Messages

Dan & Cathy - thanks again for all the hard work in pulling another great event together.

Michael & Virginia - thank you for having us all out. Marcela and I had a blast on the track.

Hey MoparMan, we're staying about 5 mi. from your hotel (a little closer in to the meeting place), and can't make it there till after 9PM Friday.  How about hooking up at the Starbucks right near the car show meet area about 730AM on Saturday if you want to grab coffee.  I see one on the map; otherwise we don't know anything about the area as we're pretty new to this area.  Our cell number is 760-842-3103. - Paul & Pam

As I recall, there's a bagel place with coffee in the same parking lot as the car show but I'm going by memory since I haven't lived in La Canada since '99. Anyway, sounds good - see you at 7:30 tomorrow. We'll be the only ones with Nevada plates or you can get me at 702-524-1917.

Ron & Nora:  We're from your area (Vista) but have decided since it's a good 2 hrs just to "get started" on this run, we're going to leave the night before & get a motel and kick back.  If you want to drive with us the evening before, let us know!  Paul & Pam  <m

We're doing the same - except we're driving in from Vegas. What motel are you staying at? We'll be at the Residence Inn in Arcadia.

Looks like Cathy and I may have to be in SLC on Thursday AM for a meeting, so will go out a day earlier.

Will let you know when I know for sure.

Dan

Dan,

If you guys head up a day early and are stopping Vegas and you want to meet up for dinner that night, let me know.

Add Matt and Marcela to the list

Any idea of the "meeting up" time in the morning for this event?

I haven't raced at Mopars At The Strip in a couple of years, but be aware that the lines to get in when the gates open on Thursday can be pretty long. You might be better off going over a couple of hours after the gates open on Thursday (tech will be open into the evening) or just go Friday morning and get through tech then.

Dan,

We're thinking about bringing both Vipers. Do you have a feel for how the pricing's going to be set up for this VOI?

Woohoo Mike and Cheryl are in >r.  Need a commitment from Banzai Ben, hint, hint.

Dan trailering would be more comfortable, but it won't be faster  >v. Besides we're going to make a stop in Vegas so Lance, Wingman, Gunner and I can make some money at the tables.  Vegas to SLC was a bit under/over  400 miles, which according to Mapquest should take about 6 hours, but that sounds like a bet to me  >m

Vegas to SLC doesn't take 6 hours.

Bring your radar detector...

If you guys are serious about spending a night or two here in Vegas I can have my wife see if she can set up a group rate at the Palms (she's an employee there)...no proimises on the rates as it'll depend on what else is going on in town. Keep it in mind and if this gets rolling the offer stands...

We just registered this morning and booked a room in Palms Springs. We're driving from Vegas to Palms Springs on Friday night and will meet you guys at the tram on Saturday.

Matt & Marcela

Wow Ken! Definitely lucky it didn't happen in Vegas or along the way.  Hope you get the Viper back on the road quickly, let's hope it's just being tempermental due to the stop and go traffic.  My Viper does a jerking motion whenever I'm in traffic, I feel that it's going to stall and then I remind myself that Vipers simply don't like to go slow. I know that you're feeling quite down, but you can only go up now  >v

It was great seeing you and Lena again, she'll have to come out to the next NARRA event and drive, since you'll be in the blue group, don't try and pull a "Lance" and take up permanent residency in GREEN <F

Art, did you manage to head out of town early enough to miss the sort of traffic Ken described?

Ken, the Sunday traffic from Vegas to LA has been like that for years. Before we moved to Vegas (10 years ago) we used to drive up Thursday night or Friday morning, spend the weekend and when Sunday hit we'd just get up eat and hit the road by 9. That way we missed most of the traffic and still got back to La Canada in well under 4 hours.

Guys, even though I'm new to the group I thought I'd chime in and confirm a couple of questions I saw asked earlier in the thread regarding the drag racing at Mopars at the Strip. I've been to every show they've put on and dragged at all but 2 of them - this will be the third time I miss the drag event. Anyway, here's my input:

1) I'm pretty sure the track elevation is 2090'. The weather can change wildly making the effective altitude anywhere from 1700' up to 5200'.
2) They always use a sportsman tree for the Viper class (3 sequential yellows followed by the green).
3) LVMS is a very good track. The folks who run MATS (Phil and Jill Painter) pay to have the track prepped for 7 second cars, therefore it will probably be one of the better prepped tracks you'll drag.
4) You'll run as a group. Frequently they run behind schedule due to the number of guys running and the number of times they break causing a track cleanup.
5) Most reasonably stock guys in the NV region were running from 12.7 to 12.8 on up. Some as high as the 14's, but no one's naming names. Last year, the air wasn't as good as usual and my trap times were down a few MPH. ET's were off about 0.4 sec. At MATS, I've run a best of 12.18 @ 117 in my GTS on Pilot Sports with a 1.89 60' time. As a comparison, last year I ran a best of 12.30 @ 113 MPH in my '06 SRT-10 coupe on run-flats and my wife ran a 12.90 @ 112 in my GTS on the first day of the event.

Anyway, if you've got any questions that I might be able to answer as a Las Vegas local just let me know.

See you guys in a couple of weeks.

Matt