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First off, I want to thank Chris and his wife Natasha, and the rest of the Callaway owners here for a job well done at Carlisle and for inviting me to attend. I was also extremely impressed with the engineers from Callaway Cars in Old Lyme, CT.
The dinner and reception last night was first class, and EXTREMELY well organized. I was quite honored and to be honest with you, humbled by the whole experience.
My first experience with Callaway Cars was around 1994, or 1995. The ZR-1 Registry did a tour of their facility and I remember walking in seeing Corvettes in various stages of development and production. There was an LT5 engine on the dyno, screaming away at WOT. What a sound!
There were benches everywhere with various LT5 engine parts all lined up. We were then led over to two twin turbo ZR-1s that were up on lifts. I remember walking underneath them thinking, "holy $%^&, we are not in Kansas anymore!"
I'm not an engineer, but based upon the quality of workmanship and craftsmanship that I witnessed, I walked away from there with a new level of respect for what they were doing.
That level of quality and craftsmanship made itself well known this weekend at Carlisle. There were all types of Callaways there, including one of the most incredible Corvettes, I have ever seen - a silver Callaway C12.
In fact, I kind of felt like an idiot at one point because I was standing next to Mike Zoner from Callaway Cars, and I just kept mumbling, "wow, that is AWESOME". At one point, I had to stop and make sure I didn't have drool running down my shirt! :L
About a year ago, someone mentioned to me that I should consider starting a Callaway forum here at the Corvette Action Center. I was a little hesitant since I didn't think there would be enough owners interested in this type of venue and I didn't want to start another dead forum like the ZR-1 Forum. I'm not sure what my response was to that person that requested it, but I believe I asked for more time to research the possibilities.
Shortly after, I ran into Chris (*89x2*) at a Cruise Night here in VA and he mentioned that a group of Callaway folks were looking for a new home since another forum web site denied them there own forum. At that point, I figured, if the other site denied them their own forum, that's all the more reason for me to give them a new home here at the CAC. Hence, the Callaway Forum was started here.
After starting the Callaway Forum, I realized, I really didn't know that much about them - as much as I should in any case. As a result, I put together the Callaway Model Center. Right now, it's ok, but I feel it's missing some vital information and I plan on working on that ASAP.
This weekend was the first time I got a chance to interact with some of you here on the forums as well as some of the Callaway Engineers. What a top notch group of folks!!!
Dinner was awesome and the stories that Mike Zoner told were not only hilarious, but nothing short of amazing. Great job Mike!!!! I'm going to try that tapping thing on my desk in work and see if I can light a flame under the butts of some staff members there! :L :L
For those of you that are guests and browsing this thread, if you're not aware of Callaway, check out their web site:
Callaway Cars
At the conclusion of last night's dinner, everyone went out in the back parking lot of the hotel to take part in "Creeper Races".
Basically, a short course was set up with mini-traffic cones and some of the Callaway owners and engineers raced on a mechanic's creeper.
Unfortunately, I had one hell of a splitting headache (I booked out of the dinner at the end, hopped in my car and went to get Motrin at a local gas station), so I did not participate, but yours truly, *89x2* did along with the folks from Callaway Cars.
What a riot!
So without further hesitation, I'll post these pics, and lets see some captions for them! They didn't come out as good as I hoped, but as the saying goes, "you get the picture":
The dinner and reception last night was first class, and EXTREMELY well organized. I was quite honored and to be honest with you, humbled by the whole experience.
My first experience with Callaway Cars was around 1994, or 1995. The ZR-1 Registry did a tour of their facility and I remember walking in seeing Corvettes in various stages of development and production. There was an LT5 engine on the dyno, screaming away at WOT. What a sound!
There were benches everywhere with various LT5 engine parts all lined up. We were then led over to two twin turbo ZR-1s that were up on lifts. I remember walking underneath them thinking, "holy $%^&, we are not in Kansas anymore!"
I'm not an engineer, but based upon the quality of workmanship and craftsmanship that I witnessed, I walked away from there with a new level of respect for what they were doing.
That level of quality and craftsmanship made itself well known this weekend at Carlisle. There were all types of Callaways there, including one of the most incredible Corvettes, I have ever seen - a silver Callaway C12.
In fact, I kind of felt like an idiot at one point because I was standing next to Mike Zoner from Callaway Cars, and I just kept mumbling, "wow, that is AWESOME". At one point, I had to stop and make sure I didn't have drool running down my shirt! :L
About a year ago, someone mentioned to me that I should consider starting a Callaway forum here at the Corvette Action Center. I was a little hesitant since I didn't think there would be enough owners interested in this type of venue and I didn't want to start another dead forum like the ZR-1 Forum. I'm not sure what my response was to that person that requested it, but I believe I asked for more time to research the possibilities.
Shortly after, I ran into Chris (*89x2*) at a Cruise Night here in VA and he mentioned that a group of Callaway folks were looking for a new home since another forum web site denied them there own forum. At that point, I figured, if the other site denied them their own forum, that's all the more reason for me to give them a new home here at the CAC. Hence, the Callaway Forum was started here.
After starting the Callaway Forum, I realized, I really didn't know that much about them - as much as I should in any case. As a result, I put together the Callaway Model Center. Right now, it's ok, but I feel it's missing some vital information and I plan on working on that ASAP.
This weekend was the first time I got a chance to interact with some of you here on the forums as well as some of the Callaway Engineers. What a top notch group of folks!!!
Dinner was awesome and the stories that Mike Zoner told were not only hilarious, but nothing short of amazing. Great job Mike!!!! I'm going to try that tapping thing on my desk in work and see if I can light a flame under the butts of some staff members there! :L :L
For those of you that are guests and browsing this thread, if you're not aware of Callaway, check out their web site:
Callaway Cars
At the conclusion of last night's dinner, everyone went out in the back parking lot of the hotel to take part in "Creeper Races".
Basically, a short course was set up with mini-traffic cones and some of the Callaway owners and engineers raced on a mechanic's creeper.
Unfortunately, I had one hell of a splitting headache (I booked out of the dinner at the end, hopped in my car and went to get Motrin at a local gas station), so I did not participate, but yours truly, *89x2* did along with the folks from Callaway Cars.
What a riot!
So without further hesitation, I'll post these pics, and lets see some captions for them! They didn't come out as good as I hoped, but as the saying goes, "you get the picture":
