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C5 Registry Members,
I will begin posting here -- for all to see -- some of the posts I have been putting on the C5 Net.
Comments? E-Mail Me at: c5dan@c5registry.com 
December 21, 2001
To All Members:
On Saturday, December 22nd we will go live with our membership survey. In order to serve our members better, we have built a simple survey in order to gather some basic information on our members -- their wants and needs. You can access the survey in the Member's Only section. There will be a header at the top of the Member's Only page. Just click on that header and it will bring you to the survey. As you all know, feedback is the best way to improve our organization and it's relevance to our membership so please take a few minutes out of your busy holiday week and take our survey. For some of you, there may be a problem with the survey. If you are on WebTV or are running Microsoft XP.

The survey form is written in Java script. This is a common practice on internet sites for things such as forms and surveys. Unfortunately, if you are using older versions of Web TV, or a new PC that came with Microsoft XP pre-installed, neither supports Java -- so the form will not work for you.

With Microsoft XP, you can download Java support for XP from the Microsoft Web site. Here's the Quote from Microsoft.." The Microsoft Virtual Machine (Microsoft VM) is available only as a Web download. The latest 32-bit edition of the Microsoft VM is available at the following Microsoft Websites: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com or http://www.microsoft.com/java/ The omission of Java support from the default installation of Windows XP is indeed unfortunate and is the result of Sun Microsystems lawsuit against Microsoft. You can read the Open letter from Microsoft at: http://www.microsoft.com/Java/issues/openletter.htm .

Downloading the Java support would be a good idea, as there are a lot of sites on the internet using Java. For the Web TV members, a printed version of the survey will be available in the next issue of the C5 Registry newsletter.

Thank you for your participation. Jake, Kathy, Marissa, Michele, and myself want to wish all of you the very merriest and safest holiday this season.

C5Ya!
Dan Adovasio,
Director, C5 Registry

 

December 11, 2001
To All Members:
I received an interesting link the other day from George Rogers C5R# Z6271. It is a listing of gas stations around the country that carry 100 and 110 Octane Sonoco and Cam 2 Racing Gas. You can go in and fill up for a mere $4.20 per gallon and load your Corvette up with 110 Octane. The website is located at www.racegas.com/Racegas/gt100locals/default.asp .

For those of you who are going to attend the Birthday Bash West (August 9th - 14th) and the Monterey Del Oro, we have found out that the 1-800 number for Hilton reservations does not know about our C5 Registry discount. The best way to reserve a room is to call the Monterey Hilton directly at (831) 373-6141 and use the special code "C5 Registry" for your discounted rates. For those of you interested in staying for the Monterey Historic races, we have 25 rooms reserved for August 16th and 17th at $239 per night at the same Monterey Hilton.

For those of you attending the Birthday Bash East (April 18th - 21st) at the National Corvette Museum you can now register ONLINE at www.corvettemuseum.com/registration/c5_bash/registration.shtml  .

For information on the Bash itself and the agenda please try one of these pages: www.corvettemuseum.com/registration/c5_bash/c5_info.shtml  or
www.corvettemuseum.com/registration/c5_bash/agenda.shtml .

Make sure you read Frank's page on the Z06 C5 pacing the 2002 Olympic Torch Relay. The story is on Hot News at www.c5registry.com/Members/hotnews.htm . I'm sure you'll want to see
it if it comes through your town.

We will be conducting a membership survey on the internet in the upcoming weeks. We try to make the Registry appeal to all its members and the only way we can do that is through input, so Chaz Cone has been kind enough to put together a membership survey which we will use for two reasons. One is to try to get a handle on the demographics of our membership so we can better serve them. The second reason is to gather in new ideas and new ways of doing things and to find out what is important and not important to our members. So, please participate in the survey when you see it up which should be in the next week or so.

We have added a number of new Corporate Registry Members. If you have not
checked out the Corporate Members page, please give it a click. It's at:
www.c5registry.com/Links/corpmembers.htm .

October 25, 2001
To all members, I Just returned from a fabulous time in Phoenix, AZ at the Birthday Bash West. We have so many shows here on the East Coast that it sure is fun to get away and head out west. Janet and Mike Curran put together a tremendous event for our western members. Every time we need help on the West Coast, Mike and Janet are there, and each time they do a better job than the last. The only thing that makes the Registry great is its members and Janet and Mike are perfect examples of that.

What a beautiful place Arizona was. We took a road tour up to Sedona with about 45 cars and I saw some of the prettiest country I have ever seen in my life. We took the interstate almost to Flagstaff, cut over to a windy mountain road which wound through one of the most beautiful mountain valleys. I have ever seen and ended up right in Sedona. If you are ever in that part of the country with your Corvette, I highly suggest you take a side trip to Sedona. The roads are FABULOUS!

We had a great dinner that night and had a fabulous speaker from the General Motors Desert Proving Grounds in Mesa, Arizona. He brought a test mule with him to dinner. It was a '99 Corvette fitted out with a 2002 Z06 drive-train and suspension. It was really cool, loaded with electronics, so that they could test everything including engine spark and have the ability to change the timing from INSIDE the Corvette. Jim Contes was the senior high-speed test engineer at the proving grounds who came to speak, and showed us a video. What he didn't tell us was the video happened to include him blowing a tire out at 170MPH! It was WILD to say the LEAST! He's a great guy and we REALLY enjoyed his talk. The next day we all headed over to Firebird Raceway for the Route 66 show.

Attendance was rather sparce, but all the better for our members because we got to monopolize the Autocross course and drag strip. I think a couple of our members used the Autocross course so much that they had to buy a new set of tires before they could drive home. But it was a great time and it was great to be with our members in the West. I can't wait until our next Birthbash West!!!!!!

C5Ya!
Dan

October 2, 2001
Many of you saw Kathy Wilhelm's post on "Dan's Ramblings" and have sent numerous calls and personal e-mails asking me about my experience in New York on September 11. I would like to offer my thanks to those who have expressed concern and bring everyone up to date.

Twenty-five State Farm agents from Central Florida took a trip to New York to visit the stock exchanges and the financial district. Since State Farm now offers mutual funds, I thought this trip would be a good educational experience.... We arrived in New York Monday afternoon on September 10 and we had reservations for a tour of the New York Stock Exchange at 9:15 AM Tuesday September 11. We arrived in the financial district at about 8:45 AM. After finding our way to the New York Stock Exchange, we stood in line to obtain our tickets and prepare for the opening bell. While in line, I looked up and noticed smoke in the air and a tremendous amount of paper floating down from the tops of the buildings on Wall Street. I thought maybe an air conditioner or some type of mechanical unit on top of a building had started on fire. No one seemed very concerned at the time, so I asked one of the Wall Street Exchange guards, "What happened?" He told a small plane had hit the World Trade Center. Again, he did not seem concerned at all. Enlisting five of my fellow agents, we decided to go and investigate.

We walked about two blocks and were within 1200 feet of the World Trade Center. The first tower was on fire and what the struck me the most was that the flames were massive. I just knew this could not have been a small plane. From our vantage point, the first tower was partially blocked by the second tower. As I thought about taking pictures, suddenly a second large airplane practically flew over my head, banked, and slammed right into the second tower. It was utterly amazing. It looked like the building ate up the jumbo jet. Your mind expected the plane to come out of the other end of the building because of the speed at which it was traveling and because of the size it was, but it didn't. Flames burst out all four walls of the tower. My guess is that they shot out over 50 or 60 feet. At that point, all hell broke loose. The Wall Street veterans who did not seem concerned at all about the earlier crash into the first tower, began screaming and running in a sort of massive stampede.

I dove into a doorway to avoid the charging crowd. Once it passed, I found some of my fellow agents and my initial reaction was that this was a terrorist attack and there were more planes coming in. We decided the best thing to do was to get out of Manhattan. We took shelter in the first subway station we found. In station, no one seemed to be aware of what was happening above. It so happened that the first train at the subway was headed for Brooklyn. We hopped on it because our objective was to get our of Manhattan ASAP. (As a time reference, this was all within five minutes of the second plane hitting the second building.) We told the passengers on the subway not to get off because of what we had just witnessed.

So, we took the subway to Brooklyn Heights which was right across the river, and in fact, a very nice area. It was there that we were able to sit down, take a deep breath, and assess the situation. I was able to secure some ice for one of the female members of the group who had been knocked down and injured during the stampede. Our first instinct was to call home and tell our families that we were OK, and our second, was to find a TV and see what the heck was going on. One of the members in our group, found a sports bar in which the owner was cleaning up, preparing for his opening for later that day. We banged on the door, got his attention, and told him what we had just been through. He opened the door, turned on all the TV sets, and within 15 minutes I would say there were 150 people crammed in the place watching. It was here that we watched in horror as both of the World Trade Centers collapsed. We also learned of a third airplane attack on the Pentagon.

The events of the day led us to decide that we would try to find a room in Brooklyn, or if it seemed safe, we would attempt to make our way back to our hotel in mid-town Manhattan sometime in the late afternoon. By 1:30 there were policemen on every corner and they said that they were expecting the subways to start operating around 3 o'clock. They directed us to an armored car where some subway officials had set up a temporary command post. Those officials told us which subways we could take to get back to our hotel, and so we proceeded to do so.

Once at our Manhattan hotel, we accounted for everyone who had traveled within our group. The stories that were told were of many having to walk some 120 blocks from the financial district back to the hotel. The group agreed to find a way to get out of Manhattan and I was on the cell phone with a couple of Registry members in New York and New Jersey who were trying to arrange a way to come in and get us out. It's nice to belong to an organization with members all over the country that you know you can call on in a time of need. We chartered a bus that had dropped a tour group off in Manhattan Tuesday morning and was stuck there because all the bridges being closed. Once the bridges re-opened, we left Wednesday at about noon and 26 loooong hours later we arrived at our homes in Florida. What an experience! I learned a few things. One: the people in New York aren't anywhere near as mean as they're cracked up to be. Everywhere we went, people were trying to help us figure out ways to get home...ways to get to our hotel... how to get TO places...how to get AROUND places. Another thing was that in a situation in which you are faced with danger, usually your first instincts are the best, but the key point is the quicker you react, the better off you are. The people around us that went with the flow of the crowd, ended up getting trapped against the water in lower Manhattan and had to deal with that large cloud of smoke from the collapse of the buildings and THEN had to traverse over some hundred blocks to get back up to mid-town. I still shudder when I hear a plane flying low overhead, but other than that there are no permanent afflictions except for a deep-seated hatred for those that carried out this terrible, horrendous, event.

I'm proud to be an American and I'm proud to drive America's sports car, the C5 Corvette,

C5Ya!
Dan

September 26, 2001
Over the years, many of you have attended one of the many C5 Registry race functions, including the 24-Hours of Daytona, 12-Hours of Sebring, Road Atlanta, etc. and at most of these functions we were provided with tents, parking corals, but most importantly, ACCESS to the C5R Race Team and its drivers and pit crews.

The person most responsible for this access is GM Race Manager, Gary Claudio. We now have a chance to repay Gary for the time and effort he has put in on behalf of the Corvette race fan.

Each year the American LeMans Series, at its annual American LeMans Series Award Banquet, gives out an award called "From the Fans Award." This award is presented to the individual who fans feel contributed the most to sports car racing during the year.

The inaugural recipient in 1999 was ALMS Founder Don Panoz, while Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, Head of Audi Sport, was chosen to receive the award in 2000. The name of the 2001 winner will remain secret until being revealed at the banquet.

You can join me in casting your vote for Gary Claudio by sending an e-mail to webmaster@americanlemans.com . In the e-mail, all you need to say is "I vote for Gary Claudio of Corvette Racing for the From the Fans Award." If we all pull together, we can get this award for Gary Claudio as a thank-you from the C5 Registry for all he's done for the fans of Corvette Racing. Vote only once, so you don't nullify your vote! Thanks for your help and I'll see you at the Petit LeMans at Road Atlanta on October 6th.
C5Ya! Dan

September 11, 2001
For those of you who are unaware, Dan is in New York this week for State Farm meetings. I just spoke to a very shaken Dan, who told me that he and his fellow State Farm agents, who were in meetings at the Stock Exchange building two blocks away, had gone outside when the World Trade Building was first hit. As they stood watching the smoke billowing from the upper floors of the building, they became aware of a plane approaching, and then hitting, the second tower. Dan said it was the most devastating thing he has ever seen, and certainly something he will never be able to forget. He and the other agents were immediately evacuated, and were all safely away when the buildings collapsed, for which we are all grateful.

On behalf of myself and the entire Registry staff, please know that our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and loved ones of those lost today.

Kathy Wilhelm, Member Services

August 19, 2001
I recently received this letter from Thomas Bembenek, who is president of the Corvette Club of Rhode Island which has several C-5 registry members within it's fold. His club recently sent the letter below to all New England Corvette Clubs. I think this is a great idea and a worthy cause. Any of our members in the New England area who want to help out, please contact Thomas.
Dan

New England Area Corvette Clubs & Owners;

On Sunday, October 14th, National Childrens Day, the Corvette Club of Rhode Island will be conducting it's first annual Corvette "Cruise for Children". You are hereby cordially invited to participate in this charitable function, the details for which are currently in the works and will be forthcoming.

Our goal is to make this an annual event in which all of the Corvette clubs in New England are invited/welcome to participate. Our intention is to send this letter to all Registries and Clubs with a national forum to see if it can become an annual nationwide Corvette enthusiast activity.

We are seeking your ideas and inputs to establish the organizational aspects of this event. We are conducting this "run" in support of the USMC "Toys for Tots" campaign. Current thoughts are to find a centralized New England location (possibly a state park or school campus with a large field) to which all clubs can independently cruise (`Vette-a-van) and join up for a massive collection `Vettes and `Vette Clubs as well as tons of "goodies" for the kids.

If you are interested in joining us in this endeavor, please e-mail me at:
ri.vette.news@worldnet.att.net and please provide us with your ideas and comments for consideration as soon as possible.

Thank you for your time, remember to "Save the Wave!".
Tom Bembenek, President, Corvette Club of Rhode Island


August 8, 2001
I recently received this letter from Karl Johanson [C5R #X1619]. Many of you know he sells Corvettes for a living. I think Karl hit the nail on the head, and I realize this is like "preaching to the choir" – but I wanted to share this with you.
Dan

 

Gentlemen:

First of all I would like to say that the past two and a half years of concentrating on the sales and service of the Corvette have been wonderful years and I am truly grateful for the job that has been performed by all of you, in providing the public with such a wonderful Sports car. Not only do I sell the product but am also a proud owner of a 2001 Corvette Coupe. Because I am on both sides of the fence, this letter is being sent to address a major concern that I have that is generated not only from the fact that I sell Corvettes and must be in a position to give my customers as much accurate information as possible but also from the fact that I am an avid owner and enthusiast of the Corvette and the "CORVETTE EXPERIENCE" myself.

What I am referring to is the fact that in just a couple of days, we will be losing Mr. Sonny Kilgo to retirement. Sonny has been an indispensable asset to the Corvette Dealer and the Corvette customer in keeping us informed concerning the progress of each individual's Corvette. The ability to have a Liaison with the plant has made me a virtual hero with my customers in the  fact that I could keep them better informed than many of the other dealers that sell and service your product. It was brought to my attention, even though your organization had at one point decided who would take Sonny's place, that at this time the decision has been made to not replace him. This decision concerns me greatly and I felt that even though my opinion may not  carry much weight with Detroit, If I did not express how valuable this information has been, then the loss of that communication may or may not go unnoticed.

What this information has meant to the customer is that we have been able to accurately follow the progress of the individual Corvettes down to the very day that the car would come off the assembly line or as many of my Corvette owners would fondly refer to as "The day my Car was Born." Not only do many of them want to know that; but more and more are wanting to be there the day their Corvette comes off line. Without a Liaison that we can speak to it will be very difficult to accommodate these Corvette enthusiast or should I refer to them as OUR Corvette Owners. Sonny has been so gracious in always insuring that we had the latest information and especially the sequence numbers for the respective cars. So much so that the entire nation of Corvette owners has become spoiled by the excellent service that we have received from Sonny and the information that he has provided. I personally feel that the inability to continue to receive this type of information will not only effect my ability to keep my customers informed but it will also effect the attendance you have at the factory tours and possibly even the attendance figures that the Corvette Museum has been so fortunate to have over the past two years. I currently have eight Museum deliveries lined up for the initial release of the 2002 model year Corvettes. The purchase of a new Corvette has become a wonderful experience that so many of our customers want to enjoy to the fullest extent possible. If you remove our ability to get individual sequence numbers for our specific orders and our ability to find out what sequence number started on what day, then we will lose our ability to make sure that the excitement level of our customers will remain high from the very day that they place their orders to the first time they turn the key to their brand new Corvette and start out on their solo flight with a smile on their face. That smile comes from knowing that everyone involved with the planning, manufacture, delivery, and service of their Corvette is genuinely interested in knowing that they have provided the best experience that they possibly can for the Corvette owner.

I could go on about this subject all day to no avail. I would graciously request that those in charge of the manufacturing of the Corvette would realize the importance of being able to acquire this information and be able to pass it on to our customers. It is my understanding that the Dealer  Business Center will not be able to help us with this information. That sequence numbers will only be able to be obtained through our continued ability to discuss this type of information with someone at the plant. While I understand that those in charge may feel that Sonny's position is not one that needs to be continued, I am writing to inform you that the elimination of this position would be devastating to me as a dealer and to the thousands of Corvette enthusiast and owners who thrive on all the information that they can get a hold of concerning their personal Corvettes.

Please consider making a way for us to continue to be as efficient in providing this information as we have been so privileged to do over the past two years. The Internet has been an invaluable source of information and helped to generate sales of these vehicles. It would be a shame for the flow of information to be moving backwards when the ability to continue to move forward with the sales of the Corvette through the power of the Internet will only continue to grow and move forward.

Thank you for your time. I hope that you will consider this request to continue the flow of information that we have been receiving from Mr. Kilgo.

 

KARL A.V.JOHANSON
CHUCK HUTTON CHEVROLET
2471 MT. MORIAH RD.
MEMPHIS, TN. 38115

August 7, 2001
Members, For those of those asking about what your duties as a tour guides of the Bowling Plant would be... we received the message below from Jane Bowlin, editor of the Vette Gazette. She sent us this very detailed explanation of what would be required. Any additional questions, please feel free to contact her.
C5Ya!
Dan

From Jane:
Corvette Assembly Plant Tour Host Aug. 31 and Sept. 1:

The job:
What could be more fun than spending the morning or afternoon in the Corvette Assembly Plant! C5 Registry members who have helped in the past love having the chance to get a closer view of our assembly operation and talking with some of our friendly production personnel.

This opportunity includes:

  • Standing (we also provide a chair in case you need a rest) at a designated spot along the assembly line.
  • Making sure that visitors proceed along the route in a safe manner
  • Assuring that visitors stay on the tour route
  • Answering questions about the area in which you are posted

It does not include:

  • Leading a group of people through the entire tour route
  • Knowing everything there is to know about the Corvette assembly process

Shifts available:

  • Friday, Aug. 31: 8 a.m, to 11:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
  • Sat., Sept. 1: 7:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

We provide on the job training! Volunteer now, spaces are limited!! E-mai:l jane.b.bowlin@gm.com  for more information or to reserve your spot on the Corvette Plant tour route.


August 3, 2001
Attention all members:
If you have been a Bowling Green plant tour guide in the past or would like to be one NOW…you can! The Bowling Green Assembly Plant is looking for volunteer plant tour guides to help out at Labor Day. The shifts will be Friday August 31 8AM to 11:30 AM and 11AM to 2PM and Saturday, September 1 7:30AM to 11AM. If you are interested, contact Jane Bowlin at jane.b.bowlin@gm.com. They need our help.
Dan

July 25, 2001
"There's been a little chatter on the Net about delivery of the Newsletters. We have a new fulfillment house -- they handle mailing out our newsletters so if we have some problems I would like to hear about it. So far I've only received three e-mails from members saying they have not received their newsletter. If there are more of you out there, please let me know and I'll fire you off one right away.

We are changing the way we mail out newsletters. Because of its size, we are now eligible to go the same way that all your auto magazines come to you -- that is the preferred magazine rate. The application was submitted some time ago, but....the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray... We had first understood that it was a simple process to get the post office approval and it should only take a couple weeks. Once we got into it, we found that was far from the truth...we had to have on-site inspections and submit tons of documentation.

Well...that's all behind us now....at least I thought so....but we got another call yesterday and the post office wants more information...(I think they just like our newsletter...'cause they keep on asking for more copies.)

We should have this done by our next newsletter, but I certainly would not be betting on it... So please bear with us until we get the situation resolved. And if you have NOT received your newsletter, make sure we know about it. And by the same token, if you have changed your address ...make sure we know. In fact, we've had many more problems with changed addresses than we did with late delivery of the last newsletter." ...C5Ya!, Dan


Comments? E-Mail Me at: c5dan@c5registry.com 

 

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