Belle Island Trip

Cop Magnet

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Belle Isle Trip

Well, I just wanted to take this early opportunity to post some pics and say THANK YOU! to the Viper Club of America for putting on such a great event. We're two thirds of the way through as I start to write this. I'll update with photo's as we go along. Please feel free to post yours here too.

I arrived at about midnight Thursday night, finding a gorgeous gunmetal grey '08 coupe out front of the hotel. Seemed like the foyer was a little lopsided, so some gentle "convincing" got the valet to park my car opposite the coupe.
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PART 1 - Saleen Tour
First thing Friday morning, we caravaned to none other than the Saleen Motorsports assembly plant. The Motor City seems particularly fond of U-turns. No one knows why...
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There was a beautiful yellow S7 out front to greet us.
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We didn't make such a bad showing either.
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So this is what my car would look like with chromed ACR wheels...
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I'll have to make do with my own...
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In honor of the LeMans event this weekend. Who could ask for anything more appropriate?
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The Saleen hospitality was incredible. Their showroom and the whole line were clean, profession, and immaculately organized.
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Inside, we found a Ford GT.
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And another Saleen S7.
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As well as many other cars and trucks they work on.
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The Mustangs were a bread and butter item there. Sorry, I don't make the rules...
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Kim gave us our tour.
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Cop Magnet

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The dyno was used to tune each car and truck after assembly.
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Steve explains how each car is dismanteled, rebuilt, refitted with performance parts and body panels, and all done by hand. Here he tears into a soon-to-be-supercharged Mustang engine.
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This gentleman color sands a Viper door. The attention to detail here is amazing.
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Outside, we had a chance to get a quick ride in several Saleen project cars. This is a NA 400HP Parnelli Jones Edition Mustang.
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Apparently, the Michigan Troopers dream they look like this when cruising the streets.
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Unfortunately for them, this is what they wake up to. Probably something to do with all the tickets they write for illegal U-turns. Anyway, nice hat...
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Inside again, we find this young lady working on the finish of the unpainted Viper fenders.
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Row upon row of Viper hoods ready to be thrown in the back of my truck, I mean primed and painted...
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Is that the Metra? No, a high-tech paint and finishing system is evident throughout.
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This is Emily. Makes you feel good to know who's helped build your Viper, doesn't it?
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The cars are actually assembled at the Connor Avenue Plant, but they had one on hand here to triple check fit and finish.
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Again, special thanks to Saleen and the Viper Club for a great tour. It has been an unbelievable weekend so far. If you haven't attended an event like VOI or this race weekend, you are missing out.
 

RTTTTed

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Glad you enjoyed it. Didn;t work out for me to go this year, maybe next? Watched the races on TV, but didn't see any Viper parade.

Ted
 
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Thank you for posting all the pictures! :)
It was nice to meet you in person and glad you had a good time (we did too!) at Detroit.
 
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Cop Magnet

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Re: Belle Isle Trip

Part 2 - The Walter P. Chrysler Museum

Later the same day, we travelled by coach bus to the Walter P. Chrysler Museum at Chrysler Headquarters. First of all the complex is amazing. It is probably hundreds of acres of immaculately groomed, modern buildings. I have to admit I was a bit skeptical about the museum trip. But that feeling soon vanished when we were met by a group of Vipers out front.
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Sadly, this beauty did not race this weekend. We could have used you!
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This car convinced me to buy a raffle ticket!
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Inside we were met by a rotating floor to ceiling carousel with a group of beautiful cars. Of course, the Viper grandad was on top.
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The Chronos and Atlantique were on display.They did look damn sharp.
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Bob tried to get the officers to sing, but fortunately we were spared.
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I learned all kinds of trivia about Chrysler and the work they did. Did you know Chrysler bought the plant from the estate of the Dodge brothers after they both died of influenza in the 1919 pandemic? Also, Chrysler switched to a war footing and ceased production of cars in favor of jeeps and tanks during WWII. This tank engine is a series of 5 in-line sixes bolted to a common crank. It produced 445 HP from a total of 1250 CID. No word on torque, but this baby powered Shermans, so you bet it was badass!
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To get an idea of the things Chrysler made during the war, read this list. Everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink! Can you believe almost 3 billion .45 caliber casings???
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Back to the cars, in the basement they had the muscle cars on display. I know we all loved this car and probably still think of it as iconic. The '68 Charger.
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So many cars brought back great memories...
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A Superbird to round out the day. There was lots of history stuff about the cars, and you know there were tons more than I could show you here. All in all, very interesting.
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Again, what better car to view in light of this weekend's LeMans Series race? I bet you'd be hard pressed to find much noticeably different from the beautiful replica you saw at Saleen.
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And if you though JonB was in a bad mood most Mondays, wait till he gets the bill for this evening's libations!
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All in all a gorgous night for a private showing...
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When we got back to the hotel, that SRT coupe was still there, calling to me...
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Afterwards, the Illinois Club went out for steaks. Alex showed us how to put the big boys away. Props to Alex and the Illinois Club for having the biggest turnout of any region!
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mike & juli

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Re: Belle Isle Trip

GREAT pictures....and hmmmm....thankfully ALL OF CARS!!!! (I know, you've got the 'chick' ones on the 'right' forum!!~~!)....thank you for posting these absolutely fantastic pictures....absolutely LOVE the Vipers' pics you took. ~juli
 
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Part 3 - Belle Isle for the Grand Prix

Saturday morning we headed to Belle Isle itself for the races. The day consisted of our setting up together at the "Car Corral" with our VIP passes, observing practice runs, entering the paddocks to view the team trailers cars, and support, entering the pits themselves to see it all up close, meeting drivers for autographs, and of course the race itself.
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Besides the Vipers, there were tons of Corvettes, Ferrari's, Porshes, and (we don';t know why) a huge turnout of Audi's. Some Audi S4 running heavy boost harrassed our line of cars on the way into Detroit, actually, but none of us reduced ourselves to play.
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No matter your marque allegiances, you have to love cars like this...
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And even this...
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In the paddocks, we saw a set of Ferrari trailers with their World Challenge cars out.
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This is a rack of the tires they use being hauled to the pits!
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In fact, Ferrari had a very popular paddock area (had to post this for Juli!)
This is an actual reconstruction of the conversation amongst the "crew". OK, maybe I imagined it...
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I guess eventually they took turns on each other...
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mike & juli

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Gee thanx--I'm DEEEEE-lighted to see the 'chick' pics!!! :smirk: :rolaugh: AWESOME cars there...LOVE those type of shows. Thanx for sharing all those great pictures...hope you got some 'down' time after shooting all these pics and ENJOYED IT!!! (I'm sure you did)
THANX! :2tu: ~juli
**Edited previous post, Cop Magnet, thank you**
 

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That must explain the caravan of three Vipers being trailered on I-75 Sunday. I was visiting friends in Toledo this past weekend, and there were Vipers everywhere. Also saw a Black and Silver RT/10 buzzing around. What a vacation!
 
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Y2K5SRT it was great to meet you and a lot of other folks I have "known" only peripherally through the web. Thanks for the picture of my car. Yes, she does look badass with those wheels and brakes! :D


Some more pictures from the ALMS race Saturday.

The line-up at race start.
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This bad boy was the one and only Viper in the series. They worked valiantly to keep up with heavily sponsored (hello, Dodge???) teams.
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Ultimately, a broken half shaft put her temporarily out of the race. They had to cannabilize one from their backup car. Note to self: keep spare half-shafts -- it's a race car!
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There sure were some good-looking fans there...
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The Audi TDI cars got lots of attention.
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There seems to be one of these in every crew area. What gives?
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And I suppose in the stands, too. Larry, you are looking the WRONG WAY!
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Indy car with the skin off being prepped for Sunday.
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The Lowe's Acura car.
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Dyson Racing team's Porsches
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The Flying Lizard Porsche team clearly had some inspiration for their logo. Where are the DC copyright lawyers? All wrapped up in mergers and acquisitions?
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Now I would never wish any team bad luck, but one of their cars started leaking fuel and burst into flames during the race. We were in the paddock area and I only caught it on the monitor. The camera of the car behind just happened to be on screen, and you could see the lens being sprayed with fuel just before the driver pulled over. The cockpit started to fill with smoke, he pulled the fire suppression, and bailed out onto the live track. Pretty wicked, and glad everyone was OK. But next time, stick to your own logo! :nono:
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The course was fraught with collisions minor and major. You can see some carbon fiber on the track as a road hazard here.
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Audi gaining on Porsche. Nice line!
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Towards the end of the race, we lined up to do some track touring.
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We had to follow the lazy Audi and Porsche Club, so this first day's tour was slow. But we could get on it a little more the next morning!
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mike & juli

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Great pictures, CopMagnum, I mean ChickMagnet, I mean CopMagic...oops...CopMagnet!!
LOL--a bit of fun there!!~~~~Absolutely great pictures, thanx again for sharing! ~juli
 

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I really appreciate that you NOTICED and took time to post:
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vipergirl

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WOW- you took some awesome pictures (minus the chick pictures- I don't really get into those)! Thanks so much for filling us in about the event. Looks like it was a blast and sure makes me wish I could have been there!
 

mike & juli

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WOW- you took some awesome pictures (minus the chick pictures- I don't really get into those)! Thanks so much for filling us in about the event. Looks like it was a blast and sure makes me wish I could have been there!

LOL--yep, same here vipergirl!!! I think the pictures of the CARS is what makes us FEEL like we were there anyway!! :2tu: ~juli
 
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Part 4 - IRL Race Sunday

Jeez, almost done already. You'd think I'd lost a bet.

Sunday morning we got up early to be the first ones on the track. The parade to the track was impressive, Vipers as far as the eye could see!
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We got to do 3 or 4 laps at a fairly good clip. I might have hit 80 (not so fast except when you consider this was a "parade lap"). Jeff, in the Saleen S7, told me he hit 120!
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A Porsche GT was on display with the Porsche Club.
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There's Danica Patrick, next to a normal-sized human being
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Here's her car being towed around the paddock.
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Not sure what the tread is all about on Ed Carpenter's car.
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Up close of the information management system.
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Another Indy car. Note how they wheel it around after its towed near to its destination. This is Dario Franchitti's car.
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The Ferrari and Maserati models
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Like father, like son? Uh oh...
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mike & juli

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Verrrrrry nice pics, Mr. CopMagnet...see you are getting R-E-S-P-E-C-T now from me!!
Sure, you threw in some girls in there, but mostly CARS, yesssss!!!! Keep em coming!
~juli
 
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Even more awesome pictures!!! Especially the ones on the track laps.
 
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