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Dodge Stealth & Mitsubishi 3000GT Fall 1997 |
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Dodge Stealth & Mitsubishi 3000GT Fall 1997 |
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Welcome to the unofficial official page for the first New England S3 Gathering. We had our gathering at it was definitely a success! We had loads of fun hanging out, cruisin' around, and just relaxing.
Dateline: September 26-28.
To start everything off, we ended up with 7 Stealths and 3000GT's.
| Eric Bowden | Blue 1993 Dodge Stealth R/T | Lebanon, NH |
| Jimmy Maffucci | Red 1996 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4 | New Rochelle, NY |
| Paul Malan | Red 1992 Dodge Stealth Twin Turbo | Enfield, NH |
| Nav Moondi | Red 1992 Mitsubishi 3000GT | Bristol, CT |
| Lorne Silkes | Green 1994 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4 | Sharon, MA |
| Gregg Couture | Red 1995 Mitsubishi 3000GT | Lynnfield, MA |
| Eric Lotter | Green 1993 Dodge Stealth Twin Turbo | Forestdale, MA |
| Melissa -AHEM!- | Black 1994 Dodge Stealth R/T (no show, rode with Eric) | Forestdale, MA |
The Pictures:
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The first picture is in my parents backyard. Ma Bowden went upstairs and took the picture out of the living room window looking down on us. Nice shot.
The rest of the pictures were taken at Canon Mountain just north of the Franconia Notch in central New Hampshire. Paul went over with us but had to head back so the six of us racked up the cars and took a few pictures before the sun disappeared behind the mountains surrounding us.
The last picture is of the three First Generation cars we had... Once Gregg (who ironically doesn't even have a 1st gen car) showed us the trick to turn on the headlights without them popping up. Looks very cool. The "snake eyes" headlights...
The Days' Events:
It all got started Friday night. Paul and myself met at Shorty's Mexican Roadhouse at
about 9:30pm. We sat and chatted for a while. Just before I headed over to Shorty's, I
got a call from Jimmy Maffucci that he and Nav Moondi were running a little
behind and would be getting in about 10:30.
They finally showed up as they had planned, so we had a little to eat before the kitchen closed for the night. We left there and went over the the Seven Barrel Brewery, a restaurant/bar/tavern kinda place. We took up residence at the far end of the bar, but it was not far enough away from the HORRIBLE band that was playing that night. Ugh! We left there at about midnight. Paul lives local, and Jimmy and Nav were staying at my place.
The next morning we got up and headed for Miller Mazda and Dodge of Lebanon, NH. Many thanks for letting us use your lot and detail area guys!!! To start, we ended up with an absolutely gorgeous and perfect day. Sun was shining bright as were all our cars. And the fall foliage (leave changing colors) were in high season. Perfect day I tell ya. Couldn't have been better.... Anyway, now that the scene is set...
When we arrived, Eric Lotter and was already there with his girlfriend Melissa and his green 93 Stealth Twin Turbo. We took places where we were supposed to line up. Eric has originally said he was bringing 3 stealths, the green one, Melissa was to drive the black 94 R/T and his sister Jamie was going to bring a white Stealth ES. Well, they only brought the green one - Melissa didn't wanna drive ALL the way up to NH (like 2.5 hours) so we made it a point to harass her for it... The joke of this gathering was definitely: "Where's the Black Stealth??"
The rest of the guys showed up and Miller let us use their detailing area for a few of the guys to wash their cars. A first for Eric Lotter - washing his own car... We didn't charge him for the lessons. We left there and headed to "metropolitan downtown" West Lebanon. Jimmy had to make a liquor run and stock up for a buddy-of-his' bar (you know, tax free New Hampshire...). Then we paraded up through Hanover. What a sight. We actually made it down the 2 blocks of Main Street without getting separated. Definitely stopped traffic and turned a lot of heads, the seven of us lined up. Made it out to the Bowden's (parents) house at about noonish. Just in time for some awesome eats. Burgers, dogs, mac-n-cheese, baked beans, chips, etc, etc, etc... MMMMMM!
After that and a few pictures, it was time to wear some rubber off the tires. I had planned out a nice scenic drive across some great roads through the NH countryside. We took off and about an hour later arrived in downtown Plymouth, NH. There was something going on there and people were everywhere. Once againheads were turning. I was the lead car and some chick saw us all lined up looking nice-n-shiny and came run/bounding over saying "wow, is this a probe fest?" "Uhhh..." I responded, "no, Dodge Stealth and 3000GT's." "Oh, COOL!" I got a big laugh out of that one...
We all took over a gas station (which doused the sides of all our cars, bad shutoff mechanism...) and headed north on I-93. About 30 minutes later, we hit the Franconia Notch and we stopped at the Old Man of the Mountain and took some pics. Paul had to head back from here. The rest of us headed up the highway a mile to Canon Mountain Resort and hung out in a parking lot for a while. Ran off some yellow Corvette. Took some pictures. Ate brownies. Compared "riding buddies" - seems like most of us have some little stuffed companion that goes everywhere we do...
We left Canon just about sundown and completely FLEW down the interstate back to Plymouth.
Jockeying back and forth around each other. Probably averaged about 100 mph... Quite the
exhilirating and fun little spurt of highway. 'Course at that speed, we were back in Plymouth
before we knew it and I had to about run Nav off the road to make him take the right exit
After that, the Boston folks headed south and Nav, Jimmy, and myself headed back across one awesome little JUST repaved stretch of backroad... Completely blew some Eclipse clean off the road passing him at about 120. This 14 mile stretch of road is (now that it's repaved) by far one of my favorite back roads. Funny thing... Once we got off that road and onto a more prominent (i.e., cops hang out on it) road, that little eclipse actually caught up to us and tried to be all that and passed us all three... We all got a big laugh out of that one later. "Oooohhhh... pass us all now when were more or less hanging at 5-10 above the speed limit. Where were you back on the fun road?" Heh-heh-heh... Anyway, we went home and hung out for a while. Went to a little pool hall and basically proved that none of us have much talent at billiards other than a little luck.
Sunday we got up and went to EBA's in Hanover for breakfast. Nav ate the menu... Then we drove around a few Vermont backroads a bit, just kinda killing some time hanging out. About mid afternoon, Jimmy and Nav hit the highway headed back home.
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Gregg's account of the weekend....: Anyways - it was a very cool day. I'm sure they'll be pics posted on web sites, and stories to tell - but this is my basic view of the day: It rocked! As most of you know - I was having SERIOUS car problems this entire week - first with the clutch, second with the fuel injection fuse blowing. Well - it couldn't have worked out more perfect for me. I got the car back Friday morning, with the fuse problem solved FOREVER. (Golf clap). PLUS - I got my 18" Tires in at 5:30PM for the set of 18" Chrome rims that I've had for over 5 months - and I was at NTB untill 8:30PM getting the suckers put on! I got there a little later than expected, and the guy quotes me about a 2 1/2 hour delay...needless to say - he was very suprized when I said...fine, I'll wait, because he then admitted that he didn't think i'd say yes, and got a guy over within 20 minutes to put them on! lol - no WAY was I going to the Gathering with my old 16" Rims, knowing that I had a set of 18" chromies sitting at home collecting dust! Anyways - I took the ride up Saturday morning, and met everybody at the Dodge dealership. We lined up our cars, took a few shots, taught Eric Lotter how to wash a car (lol), we all got a massage from Eric's Subs, and just hung out and did the usual "gathering" kinda stuff. The folks who attended were the following: Myself, with a 95 Red 3K, Eric Bowden (well - everbody knows Erics car), Eric Lotter (with one of THREE stealths - he decided to bring the green R/T Turbo, and leave the black one home. (Inside joke). :) Nav Moondi's 93 Red 3K, Jimmy Maffucci's 96 Red 3K VR-4, Lorne Silkes 94 Green 3K VR-4, and Paul's 93 Red Stealth R/T Turbo. Even though there was only 7 cars...it was still a sight to see! Anyways, next - I needed to make a pit stop at Auto Palace for some valve stem covers, since I rushed out of NTB the night before without even realizing that I left mine on my 16" Rims. So after getting split up at almost every light there was...we finally met up and journied back through Lebanon (I believe) to Eric's parents' house. What a rush! It was the first time i've ever ridden in a Stealth/3000GT gunshot....and I got the tail end which I thought was the coolest - because by the time everybody you pass realizes that there's a whole schlew of S/3's running....they're looking and pointing at you! LOL. Well - we turned a few heads, and caused a few accidents (kidding) - and got to the folk's house. Gooooooood Eatin'!!! Burgers and dogs for the entire town, I tell ya! So - after we took a few more shots, checked out systems, rides, mods, etc....I then called my pharmacy so I could get out of work for that night. There wasn't any way in hell I was about to leave all this fun in 2 hours!!! We didn't even get to see what our babies were made of yet!! So - we headed out down some winding narrow country roads....and were zipping cross country in no time. I was taking shots out of my sunroof, side windows...and throught the windshield - it was amazing. Nothing like seeing 7 Stealth/3000's taking the same corners, passing in front of cars, and just having fun. I even decided to do a little road-handling test, Road and Track style while testing out my new 18"'s on some cones on this one road! lol. Well - after getting stuck behind Grandma Moses...we ended up at a gas station to fill up. Good think I had some Quik Detailer in my trunk...cuz there wasn't any automatic shut off on the pump...so I think everybody overflowed onto their paint! Well - we headed out once again, after stocking up with more film, drinks, and gas. We journied down this BEAUTIFUL scenic 2 lane highway which led to the Old Man in the Mountain. We passed through vallys, hillsides, and the folliage was just on the verge of turning. It was increadible....it deserved some more "hanging out of the window while driving 85mph" shots from my camera! After pissing off one guy who was pissing US off because he felt the need to cut in front of each and every one of us, breaking up our line (get a clue buddy - you see 7 of the same car...guess what..it's NOT a coincidence!!) we ended up at the Old Man in the Mountain. Right about here is when Paul with his 93' Stealth R/T Turbo had to bid us farewell - it was fun Paul! Well, after we took some touristy shots there, we then headed over to this parking lot right smack dab in the middle of this beautiful valley. The sun was still shining over half of it, and it with our cars lined up...it looked just like a shot out of Road and Track magazine. The only thing that ruined it was this 92 Yellow Convertible Vette sitting right smack dab in the middle of the empty parking lot. I think he got scared - because he left in a hurry once we rumbled in. Too bad Parham wasn't there, because he DEFINATELY would have shown him who's boss! lol Well - we chilled out for a while, laughed, checked out each others rides some more...and I think everybody got to test drive everybody ELSES rides at least once. lol - Eric got to drive Nav's automatic, I got to drive Lorne's VR-4, Mellissa (Eric Lotter's girlfriend) got to drive Eric Bowden's 222hp stereo, and Eric Lotter and Nav both got to drive my new clutch - which we all agreed that it felt a little loose - but thats another story. Well - we lined up the rides again, and took some pics with some friends as well. We made one kids life by letting him sit in Lorne's VR-4 while his mom snapped pics of his grin. We also took some pics with ALF, Mr. Bunny Rabbit, Gorrilla Boy, and Teddy sitting on Erics car - overlooking the entire lineup of cars. Don't worry - you'll see what I'm talking about. :) Well - it was getting late, and after figuring out how to keep the lights down on the pop-up versions of the 3000GT/Stealths - we decided to do one last run home to a diner about 15 miles away. This was probably the most exciting part of the entire trip. We must have all felt the same rush that this was our last run together for now...so we all just put ourselves in "Oh Shit" mode, and stomped on it!! We were weaving through traffic, passing each other, cornering at speeds which are definately not reccommended - and we all agreed that our average speed was around 95mph. Parham would have been proud! We probably looked like the Hells Angels in 3/S's - blowing by everybody. As soon as we all got off at our exit, a cruiser went by the other way with his lights blowing. He was probably pulling over some poor soul who was only doing like 15mph over the limit. HA! Wimpy speed!!! Well - to rap up the night, we all ended up at a small diner in Plymouth N.H., and just ate, and laughed some more. It was an increadible day guys, and I wanted to thank Eric for setting it up, and his parents for their hospitality! Also - it was great meeting everybody else - and I hope to see you all real soon for another few runs!! It's not too often I get to run with multiple 3000GT/Stealths! Take Care all - see ya's soon! Gregg |