VOI 8 Report card

BigCarrot

Enthusiast
Joined
Apr 3, 2002
Posts
2,940
Reaction score
0
Location
Dallas, TX
I think I'd have to rate everything a five. The food was great at the hotel, and mediocre at the track, so maybe that was a four.
 

Mopar Steve

Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 27, 2000
Posts
2,871
Reaction score
0
Location
Newark DE
Hotel 5
food 4 (the last dinner brought up the average)
Venue 5
Rally (definitely not Nashville)
track 5

Suggestions, sure don't wait so long for the next one.
 

Jerry Dobson

Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 25, 2001
Posts
826
Reaction score
0
Location
Lenexa, Kansas
It was all fantastic.

The only MAJOR failure was parking. Making Viper owners park outside is very uncool. I was number 23 in the world to register. Having to park outside...flat out pissed me off. They gave half our parking to the MIDAS Jewlery convention. They were not security vans or anything special. Just daily drivers. I don't know what the VCA could have done to get our parking back.

Jerry Dobson
 

RX VIPER

Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 15, 2002
Posts
2,740
Reaction score
0
Location
Chesterfield, MO
Hotel 5

Food 4 (first night 3, second 5) what was that green stuff- pond ****?

Venue 5

Rally 3

Track 5

I didn't meet as many of you that post on this board as I thought I would. It was very cool meeting Chuck the Viper Wizzard and Sean Roe. There were many who came to the 'web site social' and not half of them knew what the hell I was talking about when I mentioned viperclub.org. I think they just saw some owners in the bar and came in. Overall it was great, but had more fun at previous VOI's; especially on the road rally. See you at #9.
 

BadVenm

Enthusiast
Joined
Apr 2, 2003
Posts
594
Reaction score
0
Location
Leawood, Kansas
Well what did you think??

1 to 5 scale

Hotel - 4.5

Food - 3.5 - the last dinner was good. Hotel in general, overpriced so-so food

Venue - 3.5 - Cool Hotel. No real cool driving areas around it

Rally - N/A - Didn't go, heard there would be gravel and road construction

Track - 5 - way cool!

Suggestions? - Need an area more like Sturgis S.D. that has many Rally/Driving opportunities in every direction. More seat time in the cars on the track and off the track.

Like Jerry said, I felt the parking issue was a real drag. I feel that the Hotel chose to help MIDAS as a business decision. They most likely felt that they might be able to get MIDAS to come back, as where the VCA is typically a traveling show and is not likley to come back to the same site twice.

I also found the Hotel employees not up front about what was going on with parking. Once they told me the garage was full, when I entered to U-turn there were at least 30 to 40 empty spots.

When I questioned why they cut us from 600 to 470, then from 470 to 300, the Parking Garage Suip had the gall to tell me she didn't know, it was the VCA telling the hotel to cut our parking back. Now, maybe Dodge decided not to pay for a full garage, who knows.

I assume it's the first thought, the Gaylord looked at MIDAS as a repeat customer and the VCA as a one time deal.

A part of our group did not get the rooms they signed up for. We signed up for a king bed, and when we checked in we were told all king beds were sold out. We stayed one night in a double bed room, and them demanded a king room and got one.
 

Blade Runner

Enthusiast
Joined
Aug 24, 2003
Posts
333
Reaction score
0
Location
High Ridge, Missouri
I think you are all being to kind on the food grade. One half way decent meal doesn't make up for the 7/11 food the rest of the week.
Hotel-4.5
Food-2
Venue-4
Rally-2
Track-5
This was my first VOI and I enjoyed the drive down and back as a group. The parade was cool. I think they could have done better with the vendor shopping, the schedule cut short time to shop.
 

Frank 03SRT

Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 2, 2000
Posts
1,225
Reaction score
0
Location
Somewhere in Kansas
Hotel-3 (good parking would have made it a 4. Nashville was a 5)
Food-3 (Nashville was a 5)
Venue-4
Rally-didn't go but the many people I talked to that went said it was a waste.
Track-5
 

BS99GTS

Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 7, 2000
Posts
52
Reaction score
0
Location
Germantown, TN
Overall had a fantastic time !!!!! IMHO I would rate it overall a 5 for fun and good times !!

Hotel - 5+ (we had some issues/problems with our room when we checked in but they finally upgraded us to huge suite)
Food - 4 (except for Thursday night at the hotel that was a 1 and food at the track mostly was a 2)
Venue - 5
Rally - 2-....I didn't like the roads at all (we had been to the Nashville VOI and the Natchez Trace Parkway Road Rally would be hard to beat, maybe I'm a little partial to Tennessee roads though, lol)
Track - 5+....all I can say is that on Sunday especially I had a blast there and on the AutoX too !!!! (Except for the wear on my rear tires :) , wow I really did them in !)

Really looking forward to VOI9 !!!
 

Detlef

Enthusiast
Joined
Apr 24, 2003
Posts
1,302
Reaction score
0
Location
Northern Colorado
I don't know how Friday was but the Saturday rally was stop and go several times, which really overshadowed the few fast jolts.

Parade staging was fun, but the parade itself was disappointing. No that many people lining the streets and some pickup jumped in ahead of us, thus making taking pictures impossible without jumping out of the car, taking the picture and then running back ti catch up.

Track was 5++, especially on Sunday with the all you can drive menu on the track. I got there early and it was one 3 lap session after another. Later I jumped in with a buddy and took some in car video. I guess I look like a Skip Barber instructor.

Lunch time racing was great to watch. Those pros really book compared to us neophytes. I only got to 140 on the oval banks, while these guys topped 180 in theor comp coupes.

Drifting was kind of cool, althought having to change tires after 6 laps must **** for the crew.

It was also great to have Bobby Archer on site as one of my roller rockers worked it's way loose and ticked loudly. Joe, the tech spent less than an hour retightening all the bolts on a hot engine which allowed me a safe drive back home and a quick education on how to service these T&Ds.

My grade on the Food and Hotel is 2.5 at the track and 4 at the hotel. The facilities were very nice but I wasn't at Nashville for comparison.

The 15 hour drive back was loooooooooooooong, but it's always fun riding with a pack of Vipers.
 

Bill Pemberton Woodhouse

VCA Member
Supporting Vendor
Joined
Jul 25, 2000
Posts
5,212
Reaction score
6
Location
Blair,Nebraska,USA
Hanging out in the Hotel Bar after the events talking to Viperholics and just socializing = 6+ !!!

Great time meeting so many of you , and Viper owners are in a class by themselves. Overall, I had a wonderful time and the best comment so far was, "Dodge why do we have to wait so long to do this again."
 

Woody

Enthusiast
Joined
Jun 26, 2004
Posts
319
Reaction score
0
Location
Kentucky
This was my first VOI and I had a blast. :D I missed Sunday :( , due to a prior court appointment on Monday AM. I can guarantee I will plan accordingly next time and not miss Sunday. Overall I would have to say 5+ on everything. :2tu:
 

ZESTY

Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 19, 2000
Posts
245
Reaction score
0
Location
Royal Oak, MI, USA
Re: VOI 8 Report card

I had a blast. I really do not care about rating each part of the event. At every part of the weekend my wife and I found a BLAST. WE will be at VOI20.
 

Jcoopacr2000

Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 1, 2004
Posts
106
Reaction score
0
Location
Sylva, N C
Re: VOI 8 Report card

I would agree with Bruce Siegal on the ratings.Overall great event though. Nice having Jerry Nadeau as one of my Skip Barber instructors. Way cool.
 

ViperJohn

Enthusiast
Joined
May 29, 2003
Posts
3,615
Reaction score
2
Location
Maryland
Re: VOI 8 Report card

Hotel- 4

Parking situation stunk, although I got inside parking everynight. Aside from the Texan Station restaurant, food elsewhere was expensive. I think that $8.00 for a Pannini the size of an English Muffin is ridiculous, atleast give me a few potato chips or something. Another member spent $50.00 for breakfast at the Rainwalk restaurant (2 people)

Food- 3.5

The final banquet and the Sunday brunch were good. The track food was pretty bad. (I never thought you could screw up burgers and hot dogs!)

Venue- 4

The scheduling of events was not well thought out. You were always making compromises. A few examples.....if you went to the track on time for the morning picture, you did not have time for breakfast. The schedule of events stated the shuttle for Billy Bob's would run from 6-10 PM Continuously. I had to rerun my Auto-X time, which meant I had to go back to the auto-x after 5 PM. By the time I did that, drove back and got showered, I had missed the last shuttle which was at 8 PM. About 15 to 20 people were outside waiting for the shuttle that never came.

Rally- 4

The scenic road rally started out fine, however, the third stop, Texas Motorsports, was pointless. They would not let us go on the track, you had to sign a legal waiver just to park there and there was some guy who worked for that complex being a real ****, making everyone turn around on the driveway instead of letting everyone turn around in the parking lot. Apparently, the day before they let Vipers out on the track, but on Saturday the track was full of GTI's, Miata's and the occasional Mustang/Corvette.

I left for the Road Rally on time, drove at a reasonably brisk pace. ;) Yet, I still didn't make it back in time for the Round table discussion.

Track- 4.5

Great time, great experience. The ride and drive was really un-organized, but who care's about that. The track and auto-cross were great.

The only complaint I have is that track time was somewhat inconsistent. Some instructors would let you go into 5th, others would not, sometimes you would go out for 4 laps, other times 2. One instructor had me stay inside of the white square (marker) on the banking, another said stradle it and others said "whatever you want"

Suggestions

A location with a cooler climate.

Overall

The coolest moment was the unvailing of the GTS concept. The fact that Dodge invests time and money into holding such an event is awesome! Aside from my complaints, I will be there when they do it again.
 

Qualitywires.com

Supporting Vendor
Supporting Vendor
Joined
Oct 18, 2000
Posts
7,050
Reaction score
0
Location
Louisville, KY
Well what did you think??

1 to 5 scale

Hotel

Food

Venue

Rally

Track

suggestions?

what about ab not making it there this time around? Pete remember I had two lobsters at VOI.7...I think people thought the lobsters were for decoration on the buffet table...but I snatched it and it was real! Thank God... :D Did I keep you entertained or what?..Maybe I annoyed you...I caught 1Tiny1...I mean 1Tony1 running around the hotel room in his underwear...that was scary...
 
Top