The Viper Owner's Association held its first National event in Detroit and tied it in with the
20 year Homecoming with Dodge/SRT. 500 people from all over the Viper Nation converged
on Detroit to take part in all the fun. The So Cal guys all flew in and headed to the host hotel on Thursday.
he Centerpoint Marriott was awesome and really went out of their way to support this event.
Vipers were given priority parking and were looking great
.
Once we were checked in, we headed over to Vinsetta Garage. This was an actual car garage for
many years till it was converted to a restaurant. It was a really cool place.
Mark Trostle met us there and brought his Hellcat Challenger for us to check out.
707 hp supercharged V-8 is absolutely awesome and sounded even better.
the new interior is out of this world
Eddie was loving it
Lori is ready to put her order in
Eddie, Glenn, Mark, Gary, Nino. Stephanie and Eddie
Ethan and Gavin were having fun making music
Nino, Mark, Eddie and Eddie
It was really nice of Mark, Debbie and the boys to join us for dinner at Vinsetta's. We had a great
time catching up and look forward to seeing them again
Getting my Viper book signed
Friday morning found the parking lot filled with an awesome collection of Vipers
The best part of the parking lot is that everyone seems to migrate to it
It was great seeing John and Nikki first thing in the morning
A beautiful Gen V in the lobby
Then the V-10's started up and made their way out of the lot and headed to Connor for the
open house.
We arrived at the Conner Ave Assembly Plant where the Viper is built
The bare frame
The bare frames heads down the line
It was testosterone heaven for us to be here where our Viper's are born
V-10 Power !!!!! Doesn't get any better than this.
Somehow, I don't think this is a "Finished Engine"
Huge transmissions waiting to mate up to their respective frames
This gentleman puts the motor/trans into the frame
Lot's of calipers
The frame now has the engine, dash and suspension
This is where they do a rolling dyno test of the drive train
Peter
Michael
Michael, Eddie, Scott, Peter and John
Toddy, Sonja and Lori
Frame getting ready for the body panels
Scott, Jim and Judy
Once we got to the end of the line, they had a great display of very notable Vipers
This is the one that started it all !
Gary tearing it up on the auto-x
Angie, May and Lori
It was so cool to see all the Vipers parked out front of CAAP
Janni
Lunchtime
May and Todd
John and Nikki
So Cal at Conner
Beth and I
Paul with the # 1 Carbon Anodize
Tateshi, Lori, Mika and John
Maurice and I
Maurice and Gary
Maurice had a bird's eye view as we all assembled in front of the Walter P. Chrysler Museum
To see all the Vipers lined up in the lot was amazing
The So Cal guys grabbed a spot on the steps for the group photo
The Hu brothers
Herb and Steve
My buddies, Robert and Jason
Almost ready for the group shot
Fiona, Kim and Eric
I was gonna stitch the previous 4 pictures together.....but can't remember how to do it : (
Dick, me and Herb
A quick picture with Steve
Angie and Maurice
Graham and I
Debbie, Glen and Janis
Once the photos were done outside, we went in to check out the museum. They have such a great
collection of history here.
Eddie, Eddie, Ruth, Nino and Stephen
The Viper Cafe was REALLY cool to check out. Tons of really neat Viper memorabilia on display
Terry with the Viper Mural
Sharon and Mike from AZ
Graham greeted everyone attending the party and introduced all the key SRT people that were
there with us that night.
Karen and Roy
Chow time
Eddie and Graham
Joanne, Barry, Jim, Kim, Rich and Becky from AZ
Michael getting Herb's autograph
Richard, Tony, Marv, Wendy, Sue, Terry, Connie and Brad
Connie and Brad
Taking a picture with Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis
A picture with Russ Ruediselli
On Saturday morning we got up and had a nice buffet breakfast before heading to Prefix
Prefix is responsible for painting all the Vipers now
Kurt and the signature hood
Thomas from Switzerland with Lori
Kim Zeile CEO and founder of Prefix Corp.
Unveiling of the Medussa
Scott eating junk !!!!
Kim congratulating Jim after Jim won the special "door prize"
Literally ! This is one heck of a cool collector piece.
The tour of the process was really informative and it was neat to see how much work went into
all the preparation of the body panels
Miss Nikki masking and protecting the underside of the carbon fiber hoods from overspray.
Every panel gets a light sanding to get rid of any imperfections
Then they are wiped down and cleaned of every last dust particle
Once the prep work is done, an entire car is loaded into the spray booth to get it's color
Striped cars run through a special process. They actually paint the stripe color first, then
mask it off and then it goes in for the final body color. This is opposite of how the stripes used to be done.
The cars were painted the car color and the stripes were added on top of the base color, leaving a
very thick paint edge.
This hood will have white stripes. As you can see, the center has been sprayed with the white.
A stripe jig is used to trace out the stripe edges in pencil
Matt lays down the tape by hand following the guide lines from the stripe jig.
Paul was a great guide and has been involved with the Viper paint for a great number of years
as a Chrysler employee. Now he works for Prefix making sure that every paint job is flawless.
Absolutely gorgeous
Painted body panels ready to go
Chris and Beth
Chris' Copperhead looking pretty good considering all the hard driving it has had
We were suppose to follow the Viper caravan to Frankenmuth which is a little Bavarian town about an
hour from Prefix. By the time all the guys came out of Prefix, we were left far behind in a bunch of
rental cars and the hour drive sounded less and less inviting. Plus we were getting hungry. So we set
our path to find lunch and ended up at Meadowbrook Hall.
This 100 room "castle" took 3 years to build and cost over 4 million dollars in 1929.
Matilda Dodge was left with a VERY substantial bank account when her first husband John Dodge
passed away. John Dodge was one of the founding brothers of the Dodge Brothers Motor Cars.
Matilda married Alfred Wilson and together they built this 88,000 sq/ft home
We were the only ones there and got some great photos out front.
The bridge leading into their front yard
You can't even see the end of their driveway. Only downside is the LOOOONG walk to the mailbox at the curb.
Eddie, Michael, Steve, Scott, Michael, Gary and Eddie
No pictures were allowed to be taken inside the home.
The incredible brick work on the chimneys
The boys at the front door
See, I told you the pictures were not allowed
We set out to get lunch and got sidetracked by the huge Meadow Brook Hall. Luckily, just up the street
was John Dodge's original farm house. So we knocked on the door and had lunch up on the hill.
From there we made a stop at Tony Venzano's shop.
Tony has made a living doing custom interiors for the Viper. This is top notch, show winning interiors
It was really cool to see all the different designs and interiors he has done
The Vipers were already back from Frankenmuth
We had to get cleaned up and loaded onto busses to go to the river boat dinner cruise
Along the way, we saw some of the Detroit icons.....like the GM building,
The Monument to Joe Louis, also known as "The Fist"
The riverwalk
Caesar's in Canada
We all boarded the Detroit Princess
Doris and Lori
Jim, Judy, Stephanie, Glenn and Eddie
Lance, Cuz Mike, Scott and Gary
Peter, Brent and Kurt
Canadian Flag
Nino, Ruth and Eddie enjoying the views
American Flag
Gary and Lori
Doris and Maurice
Maurice with the Hu Bros
The sunset was breathtaking from the top deck of the Detroit Princess
The Arizona circle
Mikey and Ben
Nino and Ruth tearing up the dance floor
Brent, Peter and Scott were trying to learn Nino's dance moves
A night cap toasting a really fun day in Detroit
Cuz Mike, Tateshi, Hidekazu, Mika, John, lance and Lori
Sunday morning started off with nothing but laughs. Someone decided to play a trick on me
and I seemingly left the hotel with only one shoe.
My buddy Eddie got me good as he turned up with my missing shoe ! Too much fun with these guys
We had a bunch of people tell us that we should visit the Henry Ford Museum while we were in Detroit.
So a whole bunch of us did just that.
This huge 12 acre museum is filled with Henry Ford's collection of American History
We set out on a really cool adventure back in time and history
Pictured is Henry and Clara Ford with their son Edsel
It was originally named the Edison Institute to honor Thomas Edison, Thomas was there
for the dedication and signed this concrete block on September 27th, 1929
Karen and Roy
Inside the coal engine
The original Mustang concept car
Tom Beatty's land speed record car. Jim was a neighbor and friend with Tom.
John, Kim and Rich
Sharon and Mike
This was really cool to see. This is the chair from the Ford Theater that President Lincoln was shot in.
The bus that Rosa Parks rode and ignited the Civil Rights movement
They even had the old Mold-A-Rama wax machines that we use to see as kids
With our wax souvenirs in hand, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the big farewell dinner
It was a long massive line of people waiting to get their "lucky ticket" for the awesome door prize
Even under pressure, Janni was wearing her typical beautiful smile
Cheers Lloyde !
It was really nice to meet Christopher and Jennifer from the Carolinas
The So Cal Club in red !
Nikki was all smiles too
Could this be the winning ticket???
Stretch was parked in front of the door waiting to get a good table inside the banquet room
Some of the silent auction items
Maurice amidst all the very excited VOA members !!
Mikey was trying to sweet talk Kadidja out of more drink tickets !
It was a full house and lots of electricity in the air.
Stephanie and Glenn
Judy and Jim
Nino and Ruth
Steven and Michael
Kurt and Stephanie
Peter and Scott
Ben, Mikey and Cuz Mike
The Eddies
There were lots of really cool auction items
The Winkles holding the Viper's 1st and 2nd place trophies from the World Challenge race in Toronto
Really nice centerpieces that were given away
After a great meal, it was time for a very lucky member to go home with a brand new Viper
We watched on a live feed as Randall in Ohio mixed all the tickets up in the barrel
Everyone was on pins and needles.....and the LUCKY WINNER is..................
Tony Perugini from Connecticut !!! Congratulations Tony !! It was really cool to see how everyone in the
room was truly happy and excited for him.
As the evening drew to a close and the first National Viper Event came to a very successful end,
we got a surprise visit from Ralph.
Congrats again Tony and Thank you Maurice, Alex, Brad, Janni, Randall and all the other volunteers
that put in so much time and effort into this event for the members !
A very special Thank You to SRT and Dodge for inviting the Viper family to the 20 year Homecoming !
We all had a great time.