[DeTomaso] 2012 Summer Summit Recap 1

Mon Jun 11 12:27:08 EDT 2012

I want to give great kudos to Michael for doing the legwork and organizing
this event. It was certainly the hardest my car has been driven in the 3
years I've owned it and I was pleasantly surprised at how well the car
thoroughly enjoyed being worked.  I did a quick search this morning for
pics and found the spots around our runs below.  If you look closely at the
burgundy one on some pics, you will see my wife's hand hanging onto the
roof out the window. What you don't get from the pics is
her jubilant screaming as we were tailing Michael on the first run. Nice
rush.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics of the wreck but wish I would have.
the car hit hard into the concrete corner and like Micheal said just peeled
the side of the car off. I went back and retrieved his door skin which was
still by the stone corner. The lady passenger was very lucky the brunt of
the collision occurred just behind her in the pillar support.

http://www.photoreflect.com/store/ThumbPage.aspx?e=8548763&g=0QAK016X00

http://www.photoreflect.com/store/Orderpage.aspx?pi=0QAK016X000727&po=727&pc=1828

http://www.photoreflect.com/store/ThumbPage.aspx?e=8549890&g=0CVY00WX08

Rob

On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 11:59 AM, michael at michaelshortt.com <
michaelsavga at gmail.com> wrote:

> The 2012 Summer Summit came to a successful end yesterday.
>
> Unfortunately, the herd thinned a bit due to 2 attendees with personal
> or familial medical issues
> ( both with Red Panteras, let that be a warning).
>
> On hand was Michael & Joni Shortt with #1660 (Yellow), Rob & Kathy Dumoulin
> #1488 ( Black Cherry),
> Dave & Diane McManus #4604 (Yellow) plus Bill & Marilyn Lewis Grand Sport
> C-6 Conv (Yellow), Tom
> & Dena Shinrock, 86 Porsche 944T ( Silver ) and Larry Homolak & Shelia,
> Honda Civic, (White).
>
> We stayed at Fontana Village Resort at the foot of the Fontana Dam, it was
> the original work camp for the
> WPA workers who built the dam as a part of the TVA effort preceding and
> during WW2.  The accommodations
> were nice and the staff generally friendly.
>
> Thursday evening Joni and I met Bill & Marilyn for dinner at the
> Mountainview Restaurant inside the Lodge,
> the next morning, we headed off to breakfast in Bryson City to
> the Everett Street Diner, then on to
> to Cherokee, NC to tour the Cherokee Museum and later that afternoon,
> the Cherokee Indian village.
> Bill does a mean war dance and I have it on video! After a brief stop at
> the T-Shirt, Fudge and T-Shirt
> strip of stores, we headed back to the Lodge.  The weather and clear and
> sunny, if not a tad hot, we drove Joni's
> MB 350 SLK so as to match Bill's Corvette soft top and went styling with
> the tops down all day, it was great fun.
>
> We headed back to the lodge and met everyone else, then had dinner at the
> Fontana Grill, also on the property.
> The next morning, we changed the schedule due to the reduced number of
> participants ( we were scheduled to have
> a private breakfast in Robbinsville, but I cancelled it because we
> originally forecast 25 guests, then it was 16 and finally
> 12, not enough to warrnt the 2 hour drive or to put the restaurant staff to
> a special effort and expense ). After a quick buffet
> breakfast at the Lodge, we headed off to US 129, the "Tail of the Dragon",
> after a couple of fun ( accident and citation free )
> runs, although it was close, I was saved by a slow motorcycle who held us
> up, one turn before the next turn hiding an marked
> State Highway Patrol SUV who was lying in wait, ready to pounce.
>
>  I did get an opportunity to take Tom Shinrock for a ride up the Dragon, it
> was fun until we ran upon a flock of clueless
> mini vans who's sole mission in life seemed to be ruining other people fun
> and seeing how slow you could go while
> maintaining forward movement. Finally, we headed on to Pigeon Forge, TN via
> a long winding drive to Floyd Garrett's
> Muscle Car Museum.  Inside were over 90 classic cars, some of
> my personal favorite where the Gran Torino King Cobra
> ( 1 of 3 ), a perfect Sunbean Tiger Mk 1, with a rich SCCA racing history (
> including being National Champion ), a Calypso
> Orange Boss 429 and a Competition Orange Camaro ZL1 ( 1 of 69 ).
> Pigeon Ford is a sprawling tourist mecca (trap) and traffic is miserable, I
> couldn't wait to get out of there, neither could
> my car, it was hotter sitting in traffic than being thrashed on the dragon.
>
> On the way back, there was some excitement in that Rob, Bill and Dave were
> witness to a car accident, a man in what
> appeared to be in later 70's dropped a wheel off a newly
> paved section of asphalt with a 7" shoulder drop and like most people,
> braked with one set of tires on gravel and the other set on pavement, then
> hit a wooded railing and rode that straight into a
> rock bridge, the entire right side of the car was sheered off.  Joni and I
> and Tom and Dena pulled up right after it happened,
> Rob was first on scene and checked on the folks, then Joni gave them a
> nurse's quick check up and I called 911 since
> Verizon was the only signal that worked ( barely ) and directed traffic (
> Tourist can be real jerks BTW ).
>  Rob has photos, perhaps he will share.  After the US Park Rangers arrived,
> we took off andf continued on our journey to dinner at
> Naber's Drive Inn.  It is one of those iconic drive in places with a
> corrugated metal cover with menus and curb service and an eat
> inside area, the whole place perched on a river bank with flowing
> water passing behind it.  We ate ( pickle flavored milkshake,
> deep fried Indian corn on the cob and Hot Fudge Sundaes with TWO brownies )
> and we took a nice leisurely drive back to the Lodge.
> If I had one complaint it was the outrageous prices of the food, 1.55 hot
> dogs, 1.95 cheeseburgers and 3.00 double fudge sundaes. ;-)
>
> The next morning brought rain ( LOTS of Rain ) and we decided to call an
> early end to the fun and had breakfast at the lodge.
> Bill Lewis was awarded the "long Distance Award for driving all the way
> from Hockley, Texas, his award was a Detomaso Grill
> Emblem on a business card stand custom made and donated by by Gary Walker,
> gow2 at rc-tech.net.  Get yours TODAY.
> I bought one, put my original grill emblem on his supplied stand and now
> have his emblem installed on the grill of my car, it is BELLA!!!!
>
> The long drive home was wet and somewhat eventful with an road
> raging aggressive driver and a last minute part failure 2 miles
> from home ( stories to come later ), made it home safely after an 8 hour
> tense day of driving mostly all downhill, in monsoon
> like rain storm.
>
> It was another Summer Summit, next year will be the 3rd one and we hope to
> see more of you participate, the location is
> subject to change.
>
> Our Photos will be posted in the next few days.
>
> Meanwhile, commercial photographers work several stations on the Dragon and
> have our photos posted,
> check the times between 10 a.m. and noon.
>
> http://www.killboy.com/
>
> http://www.dragonslayerphotos.com/
>
> http://www.moonshinephoto.com/
>
> http://www.zeefoto.com/
>
> http://us129photos.com/
>
>
>
>
>
> Michael Shortt
>
>
> --
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Michael L. Shortt
> Savannah, Georgia
> www.michaelshortt.com
> michael at michaelshortt.com
> 912-232-9390
>
>
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-- 
Rob DuMoulin
904.476.8744
rob at dumoulins.net