And Now, A Word From Our
2010 President, Bruce Wentzel:

September 2010

    Reminder:  The Corvette Show of Shows Inaugural event will be on Saturday, September 18^th at Les Stanford Chevrolet-Cadillac.  This will be three shows in one and is open to all Corvette owners.  Corvette Concours by invitation only judging based on a “Show & Shine” criteria, a “Judged Competition” judging based on “Drive & Shine” criteria and “People’s Choice” entrants and spectators will pick their favorite C1-C6 Corvette. The invited cars for that portion of the show have been selected and invitations are out. I don’t have the full list so come to the show and see. Visit the website at MCCC for judging criteria, forms, updates and more.  All entries pre-registered by September 4^th will be entered in a drawing to win a Corvette Varsity Jacket. Please support our sponsor and your club by entering the show and volunteering to help that day.

    Our social program seems to be suffering it’s own recession. If you have an idea or plan for a Social Event or cruise somewhere please let me know and we can share it.  Maybe it’s a problem with the club leadership, so………………….

    At this month’s membership meeting we will open nominations for next year’s officers so consider how you want to support our club in 2011. Many of our officers have held their positions for quite a few years because of a lack of volunteers coming forward. They are doing a great job, but might like a break or change of responsibilities. Think about it.

    Anybody interested in joining us for a 5 day, 4 night cruise along Florida’s coast during the depths of this coming winter for $360 a couple? Let me know.

 Bruce

July 2010

          I am very pleased to report that Glenn Grace and Roy Thayer have been approved to fill in the open first year Board of Directors seats. Glenn was a member many years ago and has rejoined with an interest in giving back for the fond memories and Roy has been a member for a few years and has mostly been seen at our membership meetings and social events. We welcome them to the Board. We still have an opportunity for someone to become the full time e-SlipStream publisher.

          On, June 19 we had a trailer repair session. Most of us unskilled laborers (Ted Godett, Fred King, Gordon McCann, Chris Scafero, Joe Scafero) cleaned pylons and the skilled laborers (Roy Thayer  & Paul Yuska) replaced the bad section of the trailer floor. Thanks to Tom Dunn for the use of his driveway and generator power since his primary power was out from a storm the night before.

        Our next membership meeting (7/28/2010) is at Werner Meier’s Master Works on Stephenson Highway, just south of 14 Mile road in Madison Heights. Werner has generously offered to provide party subs for those who want to come early (6:30ish) to eat. He does want a head count for that so as to have enough without wasted food. Please let me know via email by July 25th if you plan to eat there. He will also do a presentation for us later.

Reminder:  The Corvette Show of Shows Inaugural event will be on Saturday, September 18^th at Les Stanford Chevrolet-Cadillac.  This will be three shows in one and is open to all Corvette owners.  Corvette Concours by invitation only judging based on a “Show & Shine” criteria, a “Judged Competition” judging based on “Drive & Shine” criteria and ”People”s Choice” entrants and spectators will pick their favorite C1-C6 Corvette.

Visit our website at MCCC for judging criteria, forms, updates and more.  All entries pre-registered by September 4^th will be entered in a drawing to win a Corvette Varsity Jacket.

If any member has any ideas for a social event please give me a call.

Waterford Hills Race Track will be having “Corvettes on the Hill” on Saturday, July 24^th.  Bring out your Corvette and enjoy the fun.   

  Bruce

June 2010

I am very pleased to report that we have people who have offered to take the open board seats. Once they are confirmed I will report to you regarding them. One of those seats was vacated by Mary Wentzel when she offered to accept the Vice Presidential vacancy to which she was confirmed at the last Board meeting. What does not please me is the lack of support for any social events. CCM has the reputation of being the competition club. That we are, but we have a lot of members who do not run our competition events. I would expect that either the show events or social events would then be what is of interest to you, however I sure can’t see it by the participation.

The Corvette Encounter is this coming weekend. Sure hope you can attend.

Summer weather hit full force this past Sunday for the Father and Son autocross. The son’s influence was apparent as the course was challenging and fun. I’m looking forward to the NCCC event June 20 for redemption. By the way, June 19 we have a trailer repair session scheduled. If you can help, contact Chris Scafero for the details.

Our next membership meeting is a cruise from Les Stanford to a restaurant in Ann Arbor. Fred King organized this as a combined meeting and social event. Just ask him how easy it was to arrange and see his flyer for the particulars. We will NOT have an official meeting at Stanford, but will use it as a staging point for the cruise. 4^th Wed of the month as always.

A special congratulations to Rodney Slusher and his new bride. We will miss you Rodney.
 

May 2010

Last month I said we have some openings on the Board of Directors. Ted Hou has again offered to be an interim e-SlipStream publisher. Note that is interim. We also have a volunteer to take the Vice President position. Once approved by the Board I’ll pass that information along. Sadly it is someone who is already doing volunteer duty on the board so I will still consider a different volunteer. Cheerfully, there is still the first year board rep seat open for someone who would like to get their feet wet and see how the board functions. It’s one meeting a month with the only responsibility being to bring your opinions and voice.

As of now there are no social events planned for the month of May although Jim Rees has something in the works. Note, this is another already busy Board member/club volunteer. We have a large club. A few people are taking up the workload. I’m sure there are other ideas out there. As Rodney said at the meeting, it just takes an idea, a few phone calls and a few emails and a club social is set up. Be an active part of the club. It’s not too late for May or June. Soap box off now.

Upcoming meeting programs are Kirk Bennion, Corvette Design Manager, speaking in May, our annual dinner cruise meeting in June and an offsite meeting at Master Works in July. Maybe we can set up caravans from the different areas to join up there, eh?

If you missed the April meeting you missed some great information. Just a few tidbits that come to mind are: 

·       Be very careful about using commercial wheel cleaners. Most contain acid and will very quickly stain your chrome wheels.

·       In 2011 the Ctek battery tender will be an option

·       In the not too distant future Murray’s Auto Parts (now O’Reillys?) will have a TPS reset tool for about $35.

I’m sure I have forgotten something, but it will have to wait until another time.

Bruce

 

April 2010

         I said this last month. “We now have 2 open seats on the Board of Directors.”  The reality is that there are 3 seats because one person held two seats. Most significant is the position of e-SlipStream Publisher. That job does need someone who can commit to some time each month to harass the other Board members who do reports to get them in on time and then compile them. A lot less work than the days when an entire weekend was needed to run the printer to generate those pages, but still a few hours of your time. The other seats are Vice President and First Year Board rep. I hope that there are a few folks that have enough interest in OUR club to volunteer for one of these positions.

Last month in revue: Regretfully, Mary and I were out of town when the Feather Bowling event took place, but reports back on this unique event were favorable. Our monthly cruise to eat (Baker’s in Milford) had a nice turn out and great food.  Nice job Rodney.  With more favorable weather on the horizon there should be more people and more Corvettes at these events. A spontaneous event was the tour of the Ken Lingenfelter car collection in South Lyon/Brighton area that we informed you of via our email list. If you love cars of all sorts this was the event to attend. Probably 200 cars in a non-museum setting. Everything from Bugatti Veyron to the 1955 Corvette that Zora Duntov set speed record with, well, its hard to pick a low end car from the bunch. My antique digital camera would only hold 40 pictures. See them here on CCM’s flickr page Lingenfelter.

Not a CCM event, but of great interest to all Corvette lovers was the ALMS race at the 12 Hours of Sebring. Full details can be read and seen here: Sebring.  Hopefully you made it to the meeting at Pratt & Miller for a first hand viewing and chat with the race team.

As of now April events are focused on “New Member Orientation” April 16 and the Test & Tune April 17 followed by our first autocross of the season on April 18 chaired by Brett & Kris Watson. This is, also, the Detroit Council Champ Series season opener. Be sure to sign up for the champ series. Full series info at DCSCC. I expect another cruise to eat later in the month, but you’ll have to check elsewhere in the e-SlipStream for details.

Hopefully there will be a May social event. Plan it and we will come! It really takes very little effort, just a fun idea. Contact me or any Board member to get it publicized.

March 2010

 Did you miss our February speaker, Kirk Bennion? So did I, thank you mother nature. We will reschedule him. In the meantime, there are 2 points of importance regarding the March membership meeting. FIRST, it is NOT on the fourth Wednesday as is usual. It has been postponed to the last Wed, March 31 for good reason. The group from the Pratt & Miller Corvette race team will be back from Sebring by then and our meeting is relocated to their shop in New Hudson. 29600 Wk Smith Road, New Hudson, MI‎ - (248) 446-9800‎   The street is just east of the Cummins building. Look for the big yellow flag. If you’d like a map, you can click here or just Google- Pratt &Miller.

We now have 2 open seats on the Board of Directors. Really, I’m not that hard to get along with. Contact me if you are interested to fill in.

The 2 socials we had in February had a nice attendance and I had a fun time. I think I was not the only one.

Upcoming socials include:

Feather Bowling (thanks Ken Sumner) and a cruise to eat (thanks Rodney) in March. Additional information can be found elsewhere in this e-SlipStream.

The loss of the February meeting meant we did not get clip boards sent around to get sign ups for possible April and May socials. Do you have an idea for a social gathering? Just contact Jan, Mary or myself for tips to  git ‘er done. Let’s not have a lapse in these events. It really takes only minimal effort.

Bruce 

February 2010

I have always found that procrastination had at least as many advantages as disadvantages (except when heading to grid for a race. They have no sense of humor there). Today’s advantage (because I’m late submitting this report) is that I can tell you that we had a pleasant tour of The Henry Ford on Sunday after a nice breakfast at Bob Evans. Can you believe that at 11 in the morning they have already run out of pumpkin pie?! Stepping back a little further. We had another fun Awards Banquet thanks to Pat Jutras and Kerry Hlady. In addition to the competition and worker awards, the Ken Watson Memorial Outstanding Member Award was given to Kerry Hlady and the Presidents Award was given to Fred King for their generous donations of their time for the benefit of OUR club. Subsequent to the Banquet we have also renamed the Gil Roycraft Memorial Competitor of The Year to the Gil Roycraft – Ray Meesseman Memorial Competitor of The Year.

At the most recent membership meeting John Fitzpatrick, Corvette Marketing Manager, spoke of some things the Corvette group is thinking of for the future. If you are not taking advantage of our access to insiders from GM who give their time to share with us at our meetings you are missing something special that other clubs around the country envy. (Do you enjoy my run-on sentences?) In that vein, don’t miss our February speaker, Kirk Bennion. OK, so you may not recognize the name so here is a little background (thanks Russ Craighead): During the past 25 years, Kirk Bennion has been a leading figure in Corvette development. Kirk joined GM Design following 1984 graduation from the Cleveland Institute of Art. Since then, he's served increasingly important roles with each Corvette generation, currently assigned as Corvette Design Manager. Kirk led the C6 exterior design, including many long nights in the wind tunnel to refine the C6's excellent aerodynamics. Beyond his outstanding talent as a designer, Kirk offers two other key attributes to Corvette development. First, his understanding of and appreciation for engineering enable a high degree of cooperation between Design and Engineering teams. Second, Kirk's communication and people skills facilitate teamwork throughout all the functional areas represented on the Corvette Development team.  

I'm sure that Kirk will get questions about design of the Next Generation.  In addition, it would be good to ask about the interesting cars he's privately owned over the years.

We have an open seat on the Board of Directors. Contact me if you are interested to fill it.

Upcoming socials include:

Additional information can be found elsewhere in this issue. Do you have an idea for a social gathering? Just contact Jan, Mary or myself for tips to git ‘er done

Here’s a tid-bit of Corvette History. In 1960 there was an issue of Corvette News that contained a flimsy record of Corvette sounds and comments of Zora’s. You can hear them here with an intro by Dave McLellan.

Can anyone help me edit a wmv file? I know what I want for a ring tone. 

January 2010

This is a tough report to write. I had somewhat put the memory of my father’s passing on Dec 6^th into some inactive brain cells. When my friend Ray Meesseman passed on the 40^th anniversary of that event it made that a date that I will dread even more. Ray and I joined CCM in the spring of 1971 and have been friends, adversaries and competitors ever since. Then we both had what were referred to as “Classics”. Now referred to as C1’s, we chased the times of some very good drivers, learning and honing our autocross skills. Ray held many of the accomplishment records within CCM before he and Sharon became more focused on National NCCC events where they went on to show that some of the fastest drivers in the country come from CCM.  RIP my friend.

Allow me to reminisce a little more. This is from the Hoosier Racing tire web site and we old timers will remember this Cobra VERY well as it used to autocross in the Detroit area when it was just a used car owned by a local Ford Engineer who challenged then King of the Hill Corvette driver John Firment. He is still the owner and the car has clearly not been retired.
 

Have you had a desire to own a pristine older Corvette, a C2 or C3 maybe? Be VERY careful if you actually decide to plunk down your hard earned money. There was a note on NCCCNET recently about a man in Scottsdale, AZ who bought a 1965 from a California dealer and it was learned that the car had been stolen 39 years ago. There is a lot to read about this at these websites:

http://www.oldcarsweekly.com/article/stolen_corvette_returned/

http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/433033/page/0/fpart/1/vc/1

On a brighter note, congratulations to our club rep, Chris Warren and wife Colleen on the birth of their new pride and joy, Justin Lee on Dec 18^th.

This website is a ride along fast lap of the Nurburgring with Jan Magnussen in a ZR1. Enjoy.

http://blog.cardomain.com/2009/12/17/jan-magnussen-beats-the-hell-out-of-a-new-zr1-corvette-at-the-ring/

Although this is not Corvettes, it is GM and reminds me of the Joey Chitwood driving shows I saw as a kid. How many of you know of Joey Chitwood?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbuDRA4zNbw

A big thank you to Jan Van Maanen for allowing us to coax her into filling the Social Director position on the Board. She will quickly remind us that she really volunteered with some co-directorship by Mary Wentzel and the job description being more of a coordinator than a director. If you’ve been reading my reports you know that matches my objectives for OUR club’s Social activities. The LIVEWYR is a great fit for this position. We have some new things already planned and will be asking that a few of you offer to host just ONE event for Jan to add to the schedule. Now, when I say a few, that’s really all it will take, but don’t assume that it will be some other person doing it. Step forward and be an active member. Also a volunteer is needed to help with the pickup of the coffee and donuts for the membership meetings. If you haven’t heard, Paula Fulkerson is battling cancer and we could use someone to fill her shoes in this task. Paula, get well quick. We miss you, coffee or not.

Look for some great programs at the upcoming membership meetings. There are three already set up and listed elsewhere in the SlipStream.

See you January 9^th at the Banquet

Then at the membership meeting Jan 27^th

Bruce

 

December 2009

 I sit here Thanksgiving morning feeling so fortunate to be waiting for family to join us for dinner today, yet so concerned for our dear friends Ray and Sharon Meesseman. For those who don’t know, Ray had a heart attack at an NCCC event in Florida on Oct 31 and has been hospitalized there ever since. A second heart attack, pneumonia and ARDS are threatening  his life. It is just unfathomable to me that he is struggling this way. Please keep them in your prayers. 

As of noon Nov. 30, Ray Meesseman is showing improvement since being admitted to Ingham in Lansing. They report that he had a good night Sunday. He is still dealing with water in the lung and they have drained both lungs. Keep those prayers coming.

On the same vane of giving thanks I’d like to review for you some of the causes that CCM and our members have contributed to this year. There were two ALS events, the walk on Belle Isle and a donation raised at the Corvette Encounter. Another donation from the Encounter was  made to Tipping Point Theater in Northville. We had members run in the Brooksie Way Half Marathon raising money to fight leukemia and lymphoma. We also walked at the Detroit Zoo in support of pancreatic cancer research. I’m wondering why I don’t see the results of all this walking and running personally. In less physically challenging efforts, we went to the Art Van Concert Motown 50 years in support of Gleaners and we made donations to the National  Corvette Museum, the National Kidney Foundation and the local Salvation Army Bed and Bread program.

I didn’t realize the extent of our community involvement before reviewing these events. How about you? Individual club members organized many of these events. What’s coming? The Annual Awards Banquet deadline is approaching. Don’t let the busy holidays distract you  from getting signed up. See the flyer, call Pat Jutras. This is, of course, our big social of the year. Get dressed up and come out to party to the tunes of DJ Scott Kempf.

Speaking of socials, no one has come forward yet to fill the big shoes Kerry Hlady is vacating. As I said last month, I’d like to see the workload of the social program spread among general members. See above comments regarding our charity events. If you have an idea for any social event, please contact me or the yet to be named Social Director. I’d like to be able to announce their name at the Banquet so start dialing that phone now! 248-685-7145.

Our 2010 competition program is being formulated in the next few months so stay tuned to Chris’ reports for those details. Look for our Program Directors report in this issue also. He announced programs for Jan, Feb, March at the meeting. See you January 9th at the Banquet

Bruce
 

November 2009

          Mary and I went to Mackinac Island this past weekend and then to Traverse City for lunch with Jan Van Maanen and when the topic of the summer season’s weather came up the answer everywhere was summer was September. No wonder it feels strange and that the Corvettes have been put to rest already. Well, almost. We are planning a trip to Huntsville, AL and Jacksonville, FL for the final competitions of the year in December.

Latest Club news is the results of the officer nominations. Not elections but nominations as we had no elected positions that were contested. I will continue on as your President, Rodney Slusher will be the new Vice President; new first year Board representatives will be Fred King, Dave Krom and Mary Wentzel. There were no nominations for Corresponding Secretary, Recording Secretary or Treasurer. The bylaws do not permit running for an office for more than two terms, however they do allow for a person to continue in those positions in the absence of any nominees so Dyan Janowitz, Pat Jutras and Ted Hou have agreed to continue to fill those positions.

Next order of business in anticipation of 2010 is the appointment of the other Board officers. I have some who have indicated an interest in continuing, but every office is open for consideration. Most significantly is that after 6 years Kerry Hlady is stepping down as Social Director. I’d like to see our social programs continue to grow but by involving more members in the process of planning individual events. The more successful we can be at this, the easier the Directors job is. In an ideal world the Director would be able to just co-ordinate all the offers of events that you the members would like to have and are willing to organize just one.

We are in discussion and testing phase of establishing a listserv for the distribution of club information. This will allow the select few officers granted administrator status to directly send information to the membership. It will expedite that dissemination of information and eliminate the dependence on an intermediary. More information to follow. Thanks to Ted Hou for the idea and setting it up.

If you did not notice in last month’s SlipStream there is a picture of the beautiful new Trophy Case in place in the Stanford Service area. Thanks to Fred King for being on call to get trophies into it and keeping it freshened with new trophies periodically.

I got a surprise at the last Board meeting. Apparently someone, I presume a club member, anonymously donated two nice aluminum jacks for use at tech inspection as a memorial to Ken Watson.

 
 “In Memoriam
Ken Watson CCM
Member Extraordinaire”

 See you November 25th
Bruce

 

August 2009

I can tell its summer. So much to do and so little time to do it. July was a hectic month full of CCM activities. Thanks to everyone who helped make our July 4 event at Waterford an ongoing success. It’s a tradition that we are proud of, hence the name, Ken Watson/Gary Griffith Memorial Time Trial.

I cannot tell its summer by the weather and I am not complaining about the lack of evidence of global warming.

August will be activity laden also, especially for we who are going to the NCCC Convention. If you missed it that’s a shame. It’s another Corvette tradition, being the 50^th Anniversary convention that will be (as I type this) a huge part of the Corvette Fun experience. Don’t miss the August membership meeting. Joe Scafero will have a comprehensive Convention recap that evening. At the October meeting Pratt & Miller are scheduled to have the new GT2 racer, based on the ZR1, there after it’s introductory race at Mid Ohio. I hear that it makes the old GT1 racer look like the Flintstone’s ride. Gee, I wonder if they will sell those Flintstone cars cheap.   

We are in process of recapping the 2008 Corvette Encounter. First observation is that we are disappointed in the participation and attendance. We are brainstorming ideas for 2010 and welcome your thoughts for improvements. It will be June 5. That is the only thing that is firm at this point. Any and all options are on the table to make this a successful event and the more ideas on the table, the better. Offering an idea does not make you an automatic volunteer so don’t be bashful.

Kerry is doing a heroic job planning a wide variety of social events to keep CCM a one club fits all Corvette owners’ Fun cravings. Please look closely at these events and spread the word to other Corvette enthusiasts to join us. The more the merrier.

Don’t miss the annual club picnic. This year it happens to be on a SATURDAY, August 22. There are activities planned for the whole family. All we ask is that you bring a passing dish. Oh, just in case you didn’t hear Jim Rees ask the question, yes, please bring a dish containing food. Let’s have some FUN!

And now a note from our sponsor, Les Stanford Chevrolet.

Effective August 1st, Gary Claudio will become the main contact between CCM and Les Stanford Chevrolet-Cadillac.  Gary will handle all Sales, Service, Parts, Body Shop and Customer Relations issues.  He may be reached via his cell phone at:  248 807-8061 or email at: gman3081@comcast.net This change was made to allow Chris Warren time to focus on additional assignments within the Les Stanford organization. Chris will still be available to attend CCM meetings as his schedule permits.

On a personal note, I want to thanks Chris for many years of service to the club and am glad that he will still be available to us. We also welcome Gary’s increased involvement as not only a CCM Board member but now as liaison to Les Stanford for any needs you might have.

 

July 2009

First I must say that is was a treat to see Kim Fast not only at our June 21^st autocross, but to watch her drive and drive well.  More hugs to you Kim. It is also great to see Barb Bush back behind the wheel and going very fast. CCM has some tough women. Or is it that competitive women are tough? Although not a CCM member, Elizabeth Antos is also back behind the wheel and competing for overall FTD.

Then there is this note from Dyan, who sold the winning Encounter charity raffle ticket.

I did get a hold of Kathy the grand prize winner of the Raffle tickets from Saturday.
I found out Kathy is pregnant with her first child and they are looking for a house.
This couldn't have been a better time for them.
Also, Kathy works with ALS patients. They have a friend of family that has ALS right now. They said they were all happy to contribute to the cause.

With the tough times that we in Michigan are dealing with, count these blessings.

I appreciate the feedback that we’ve gotten regarding SlipStream. Most of you said that a reminder that the latest issue was available would benefit you. We will do that from now on and have established a constant link to take you to it,   http://www.corvetteclubmi.com/currentslipstream.pdf    Then the previous month’s e-SlipStream will get archived with a different link. If you’d like to take advantage of the constant latest link anytime, feel free to bookmark it.  We are continuing to investigate printing options, weighing the cost issues.

My thought now is how do I get this information to you? Of course it will be in the e-SlipStream but that’s a catch 22. I’ll have this report emailed separately to all to keep the communication as strong as possible. Just don’t expect the July issue until you get that notice .

Bruce

May 2009

Spring is in the air!! And it was a strong 70 mph air today. YIKES! Thankfully our power was only out for a few hours. An hour of chain sawing and my trailer is again free.

It is in the air in many more ways too. First Rally of the year, driver’s school and the first autocross are in the books. And speaking of books, lets keep our fingers and toes crossed for some black ink in the auto industry books. If you can help with that, go for it.

Our latest meeting program was the presentation of the Club Sport car built by Katech and sold exclusively by Les Stanford Chevrolet. A lighter Z06 with bigger brakes. Now that’s a package! We also revived the auction with some 55 and 65 Corvette parts. If you are a collector, you missed a great opportunity. So get the membership meetings on your calendar. We will have some auction items in May. Sorry I don’t know what May’s program will be but this year’s programs have not been a disappointment.

Before the spring storm today we had a great turnout to do some long needed maintenance on the club trailer. As with many of our maintenance projects, this one got moved to the top of the priority list when the trailer jack broke after the first event this year. So we took the opportunity to make some other upgrades within the trailer and clean some pylons. The crew worked hard to get about 25% of them looking better. Thanks to, in no specific order, Carl Ek, Paul Yuska, Dave Krom, Chris Davies, Ken Sumner, Rodney Slusher, Jim Rees, Fred King, Chris Scafero for the volunteer hours and to Tom Dunn for the use of his shop. And I hope to heaven that I haven’t forgotten somebody who was there.

Do you realize that the Encounter is less than 2 months away? Have you been out there selling those raffle tickets? Don’t forget, the primary charity is for ALS. You know that significance of that. Nuff said.

See you May 27

Bruce

April 2009

Oh, I am sooo disappointed. It seems like just last week I wrote this:
Maybe the good news is that next month will be really looong. 

It was not.

Do you have an interest in a specific program for the membership meeting? Please let our Program Director, Gary Claudio know if you do. Is there a particular vendor who’s stuff you have used and really like and want to share them? PROGRAM !!

At the March meeting Gary Pratt and Mike Atkins of Pratt & Miller brought a C6RS to the meeting and Gary gave an overview of the history of Pratt & Miller from 1999 to 2008. I found the stories of instantaneous ingenuity during races when an unexpected problem arose to be fascinating. Those are the things that make true champions and give the Corvette a newfound respect around the world. Mike is the Program Manager for the C6RS and in conversation with him I learned that they are going to sell individual components of the package. So, if you’d like some or all of the body kit, the interior or just the seats, contact Mike at C6RS@prattmiller.com

I wish I could tell you what the program is for April at this time, but whatever it is I’m sure you’ll want to be there. As always, the meeting is the  4th Wednesday of the month, April 22. April has 5 Wednesdays this year. Don’t be late. We start the meeting promptly at 7:30pm. The last of us were out of the building by 9:30 in March. Maybe we can organize a coffee/desert stop somewhere after the meeting.  Yeah, just what my waist needs is more desert after donuts at the meeting! How about just some extended socializing?

Read elsewhere in this issue about the upcoming Social and Competition events. I can feel Spring in the air.

See you April 22
Bruce 

March 2009

There are so many clichés about how time flies, but there are some corollaries that may not have come to light. First is that when there is a deadline each month to write an article, those months get really short. And second is that not only is February a short month, but when the publisher needs to bump the deadline by a week due to his work commitments, well HOLY COW !! Maybe the good news is that next month will be really looong. 

I am one who likes to have my SlipStream in hand. Many of you have said the same thing for your own reasons. The most challenging has been some of you have a dial up Internet connection and downloading SS is nearly impossible. Your Board is not insensitive to the problem and some things are being considered.

First is that our publisher is looking at doing two versions, the really nice one that we currently enjoy and a bare bones version without the graphics. We tried a variant of this a while ago by just doing the cover in black and white that really did not solve the problem. If this happens there will be separate links to choose your SS download.

Second is my own hairbrained idea. I looked into the costs of mailing a SlipStream and for $2.50- $3.00 per month to cover printing and mailing a hard copy could be in your hands each month. Mailing would be first class USPS, not the discount bulk mail we used to use. The printing would not be the same quality and might even be grayscale. It would not necessarily be an official club function. So, two things need to happen to make this happen. I’d need to know how many people would pay $30 - $35 a year to get the paper version and second if there is somebody who would like to do this. If you have an interest in this idea let me know. It would not be a high volume thing as it looks like we only have a dozen or so members that are on dial up.

Read elsewhere details about the March program. Representatives from Pratt & Miller will visit us.

See you March 25
Bruce

February 2009

While the memories of last night’s Awards Banquet are fresh I’m putting fingers to keyboard. If I were to say what a great event it was you’d think “they always say that” and you’d be right so let me tell you how it was great. Of course all the things we do were done last night, but with a fresh approach. For the second year LIVEWYR has been involved in helping with the awards presentation and she is not stuck in the paradigm of how we always did it, so each year she has taken a different approach and it is both brief and entertaining. As a presentation preparer in her day job she is full of ideas and is already thinking of next year.

Tom Dunn did a great job of honoring Gil Roycraft in 2 minutes instead of the usual 5. The year in review was split between the competition and social directors with entertaining video support by Dave Krom, not to mention the background video of the 50th Anniversary highlights that Dave put together that ran in the background on that monster screen thru the evening. And then there was the most special award. The Most Valuable Member Award has been renamed the Ken Watson Memorial Most Valuable Award and was presented by Brett, Kris and Diane to a very deserving Chris Scafero. It was a moving presentation. We had a guest who is not a CCM member and at the end of the evening his comment was, paraphrased: I go to many holiday parties and this was the best one. Expect him to become a CCM member.

We also had a raffle and an auction, one item being the CCM 50th logo from the large banner. Proceeds of over $500 from both will be donated to the ALS Ken’s Friends fund.

Last night was the general membership meeting. The turnout was a little light due to the weather, but Mr. Art Spong, Group Manager, Brand Quality Performance Cars, rewarded the brave souls who came with a great tech presentation. If you had any questions about your Corvette he truly had the answers. Maybe he will agree to return later in the year when the weather is better. Thanks to Gary Claudio for making the arrangements for Mr. Spong to attend.

Thanks to Bob Palmer for offering to join the Board of Directors as the Detroit Council of Sports Car Clubs rep. Welcome aboard.

At the February meeting Harlan Charles will again join us and is planning to bring another Corvette Engineer with him to further enhance our Corvette enjoyment

See you Feb 25
Bruce
 

January 2009

It’s Christmas Eve and time for me to stop procrastinating. I hope you’ve all had a Merry Christmas and wish you a great and Happy New Year. The past year had it’s good and not so good and may next year bring better health to all.

          There are numerous bright spots on the horizon in addition to the usual fine jobs being done by our social and competition committees. Their reports are elsewhere for your enjoyment. The Corvette Encounter will also have some surprises for you that we are not yet able to reveal and I’m sure Jim Rees is chomping at the bit to be able to tell you the news. Also, look for an Open House at Les Stanford in March with a significant announcement from them regarding a special car they will have available from some un-named company that just might be located in New Hudson.

          Our new member to the club and Board of Directors, but not to the Corvette world, Gary Claudio, has some great plans for Programs throughout the year so mark all those 4^th Wednesdays on your calendar so you don’t miss any membership meetings. Remember the general membership meetings now start at 7:30 p.m.  I hear that he might also be able to arrange some alternate prizes for the 50-50 raffles so there could be more than one prizewinner each night at the membership meetings.  We always have coffee and donuts in the back room for our members/guests compliments of Les Stanford Chevrolet. 

          Don’t miss the next CCM big event, the Annual Awards Banquet on Jan 24 that will culminate our 50^th Anniversary year celebrations.  This is one event you will not want to miss (buffet dinner, open bar, dancing and lots of door prizes). The deadline to RSVP is January 11^th  ($35.00 per person).   Contact Pat Jutras at 734-397-6942 to make your reservation.  Cocktails at 6:00 p.m. and dinner at 6:45 p.m.  Be sure to see the special Corvette from Les Stanford that will be on display.  I’ve heard a rumor that despite the poor economy in Michigan we will have some great door prizes. Don’t miss our biggest and baddest Social event. Get on your fancy duds and see if you can recognize all your friends in their fancy duds, instead of shorts/jeans and T-shirts. Don’t forget to wear your dancing shoes so we can kick off the next 50 great years.

 Save the wave,

Bruce

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