Carlisle 2015 Report

[Kevin]

My carlise report:
Left my place mid-morning thursday for the drive up. Car ran great, passed 5 other vettes and none of them wanted to keep up the INSANE! pace of a 73mph I was keeping, including a new z07. Made one stop for fuel just before carlise like I always do and rolled into the turnpike exit where I met up with two other zr-1's. Not sure where they went after that but I didn't see them again. Arrived at the field, parked the car and there was a decent showing of 10 or so cars which isn't bad for a day the show hasn't even started yet. Talked with Marc Horner and helped pull the cover off the Pirate racing car and gave that a good twice over. What a car. For those of you who don't know this is the first time that the N.C.M has allowed anyone other then themselves to take a car to a show. Very special. Stayed a few hours and went back to the hotel.

Friday was early, around 8, and I sat in traffic for about 30 minutes to go the few miles from the exit to the show field and by the time I got there around 9 and our parking area was fairly full! I'm not sure of what our count was that day but I want to say around 60 cars. Not including the ones we had displayed. Food was pulled pork made with figs and ground ghost pepper and WOW was that good! That's worth the cost of admission right there. spent the day catching up with old friends and new ones while doing some wandering the vendor area. Ended up picking up a few models for what I considered a good price and some rear hatch weatherstripping. Left a bit to early and sat in traffic for nearly 45 minutes to get back to the interstate.

Saturday I got up even earlier and didn't have any issues with traffic or parking, which I like because I hate sitting in traffic in the zr-1. For those who weren't there, we had an entire row. both sides, from one end to the other! By the time I got there most of the side near the tent was already full and after parking I helped shoo interlopers away from our parking on the far side. Most were happy to move but one guy in a c6 was none to happy when I told him it was reserved parking. If there's one change I'd make next year, more signs. Lots of them, every where. Lunch was more amazing pulled pork and dinner was burgers and some of the registry went to dinner off site while I high tailed it back to the hotel, 3 days of heat will do that to you. This weekend wasn't without it's issues. One car had a headgasket go and was towed home, a 5 hour round trip, by our president and another board member. A second car had an alternator that decided it had enough and went for early retirement. Two of our wazoo brethren took quick work of that. (Hope you guys don't mind but I hope to be seeing you next year. I'll bring cigars and dinner is on me.) as a request for future years, if there is work being done, give the guys doing it some elbow room and if you have an umbrella be mindful of the width of said object.

But before we left we had our silent auction come to an end. Among the other great prizes, vette2vette No flex system, FIC injectors, Mark Haibeck donated 2 chips, a registry headlinner and banner and Adams polishes kicked in a 250$ gift card. All great stuff. At the end of the day we took second biggest club, I'm hearing that our display cars weren't counted and if that's the case, that sucks. Though to take the sting out of not winning we had our picture taken with Ken Lingenfelter. Ken is the cousin of John and now owns LPE and one fine *** selection of cars.

Sunday is a fairly dead day. There were probably 15 of us hanging around, talking and not really wanting to leave each other. One of the members received a call that another was looking for a new zr-1 and it just so happens that there was a 94 black rose car for sale! This is coming from my wife "There's nothing funnier then a group of 10 of you descending on that poor car and the owner and pick it apart." I almost felt bad for that owner, almost. After that I went back to the tent and saw Mark loading the priate car up and went over to spend a little more quality time with it. Sticking my head in the windows and taking some pictures that way, looking under it, just really getting to see her for the first and only time. It was moving to see the car and remember talking with JVD and Bill Cooper about their time in the car. We got her all buttoned up and tucked away and turned our attention to burgers for lunch. There was still a strong wazoo contingent there when I left around 1 for the 3hour30 minute drive home. When I stopped for gas I calculated I had done 25.6mpg, my 180hp 2015 mazda 6 is sitting at 30.1 right now. I'm sad we have to wait another year to do this.

Pictures to come soon