November / December 1998

Dan's Say - November/December '98- by Dan Adovasio

So much has happened over the last few months that it is hard to decide just where to begin my column this quarter. Our C5 Registry Membership is now over 1400. How have we attained the level of a major Corvette group in this country? It is because of the enthusiasm of our membership! We are known from the bricks of the NCM to the halls of GM! Our members are everywhere!

Opening up the November '98 issue of Vette Magazine, you will see our members all over the place. There is a great article on Bob Baker [C5R# W0172] our very own Autocross Ace. Check him out showing off his C5 trailer in which he takes all of his equipment to racetracks on weekends. In the next month’s issue (December 98), Sandee Enriquez [C5R# V0054] not only graces their cover but inside there is a great article about her and her RK Sports Conversion Package. Next I see in the Fall '98 issue of Corvette Quarterly an article on Andy and Bethany Roderick [C5R# W0369] in their fabulous garage. It houses their expansive Corvette collection which includes a 1998 Pace Car and a '98 C5 Red Convertible and a little bird just told me that a 1999 is on order for them to pick up at the Museum in December! I haven’t received my newest copy of Corvette Fever yet … who knows which members will be in there? We are everywhere; I l i k e I t l i k e t h a t !

I know many of our C5 Registry Members attend the Route 66 Corvette Show. The 1999 event will have a new twist. There will be a special Corvette Driving School Package. Advance reservations to this school are being offered to C5 Members who wish to hone their driving skills. By signing up early, you will have the opportunity to participate with other C5 Registry Members. The registration form will be in the Winter '98 Newsletter. Please remember to sign up early as space is limited.

The past ten weeks have been a whirlwind! We have reached the finish line of three very successful C5 Registry Events - Corvettes of Carlisle, the National Corvette Museum Labor Day Party and the 19^th Eckler's Annual Reunion in Titusville, Florida. About 200 members had a great time at both Carlisle and the NCM. The hit of each seemed to take place at the Membership dinner. The food was fantastic at Carlisle, but at the NCM it was definitely not the dinner; it was the spectacular story Jake Drennon told after the dinner about he and I running out of gas on our way to the NCM event in 1997! If you haven’t heard it yet, make it a point to have Jake tell you.

We had a number of GM Corvette people at our NCM dinner including John Cafaro, Dave Hill and Jim Campbell, the new Corvette Brand Manger. We also had a host of Corvette engineers highlighted by our C5 Net HUD Guru Steven Stringfellow. The word from the GM group was "let’s do it again!" They really enjoyed the face to face exchange with their customers.

The third of these three C5 Registry Dash Plaque Events was the Eckler’s Reunion where we were this year's featured group and had a whopping 150 C5s there! We also attempted our First Annual C5 Registry Family Bar-B-Que; due to our close proximity to Eckler’s we chose this time to get our feet wet with something I have dreamed of since the inception of the C5 Registry. Thanks to member Gene Bjerning [C5R# V0066] who treated us to a kick-off cocktail reception at the Days Inn, we had a great place to meet to start the weekend's festivities. From there we all caravaned over to Port Canaveral (by Kennedy Space Center) for the arrival of the Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour and to join their party… we TOOK OVER the party! I am sure the TV cameras were rolling. Many in the crowd remarked that although they knew this was a Hot Rod Show it looked more like a Corvette Show with all the C5s there! Once again by caravan we were off to the C5 Registry Family Bar-B-Que. There was a DJ, entertainment, and jokes by Jake (oh that's entertainment!) at a nearby park between Port Canaveral and our home. But wait, the evening didn't end there! It was off again by caravan to our home on the Indian River for dessert and more partying!

Now you see why I used the term whirlwind to describe these recent weeks!

In the middle of the storm (mid September), Jake and I had a quick trip to meet with the Corvette Brand Team in Detroit. Dan Douglas [C5R# V0003] our very first member (Jake and I are numbers one and two) accompanied us for our presentation about the Official C5 Registry. Dan did his usual great job and put together a fabulous slide presentation about the Registry and what we had accomplished over the past year. I have never had an opportunity to work with Dan on a professional basis. I was impressed and so was the GM Brand Team in attendance. He blew their socks off with his Power Point Presentation! (I wish I could make a lap top talk like he does!) We were trying to build a case for why GM should support us with technical knowledge and people at our events. We are exploring ways where we can work together on projects benefiting both the C5 Registry and General Motors. Those of you on the C5 Net are seeing some of the results of that meeting, as we begin to do members' surveys for GM as to what options customers want in future Corvettes. We are also setting up a path that we can use for members that experience SEVERE unresolved problems with their C5s. It will be in the form of a contact within upper management of Corvette. Someone to cut through the red tape and get the problem resolved for our members. It may take a while to get this working and I will have to act as the gatekeeper, but if it will help our members who have real problems, I am all for it.

Finally, Jake and I have just returned from the SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. Chevrolet sponsored a breakfast there on Wednesday November 4^th and introduced their new C5-R Corvette Racecar, which will compete in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona (For tickets, call 904-253-RACE) and the 12 Hours of Sebring (March 20,1999) and possibly even Le Mans 2000! It will be great for Corvette (especially a C5) to get back into endurance racing with a competitive effort. This will be the first time Chevy puts out a Factory Racing Team. The other big news from SEMA was that a C5 would pace the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona with a great looking New Pace Car. Possibly with enough encouragement from us, they may even put that Pace Car into production… The C5 Registry wants to support the Corvette Racing effort in a very big way. We will have a C5 Corral in the infield during Daytona in which all C5s may park. My dream is to have 500 C5 Registry Members there to show our support. We will have more regarding this event in the months ahead, but save the weekend of January 30, 1999, and plan to attend this Historic and Dash Plaque Event.

Now is the time for us to give back to our cross-flag marquee all the smiles and excitement it has brought us this past year. Be at the 24 Hours at Daytona! Cheer the C5 on to Victory!

I challenge ALL of you to be there with me… in the winners' circle… as Corvette returns to its rightful place in the world of Sports Car Racing.

The Legend Lives and Now It Dominates!

C5Ya!……DAN
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