On the road to FFO in Long Island

[markpink]

I and my son are about to get in the car and start the trek to Long Island. Going to Drive 3 hours to near Bridgeport CT tonight and then take the Ferry to Long Island tomorrow morning. We are driving my 1977 Fiat spider to the convention.

I see will some of you there.


mark

[supplyguy]

Whew. Was worried I would be there alone. I leave tomorrow from Virginia and will overnight in Philly, arriving Friday in time for drinks.

My car went back to the paint shop Monday for touch up and to address some areas me and the painter miscommunicated on. I was assured it would be ready tonight. Imagine my surprise to arrive at the painter and it is still all masked up and in the paint booth. It will be unmasked tomorrow morning and I'm on my way.

Looking forward to seeing you all - Chuck.

[leeputmanjr]

It was great to meet you! Your Spider looked Fantastic, glad your trip was (relatively) uneventful!

[baltobernie]

Congratulations, Chuck on placing 2nd Best in Class award. What were your impressions of the event?

[supplyguy]

Thanks, Bernie. Winning second place was huge for me, after bringing such a sow to last year's event - my first. I am not sure what to do next. I will never win first, with Dasha's car (sorry for butchering her name) light year's ahead of mine. I guess I just enjoy the hell out of driving it now, and upgrade what I want to (or what breaks).

Impressions of the event? Hard to say.....not sure if it was different or I am different, and this was only my second event. I also spent more time prepping the car this year (washed the damn thing at 1 am!) and hanging with it at the show, and last year I spent far more time drinking the free Yuenglings (no free beer this year - need I say more?), meeting folks, and looking at others' cars. I got to the event about 8 pm Friday night (horrible traffic and stuck brake caliper thwarted plans to get there for cocktail hour) and there were formal dinner speeches happening. I skipped "The Italian Job" to shop for supplies, find food, and clean the car. Met Walter and Denise in the parking lot later and was pleased to meet some friendly faces. Really nice people. Then I split to finish my 1971 Greatest Hits playlist I had playing during the show (believe few at the show noticed or cared) and a neat DVD of 1971 pop culture, political, and world events I had rolling on a DVD (impossible to see in the sun, so I sheepishly hid the DVD player quickly during the show) - and got to bed at 2 am. Saturday departure was uneventful - we got out in an orderly way and had a nice 45 minutes drive through the countryside to the Concorso site. Parked in a field, and there I sat and toasted for almost four hours. Lunch was served with a choice of local or Italian water.....could have used some more choices. I never saw the Old Westbury mansion and saw no amenities (toilets, concessions) but needed none - the sun baked all the moisture out of me. Now seeing some photos on Facebook of renegades who drove up to the mansion anyway for photo op and I am jealous. Our official photo upon entering the field was nothing scenic, but then last year's was pretty basic too and I liked it. We rallied for the panoramic photo, finished voting, and folks started to vanish - the sun took it's toll I think. I never wandered the field because I thought I needed to hang with "Mia "Sole", and I regret that. I did enjoy spending time with my early Spider neighbors, though, especially Dan and his wife. Especially appreciative to Dave, an electrical engineer who toiled for an hour with me in the sun to get all my tail and brake lights working for the ride home. That, to me, was the essence of the event. Bought him as many Coronas as I could at dinner. FWIW - the stats I saw said 156 cars were going to be on the showfield, 50 of which were new 500's. Back to the hotel for celebratory beers and the dinner. I skipped last year's dinner to nurse my gas-leaking car home, so I have little perspective on how they comparer. Maybe I was anxious because I thought my car had a shot at winning something. All I know is the speaking went on forever, and the material that was interesting got buried in the content that was not. We rushed through the awards, it seemed to me, and spent a lot of time pandering to our corporate sponsor (I guess that's necessary if they are defraying the costs). Next morning was breakfast, the raffle, the silent auction, and more speakers. Was absolutely worn out by watching the administration needed to run a raffle, and so was the poor guy running it.

Summary? My hat is off to those who organize these events because I know it is an unbelievable amount of work to orchestrate all this. The event was a good time all in all and I'm glad I went. There is a crowd who will come to every event and find it the best thing ever, because they want/need it to be the best thing ever. That said, some our colleagues did not come because A) Long Island was too far away in July (every event is too far for someone, I get it), and B) the event has been described as boilerplate. I have only been to two, but I think there's some legitimacy to the latter. Right now I can't imagine putt putting all the way to Chicago to watch the Italian Job, park in a field, attend two rubber chicken dinners, hang with a handful of Fiat enthusiasts that I know and like a lot, and hope I make it home without my car blowing up. I would need massive free Yuenglings to persuade me right now. (Please keep in mind this is one participant's perspective, one who was consumed with last minute prepping and hanging with his car. Maybe there were keg parties and orgies and an Eagles concert out back that I missed!) I think we need to think hard about adding variety (country drives aren't it after driving 300 miles to get there), such as multiple/concurrent work shops, tech sessions, small group meet and greets, car swap (drive each other's cars a couple of miles for comparison?), tag team wrestling between reps from IAP, Auto Ricambi, Midwest Bayless, and Vick's, something (anything) to forge a bond between the new 500 owners and the vintage crowd....that's all I got on short notice. I doubt it's anything no one else has thought of. Retired from CIA last year so my inclination is to spy on other car clubs' annual events and steal ideas from them (although I suspect a number of members here belong to more than one club - maybe they already have ideas). Maybe I'm missing the point, and if I go to enough of these I will simply enjoy seeing people at these events I can only meet once a year at FFO?

Tomorrow I will take my little yellow car out of the garage for the first time and spin through Loudoun County's back roads. Maybe I'll have a different take on the event then? Would love to hear others' observations. Thanks for asking.

[baltobernie]

Thanks for the report. 100 vintage Fiats would have been a very good turnout indeed.

Hope you can make the 4-county drive on August 4th. I promise ... nobody gets a microphone, you can park where you want, and you can order off the menu

[supplyguy]

Thanks for the report. 100 vintage Fiats would have been a very good turnout indeed.

Hope you can make the 4-county drive on August 4th. I promise ... nobody gets a microphone, you can park where you want, and you can order off the menu

I hate when people are funnier than me.

Running a race in Montgomery County.....I will at least be there for lunch!

[ga.spyder]

Next years event looks to be a better show.They are going to have a track day at Autobahn,and some scenic drives planned.I missed seeing all my friends this year.I did not really miss ''The Italian Job'' or the monotonous banquet.David Laborde is an electronic wizard ,and has helped me out several times with various issues.He's a great guy.Thanks for the review.

[lanciahf]

David Laborde is a great guy! Always willing to help.

[leeputmanjr]

I can promise several things for next year's FFO in Chicago:

1. Frozen margaritas served from the back of a vintage Fiat. With luck, The Great White Wagon will be back in action!




2. A scenic drive post-car show for ice cream out to The Chick 'n Dip!



3. There will be speeches, keynote speakers, baquet food, and a few awards.



4. Many of your 'internet friends' will be there, ready to hang out & have a cold drink with you, reviewing what eveyone's managed to accomplish on their Fiats, glad that everyone's vintage car passed another year's long roadtrip test, and telling lies about how much we'll accomplish before next year.

[SoFlaFiat]

So who does want to drive to Chicago next year? That's my plan! It's possible a friend will trailer his spider with my truck and I will therefore have a mobile service center. The more cars joining in on the way north the better.