC, and continued to head up 95, which seemed better than the night before. Once I turned off 95N on 40W, though, I saw the first casualties from the icestorm - cars wrecked in the median or off the road. I proceeded cautiously, and finally about 10 miles away from Raleigh, the roads got worse, more slippery, etc., and I dropped down to ~45mph for the rest of the highway driving, following a little back from a tractor trailer. The highways were "reasonably" passable, but then I had to get off eventually to go down a 45mph 2 lane road, and then enter my neighborhood. On the road to my neighborhood there were grooves to the pavement where there wasn't "much" ice, and drove ~25mph on this without any problems. Then I turned into neighborhood's main road, and it barely had tire grooves in the ice, and some patches didn't, including uphill stretches. Of course someone had to drive right on my a$$ in their sedan at this point (uh, what I slide backward down a hill, dude?), but I managed to maintain my pace with very little sliding. Then I entered my own neighborhood, which was a solid sheet of ice - navigating through this, I got onto my street and figured there was no way I would be able to go up my driveway (at least not without risking hitting my truck!), so I simply drove up into the front yard! That way no one would hit me parked in the street - here's some pics:
You must be registered for see images
You must be registered for see images
In sum, had a great trip and a good time with fellow viper owners (thanks for the party Mike!), and made it back safely (me and the car!).
