Our October Cruise Night took us to a “first-time” restaurant for our group, Roger’s Roost.  Thanks to Marty Heitkamp, who recommended the venue to our Cruise Night Director, Rick Jakacki.  Rick always welcomes suggestions from our members, and is willing to try new establishments.

Roger’s Roost was very festive and went all out with their Halloween decorations.  They also had a wide variety of food choices and over 30 craft beers on tap.

Unfortunately, fall has taken a definite turn to the colder side in Michigan, with a “high” that day of about 50 degrees and rain throughout the day.  We had a smaller turnout than normal with 18 in attendance.  We actually had 2 brave souls who brought their Vipers: Marty/Elaine Heitkamp and one of our newer members, Tim Schmitt.

For those of us that did attend, we had a great time seeing our fellow members and catching up, since the Wine Tour.

(Note: To view all photos for this event, move your mouse or cursor toward the picture, then click on the directional arrows that will appear.) You may also click on a photo where you’ll be sent to Flickr and can download your favorite.

Jason Howell, his wife Kathleen, Susan Andring and Mike Sutton were the only attendees.

They met and had great conversations with other drivers in the pit area. They loved the Vipers.

Jason brought his beautiful 2016 GTC which on the third run ran a 11.9448 1/4 mile at 122.62 mph.
Mike’s best run was also on his third run, 12.334 at 118 mph.

The group did not compete in the “Viper only” elimination rounds due to the quantity of MCVO turnout.

Hopefully next time our group can entice more drivers.

There were plenty of race cars though, since they waited approximately 30 minutes between runs.

Our thanks to our Motorsports Director, Mike Sutton, for creating this event.  Mike also wanted to highlight videos he took, while at the event.  Please click on the following links and you’ll be taken to You Tube.

First Run

Second Run

Third Run

(Note: To view all photos for this event, move your mouse or cursor toward the picture, then click on the directional arrows that will appear.)  You may also click on a photo where you’ll be sent to Flickr and can download your favorite.

October 5th started out cloudy but opened up to a sunny day for the open house car show at Direct Cars in Shelby Township.  Thirty-one Vipers and over 46 people showed up for this car broker’s Viper event, catered by Buffalo Wild Wings.  The cluster of snakes drew crowds of passersby, including two Vipers who are not (currently) in our club.  Everyone enjoyed our host’s sparkling facilities, the good food, and complimentary cigars from the Godfather Bistro.  It was a great Fall day!

Our thanks to David Holder from Direct Cars for hosting our club and their photographer for some of these great shots. We also want to thank Bruce Heckman and Mike Doljevic for sending us their photos.

(Note: To view all photos for this event, move your mouse or cursor toward the picture, then click on the directional arrows that will appear.)  You may also click on a photo where you’ll be sent to Flickr and can download your favorite.

MCVO was able to revive one of our long standing traditions of having a Wine Tour in the Fall.  During the weekend of September 27th thru 29th, 63 people and 33 Vipers were registered for a full weekend of food, wine and driving (hopefully not all at the same time).

Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans and we experienced various levels of rain on Friday and Sunday.  Saturday was a perfect day, and we were able to fully enjoy all that northern Michigan had to offer.  Our tour on Saturday of the beautiful home and garage of Dan and Sue McDavid, was even more spectacular with the sunny blue skies.  The backdrop of their home and grounds against the water, were breathtaking.

Every aspect of the tour went without a hitch.  The restaurants, wineries and The Homestead, made our trip memorable. Our thanks go out to our coordinator Mike and Diane Cipponeri .  Their hard work and attention to detail showed in every facet of the trip.  We also want to thank our host and co-coordinators Dan and Sue McDavid for their help and opening their lovely home to the group.

The link to Flickr is only a small sampling of the beautiful photos taken during the weekend.  We want to thank Ann Rappaport, and Cari Lambert.

We cannot say enough about Jerry Stutzman, who spent the entire Saturday, photographing our event and creating a web site just for our photos.  You may click here to be taken to Jerry’s site.

Lastly, a very big thank to our Photography Director, Susan Andring for her great photos of the event.  You may click here to be taken to her SmugMug page.

The weekend of September 27th was very busy for MCVO.  There was a large contingent that went on the Wine Tour, the remainder were invited to Project Beautiful – Inside and Out, at M1; Prefix was having their 40th Anniversary Celebration and Car Show; and last but not least, was the Snakes in the Grass, where we were partnering with Cobra’s and Shelby’s.

Unfortunately, rain was pretty prevalent in Michigan, no matter where you were.  The original plan for Snakes in the Grass, was to meet at Canterbury Village for Cars and Coffee, then cruise to view Neal Porter’s eclectic collection of rare cars.  Neal is a well-known car enthusiast in the Lake Orion area.

A last minute decision was made to skip Canterbury and go directly to Neal’s.  We had one brave Viper attend the event.  Our thanks to Neal for opening his collection to our clubs.  We also want to thank Jeff Grice, who captured some great photos of his collection. You may click here to be taken to Jeff’s Flickr page.

The autocross is always a great event, even with a few hiccups, and a few late afternoon sprinkles, it was still super fun.  LOTS of smiles from drivers inside their cars.  We had about 45 members, and their guests in attendance.

Also, a few cones stuck under Vipers as well, but you’ll have to look closely for those.

Here are your class winners:

Gen 1 Bryan Aitken 71.047

Gen 2 Michael Sutton 66.222

Big shout out to everyone that volunteered.  It truly is a monumental task with a lot of behind the scenes people putting this together.

Our thanks also go out to Susan Andring for the many fantastic photos she took while on the trip.  Please click here, to be taken to SmugMug, where you can view or download.

(Note: To view a handful of photos along with the time sheets, for this event, move your mouse or cursor toward the picture, then click on the directional arrows that will appear.)  You may also click on a photo where you’ll be sent to Flickr and can download your favorite.  Our thanks go out to Alex Good, Sam Milana and Donna Sutherland.

On September 13th, the MCVO, Cobra and Shelby clubs were invited to partake in the festivities for the re-opening of the Southfield Dealers Body Shop.  Originally the response was overwhelming, but as the day approached, the weather forecast was dismal.

Our host created space inside one of their bays, for most who brought their beloved cars.  Depending on when you arrived, you either missed the rain or were caught in the deluge.

Inside their showroom, special showcase cars were featured.  Bob Swartz and Lori/Sandi Emerling displayed theirs, along with 2 Cobras and a Marcos.

Even with the inclement weather we still had a great turnout, with about 22 in attendance and 13 Vipers.  There was music, food, refreshments, giveaways, and raffle prizes.  Some of our members won expensive Apple Air Pods and Fitbit Versa’s.

Our thanks go out to our host Rick Sheldon, and co-coordinators Bruce Heckman and Jeff Grice (Cobra).

(Note: To view all photos for this event, move your mouse or cursor toward the picture, then click on the directional arrows that will appear.)  You may also click on a photo where you’ll be sent to Flickr and can download your favorite.

MCVO teamed up with the Ohio VOA club to experience a fantastic trip thru Ohio. The roads there are billed “as good or better than Tail of the Dragon”. The MCVO club had about 13 Vipers in attendance and the Ohio club had 10. Watching the film clips of 23 Vipers racing thru the hills of Ohio were pretty impressive.

Our thanks go out to Bob Swartz and the Ohio club coordinators for all the work that went into planning such a great event. Given all the smiles and stories we’ve heard, it appears everyone had a great time.

Our thanks also go out to Susan Andring for the many fantastic photos she took while on the trip. Please click here, to be taken to SmugMug, where you can view or download.

Don Dlesk, from the Ohio Club, was also kind enough to send us the many beautiful photos he took.  Please click here to be taken to his Flickr page.  Lastly, he created a fantastic video montage of the weekend.  Please click here to be taken to YouTube.

It was a perfect summer day with temps in the 80’s.  This was our second year at the new location and everyone was raving about our parking accommodations.  We had Vipers from all over the country and Canada spend the day and enjoy the Dream Cruise.  We had about 133 people attend and approximately 80 Vipers.

Diane Cipponeri brought a popcorn maker, so everyone could enjoy fresh hot popcorn.  Many thanks to Mike Sutton for supplying the generator and Ann Rappaport, for transporting it, to and from the event.

Lori Emerling did a booming business with apparel sales.  She had a nice selection of new merchandise that members could choose from.

Our many thanks go out to Sam and Angelika Milana who worked tirelessly, to coordinate this event.  We also want to thank the many volunteers who helped with setup and teardown.

(Note: To view all photos for this event, move your mouse or cursor toward the picture, then click on the directional arrows that will appear.)  You may also click on a photo where you’ll be sent to Flikr and can download your favorite.

We’d also like to thank Susan Andring, for her photos of this great event. You may click here to be taken to SmugMug where you be able to view and/or download. Note: this link has photos from the Thursday and Saturday event combined.

The weatherman was predicting that rain may come thru in the afternoon. Some members said they had been rained on, in various cities surrounding our site.  The Viper gods were on our side and the rain appeared to go north and south of us and we never got a drop.

It was a beautiful evening and everyone had a great time. We had approximately 109 in attendance with about 55 Vipers.  Diane had specially made commemorative 25th Anniversary ornaments made for every member household.

Our heartfelt thanks go out to Mike/Diane Cipponeri and Rick Jakacki for their hard work and dedication to our club.  We also want to thank the Board and volunteers for their help.  Without these people our events would not be as successful as they are.

(Note: To view all photos for this event, move your mouse or cursor toward the picture, then click on the directional arrows that will appear.) You may also click on a photo where you’ll be sent to Flickr and can download your favorite.

We’d also like to thank Susan Andring for her photos of this great evening. Please click here to be taken to SmugMug, where you can view or download. Note: this link has photos from the Thursday and Saturday event combined.