Everyone has been slowly recovering from their holiday madness.  We’ve been having weird unseasonable weather for December and January with temperatures in the 40’s.  Last week we had solid rain and flooding, only to see some light snow a couple days later.

Our Cruise Director, Rick Jakacki found us a new venue on the east side, where we can meet and greet our club friends, many of which we have not seen for quite a while.  I have it on good authority he’s found another new restaurant, on the west side, for February’s Cruise.

For a chilly Wednesday night, we had a great turnout, with 24 in attendance.  The weather was again in the 40’s and you could of almost brought your Viper, until it started to rain on the way home.

Our thanks to Rick for taking the time from his busy schedule, to find us great venues, every month.  The staff is always accommodating for our sizable group.

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On Dec. 7th, we returned to the beautifully decorated Detroit Yacht Club (DYC) for our annual Holiday Party.  This is the one time of the year that our members dress in their finest evening apparel and everyone looked fantastic.

We had 52 in attendance and 1 Viper.  Dave Dziekan came in his newly acquired red Gen 2, which looked great parked out front of the DYC.

The DYC served a buffet with a wide array of sumptuous entrees and even a prime rib station.  There were holiday-themed gifts raffled off and dancing.

Our hosts Joe and Rose Klutz made sure everything ran smoothly and everyone felt welcome.  We also want to thank our Social Director Diane Cipponeri (and her hubby Mike) who were unable to attend since they’re traveling abroad, but assisted in planning.

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This year winter seemed to come upon us very quickly.  We had approximately 10 inches of snow in the second week of November.  It was a cold day but 34 attendees braved the elements to come out and do battle on the Bocce court.  In the end, only one team stood victorious.  The “Coupes” are the new Bocce Champs for 2019!

Congratulations to: Greg Priestap, Rose Klutz, Tonino Zaccagnini, and Carolyn Mason.  Note: Rose is a multi-year winner!  We also had an unexpected newcomer, Anne Gavin, mother of Sean, who took to the game very quickly and played all evening, right up to the final battle.

Our thanks to Mike and Diane Cipponeri, who consistently provide our club with fantastic events.

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The movie “Ford v Ferrari” release was highly anticipated by car enthusiasts and car historians.  A thread was started on our Facebook site asking who was interested in attending.  Tony Smith quickly took command and offered to coordinate an Event of Interest.  He has a friend who runs the Birmingham 8 theater and worked to get us special accommodations.

There were approximately 36 in attendance for the opening weekend show.  We had our screening in a private theater, reserved just for us. The movie told the story of how Ferrari had dominated Le Mans for years and after Henry Ford II was humiliated by Enzo Ferrari, he was determined at all costs to win.

It was a great movie and brought to life many of the characters we have come to revere.  Everyone enjoyed the movie and even though it was a cold November night, with their Vipers hibernating, members wanted desperately to go drive fast.

We want to thank Tony Smith and the Birmingham 8 staff for allowing us this opportunity to enjoy the movie in our own private theater, where we could also could catch up with old friends prior to the movie.

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Twenty-one members braved the newly arrived cold and snow to meet at the Twisted Rooster in Belleville on November 6th for our November Cruise In. Unfortunately no one brought their Vipers, but we all had a great time socializing and swapping stories about putting our steeds to bed for the winter. Several members commented that they liked the west side location for a change.

Our thanks to Rick Jakacki for coordinating the event and Bruce Heckman for the photos and write-up.

Our Motorsports Director was working on a new venue, when at the last minute, they were unable to host our group.  Wil and Carrie Thorne graciously opened up their phenomenal garage to host our Tech Day.  This is no ordinary garage.  A couple of our members have had their cars serviced by Wil, but most of us were unaware of his expertise and experience with Vipers.  This was also the first time that many of our members had visited his garage.  Wil lives a considerable distance from the majority of members, but we still had 22 in attendance and 2 Vipers.

Refreshments were provided by MCVO and Wil/Carrie.  The session started with Wil showing cut-up oil filters from numerous brand names, along with the Viper-specific filter.  In each case the Viper filter was far superior. Wil proceeded to show a wide variety of failed components, that he had replaced for customers, alongside the new part.  In many cases the defect was only found by Wil’s diligent inspection.

Wil then covered tips for proper winter storage and then time/mileage intervals that the service manual recommends for fluid and consumable item replacements.  I think each of us was a little guilty in thinking “if it wasn’t broke, why fix it”.

Since the Viper is no longer being produced, Wil has been acquiring the unique service tools and some rare parts, so that local Viper owners can feel comfortable knowing that someone will be able to help them in the future.  It is becoming harder and harder to find a reputable Viper technician or capable dealership in our area.  Wil is filling this niche and those that have taken their cars to him have all spoken highly of his work ethic.

The session ended with a hands-on demonstration on Wil’s Gen 2 coupe.  I heard many comments from members at the end, and everyone was very impressed with the session and what they took away from the event.

Our many thanks to Mike Sutton for planning this event and Wil/Carrie for opening their home to us.

Great Day! Great friends, new and long-time!

22 cars and 36 smiling faces participated.

Smooth meet and greet at the Big Boy.

Okay, Bob’s Gen I starter refused to kick in but Mike Sutton and Rich Maccani assisted as Pit Crew, mechanics, and potential lifeboat.  Finally bump starting and repeated fiddling got the green machine going and happily participating the rest of the event and home.

Sweet cruise up the St Clair river then overland to “Speaker Lone Oak Orchard”.

Smooth roads (a real treat in MI), low traffic, some beautiful colors, easy riding.

Darlene and the Lone Oak Orchard folks had the welcome mat out (actually a nice lawn 🙂 with our name in lights out front!

If that’s not enough, they provided yummy fresh DONUTS, CIDER, HOT DOGS! and a HAY RIDE without limits! (Some picked apples off the trees as we passed – FRESH!) Then shopping in their curio and apple showroom.

MCVO treated members to a raffle of 15 fresh, scratch made pies by Lone Oak Orchard for lucky winners!

Dave Dziekan & Kathy Bieniewicz had things perfectly planned.

Even when 6 of those prize pies were accidentally sold – oh my! Darlene and crew/family scurried to bake replacements; so those winners got SUPER fresh pies – Yummmmm.

Then an easy as pie (can’t resist a good pun) cruise to Watermark Restaurant on the Lake St Clair coast/canals.  How did Dave get us though the traffic mess at Gratiot and M-19 so well? Magic!

And a wonderful time was had by all!

Thank you Dave and Kathy!  Also thank you to Jason Pontello, Ron Stene and Bob Swartz for sharing their photos.

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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.

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.

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