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Up up and away!

Wednesday, May 15th, 2013

A little over a week ago I had the awesome chance to be the photographer and co-pilot to Ken Deken on our quest to take an aerial photograph of the Corvettes in our club.

But this was not just any aerial photograph, no not for our Corvette Club!

We decided to arrange all 46 Vettes into the initials of our club, C C A and it all started late last year from an idea of Sue and Gary Maddle for a new home page for our website, www.competitioncorvette.org.

With all of the engineering, design and many hours of planning we actually pulled it off!!  The night before we laid down a chalk diagram of the letters hoping we had enough room and enough Vettes!  Then on Saturday morning our chief engineers, Gary, Bill, Phil, Don and others, called out their needs for specific cars as part of our plan.
Then after a couple of hours or work, Ken and I crawled into his plane and took off to the friendly skies of the Lost Nation Airport.We made several circles around the runway and I was snapping non stop pictures at a rate of 3 per second as we flew over the cars and members in their bright red club shirts.  This was possible with the amazing Nikon Camera that was Ted Huddle’s.  Donna was gracious enough to trust me with putting it through its paces.  Thank God I decided to buy that 32GB memory card because I took over 450 photos!
Finally after making several passes I asked captain Ken to do some amazing flying and to try one last parallel pass and ripped off another 20 shots hoping to catch the winner!
Sure, no pressure here, a new camera, an unknown aerial shoot, and  yes, let’s throw in some wind and turbulence for good measure!
Nervously going through the photos after at our afternoon lunch cooked to perfection by the Lost Nation Airport staff, I got a chill when I found a couple that made it all worth the effort.After a little cropping I fixed one that made it into our club’s history and on to the front page of our website!

Our sincere thanks to all that participated to pull this one off!


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Monthly Meeting & Tour of the OEX Manufacturing Facility – 09/08/10

Thursday, September 9th, 2010

We held our September 2010 monthly meeting at the manufacturing plant of OE Exchange on Tyler Blvd in Mentor. 
Fred Dugach arranged to have a tour of the facilities for our CCA club members.  We actually had one of the best turn outs for any monthly meeting!  Might be a good idea to have more “show and tells”.

The principals Peter Mooney, Bob Boley, and Brian Boley welcomed us with an in-depth description of their patented manufacturing process prior to our meeting. 

Brian showed us how they take a new or repaired rim and prepare it and powder-coat it for an extremely durable “chrome” or “colored” finish.

This process is becoming more and more valuable due to the caustic manufacturing problems of the more familiar chrome plating process.

In fact if you ask for an upgraded set of wheels on a new or even used car, chances are good that you will own a set of OEX coated wheels.

Fred Dugach can attest to the durability of the wheels because unknown to him, he received two OEX rims from Pat O’Brien Chevrolet and another two OEX rims from Conrad Tires.  All of which came through another OEX retail distributor Motomotion, Inc  www.motomotion.com.

You can learn more about the OEX process on their website at www.oexllc.com .

If you are interested in having your rims repaired and/or refinished by OEX, (or anything else like intake manifolds, rocker covers, etc), then please contact either Peter Mooney at peter@oexllc.com440-266-1639, or Bob Boley boboley@wheelmedic.com through their retail store, Wheel Medic, Inc. at 800-826-5795, www.wheelmedic.com or www.theroundhouse.ws/.
 
Our sincere thanks to our gracious hosts!

Check out the photos at http://competitioncorvette.org/oexmeeting090810.html

Thank you!

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Concord Township Community Days Parade – 09/05/10

Thursday, September 9th, 2010

Once again the members of Concord Township Community Days asked our club to show up and provide the rides for the Concord Princess and her court of beautiful young girls! 

We all had fun en route to the event from the Strout’s residence to the staging area and then finally to the actual parade in front of the entire township.  It was a nice chance for our proud members to show off their Corvettes!

Check out the photos at http://competitioncorvette.org/concorddays2010.html

Our many thanks to all that helped (and to the people that brought the candy – yum!).

Posted in Charities, Entertainment, General, Hobbies, Membership | No Comments »

Quail Hollow Wine Tasting Event 09/04/10

Thursday, September 9th, 2010

Our CCA club members attended a wine tasting social at the newly remodeled Quail Hollow Country Club.  It was quite obvious that our members enjoy many fine wines on a great day!  Even our Vettes seemed to smile while parked in front of the main entrance of the country club.  Nice new Grand Sport Don and Sharon!

Check out the cars and smiles on our website at http://competitioncorvette.org/quailhollowwine090410.html

Thank you!

Posted in Entertainment, General, Hobbies, News, Wines & Vineyards | No Comments »

CCA Golf Outing at St. Denis – 08/29/10

Thursday, September 9th, 2010

Thanks to Ken Danch and the St. Denis golf course, several members of CCA had an enjoyable day and the good news is nobody got hurt!!

The teams played a fairly quick 9 holes and shared waaaay too many strokes!  In fact the only member to win the prize for closest to the hole on any par 3 was Denise Kaehler!  Atta Girl!

 And then in order to share all of the stories of how we missed the important ones, we all went to the Red Hawk Grill. 

Check out the photos http://competitioncorvette.org/golfouting082910.html

(Nice cigar Rick!)

Fore!

Posted in Entertainment, General, Golf, Hobbies | No Comments »

C5 ABS Failure with a happy ending!

Monday, July 19th, 2010

I decided to add this to our blog because of an identical problem that recently happened to another member of our club.

Back on August of 2007 when my 2001 Corvette coupe had about 36,000 miles, I got the dreaded C1214 ABS error on my display.

After picking myself up off the floor when I found that it would cost about $1500 to have it repaired by the local Chevy service center, I searched the Internet for a better solution and found Brandon Hite from www.ABSFixer.com. 

So I called him and emailed him a few times to find out how he worked the deal.  He only wanted $150 plus S&H to repair my unit!  It would cost more if he had to send you a refurbished one first, (I pay with PayPal for security reasons).

So I removed just the ABS unit, (called EBCM), from the valve body and shipped it to him.  While waiting for the repair I simply had to tape a plastic bag over the valve body to prevent any dirt from getting into it while driving it for little over a week until the repaired unit was shipped back.  I actually used one of those mylar computer parts bags because it was a little tougher.

This was a fairly simple, although a bit awkward, process to remove and then later, to replace the unit.
After installing the repaired unit I simply cleared the error codes from the DIC (computer) and have had no troubles to date!  But if I did, Brandon does provide a warranty.
(There are instructions on our website that shows how to get and clear any error codes on the C5 Vettes).

Check out the removal process here on his website…
   http://absfixer.com/how_do_i_remove.php  

He will do this for the ABS units in many other cars not just Vettes.  
I even told an auto repair client of mine so he can make a few extra bucks too!

So please pass this along to help other fellow C5 owners!
Thank you!
Fred

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The Carlisle Experience

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

Every fall for the past 27 years one of the largest Corvette gatherings occurs at the Carlisle Fairgrounds. Even before I owned my Corvette, I wanted to see this event and the variety of cars, vendors, and activities that attract fans from all over the country.

This year the featured car was the 1958 Corvette, celebrating its 50th anniversary. The redesign that year included quad headlights and the most chrome ever bestowed upon this sports car. The ‘58 is easy to spot with its fake hood louvers and chrome ‘tusks’ on the trunk-lid. Another special celebration was the 30th anniversary of the 1978 models, which included an Indy 500 Pace Car and a 25th Anniversary Special Edition.

The excitement this year was focused on the new ZR1. We watched them unload the trailers of the 4 that GM brought to Carlisle. Tom Wallace, Corvette chief engineer, personally supervised the unloading process. He politely refused our offers to assist in the cleanup and parking of these new supercars. He did a ‘walkaround’ introduction of the ZR1 at the grandstand and gave some of his insight and experience on bringing this car to production.

The three days of activities has something for everybody, did I mention that there are hundreds of Corvettes there! The days are filled with vendor displays, troubleshooting seminars, a car auction, an autocross, a burnout contest, and a parade through the downtown streets. There are raffles for Corvettes and a silent auction for memorabilia benefiting the Chip Miller Charitable Foundation.  A special tribute to our Armed Forces was an American flag built with the help of over 100 red, white, and blue Corvettes.

Every Corvette owner should experience this event at least once. Start by visiting the Carlisle website at;  http://www.carsatcarlisle.com/ce/index.asp

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Front License Plates

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

I recently received an email from TBIRD57@aol.com about the TOP FLIGHT Reproductions, www.topflightrepro.com, front license plate for the C6.

If you Google it you will find the Corvette Forum’s thread on the recommendations and installation comments of this good looking license plate holder.

This whole topic really brings up an interesting question - whether or not to display your front plate?  I believe it’s an Ohio law to have one yet I see a few Vettes without one.  Some of the C5’s have them or have decided to use the matching license plate cover.

I think someone even mentioned that there is one that will pop out when needed, (or when stopped by you know who!).

It would be interesting to hear your comments on -
 ”To Plate” or “No Plate”!

Thanks! 

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A C5 Day!

Thursday, April 17th, 2008

This is one of my favorite video clips on YouTube that is guaranteed to get you going any day!

The sights and sounds are enough to remind each of us why we got one!  And being a bit prejudice, it looks just like mine!

Turn up the volume and click the Play button in the middle and enjoy!

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News from the Pres.

Friday, April 11th, 2008

The snow is gone and it’s time to get your vettes out, put the top down or in some cases the windows down and go for a drive.   If you haven’t been to the mystery dinners, they are alot of fun.  We go for a nice ride and then enjoy dinner. 

For the summer months, we have a picnic for our montly meetings, please see the website or newsletter for the venues.  We supply the hot dogs and hamburgers, and you can bring a dish to share.  It’s a nice way to relax before the meeting and get to know the other club members.

  We are also hosting a Charity event “Walk with Mary” June 7th.  Please mark your calendars and plan to enter your car and if possible we will need help with the event. 

We will also have a low speed autocross in August.  We will also need help for this event.    Please mark your calendars for August 2nd. 

Look forward to seeing everyone at the meetings and mystery dinners and especially out and about.

Save the Wave

Sharon 

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