The October Quickening - Cape Cod, MA Dodge Stealth & Mitsubishi 3000GT Fall 1997

Dateline: October 17-19, 1997
Eric Lotter worked hard to put together an awesome weekend for New England Stealth and 3000GT owners.

From Eric Lotter himself: I would like to thank every one who made it down to make the weekend a great success! And I hope those that "survived" the quickening are all doing well! The cars that won Awards: Based on votes of attendees Jeff's Spyder VR-4: Best of show Jimmy's 96 VR-4: Best Stock Eric's 222 HP Stereo: Best Audio Mod (nuf said!) Ed's 94 VR-4: Best Performance Mod (killer displacement on those wheels) Gregg's 95 GT: Best overall modification (aftermarket leather, 97 chrome, sunroof, yikes!) Santo's 92 RT/TT: Road Runner Award - 800+ miles Toronto to Hyannis and no sleep! I would like to thank Mike Denen at Hyannis Mitsubishi for letting use their space and beating on the 97 base model 3000gt. And Breakfast! As well as Dave at the pro shop

About half the folks showed up Friday night and met at the Sandwich Tavern for some good food, pool, and conversation. Eric, Justin, and Jamie Lotter, Nav, Jimmy, Steve, me (eric) were all there. About midnight, we were headed out cuz the band had started and it was getting too loud for conversation. Well, Jimmy, Nav, adn myself were the first to walk outside and we saw a black GT sitting there with "Nice wheels" I commented. We looked more closely and saw it had Virginia tags and figured it must have been Ed. We went back inside and had the band announce that we were looking for the owner of that car. After various people said "oh yeah, that's mine" we tracked down Ed.

We decided that we wanted to go somewhere else, and the Lotter's recommended an all-night breakfast joint. So we headed over there. Well, The Lotter Mom went for a ride in The 222 HP Stereo... with me. Man, whatta mom! We got in and I asked what she liked, no preference so I stuck in a Van Halen CD and turned it up to about 60 (volume goes to 80). She looks at me and says, "So lets hear it, turn it up." Whoa, I thought, "alright" I said and bumped it up to 70. After a few seconds she looks over to me and says in a near shout, "is that it?!" Nope. So I bump it straight up to 80. Heh-heh. WOW! So here we are cruising down the road blaring the tunes so loud you can't hear yourself think. She rated up as "Super-cool Mom" in my book, never been told to turn it up by a mom before...

So we got to the breakfast place and went in. I had left all the blue lights on on my stealth and after about 10 minutes a guy comes over and asks "One-uh you guys got a stealth with soooothnr for a license plate?" We all look at each other kinda confused and then it clicks that it's my car. "Yeah." He tells us that we might want to turn the lights off cuz the cops might give me a tiket. Note that it's 2:00am and the cars are all parked in a line. Well, we talk with him for a few minutes and turns out he's got a friend there that has a Spyder. Few minutes later he comes over to tell us that the guy has gone to bring back the Spyder. Psyche! Few minutes later Jeff shows up with his Pearl White 1995 VR-4 Spyder. We talk him into showing up the next day.

Saturday morning we all met at Hyannis Muitsubishi and lined up for display. They provided donuts and their lot for us (thanks!) and we all hung out for a while, waiting for everyone to arrive, taking pictures, placing votes. I provided the music entertainment through the mobile studio. The dealer had a 97 Base GT on the lot ad they let me take it for a test drive - I wanted to see what the 164 HP engine had, could it really pull the weight of the GT. To my surprise, it had pretty good nut. It would out quicker than the 222 engines since it redlined at only 6k, but it pulled pretty stong through the gears (I took it up to about 85 in 3rd, little road, no room for more).

We also had the pleasure of a Hennessey modified Dodge Viper Venom 550 show up, serial number 005. They guy (sorry, forgot the name) was very friendly and took a few of us for rides. I got one and man, that car is a beast!

Once everyone was there, we all headed out and took over a gas station. Shoulda seen the dozen of us all pulling in and taking practically every pump at the station! heh-heh. We then went to The 99 Restaurant for lunch. Once we had stuffed ourselves, we went outside and since we had this hung and empty lot, we decided it was the perfect time for posed pictures of the cars all grouped together. So I lined everyone up and we got off some great shots (below).

Once we were done, I decided it was time to have some fun. My tires had about 27,000 miles on them and I showed up at the gathering looking to lay what rubber I had left on the road. Since I was in front of the lineup, I had to go first to get out of the way. So I goosed it real good... And wrapped a nice long black mark clear around the parking lot! It was literally at least 100 yards long! Man was it fun too! A few others tried to follow suit but didn't make it near that far. It was kinda funny when a couple AWD guys tried it and got a bare chirp! HAHAHA

We spent the rest of the perfectly gorgeous afternoon cruising around the Cape. Had a great time riding along with all 12 of us lined up, turning heads everywhere. There were a few times when we got split up but we managed to not lose anyone throughout the entire day (well... almost...). We went to a speed shop (got split up trying to find it) and I smoked off about another 100 miles worth of rubber in a parking lot (woo-hoo!!). A couplafew hours later we stopped at a lot on the bay and some folks pulled up and posed for individual shots of them and their car. All those are below.

After pictures and more jovial conversation, we decided it was time to head back to the Tavern for more eats, drinks, and some more great laughs. Once we got there, some of us just weren't ready to retire for the evening. We still wanted to blaze some back roads. So since Justin Lotter was local and knew the roads, him and Eric Lotter planned a route for us and declared that only AWD cars could go. So three cars and packed with 12 people set out. Man did we have an awesome good time and get the ride of our lives. We definitely had a smashing good time... Once we all finally made it back to the Tavern, we went in and just relaxed, ate, drank, and had a great time talking about the events of the day.

Sunday was auto-cross day. Eric Lotter had set up for us to join in at a local car club's (Cape Cod Sports Car Club) auto-x event they were having at Otis Air Force Base. So those of us that were left headed over there that morning and Ed, Lorne, Nav, and I signed up to chew on the course for a few runs. We got an untimed practice run and then 4 timed runs. What a rush! That was my first auto-x racing experience and man, I think I'm hooked! I had a blast, getting to truly drive the car the way it was meant to be driven. It was fun to watch some of the other cars there too. Quite a variety of cars: 97 Vette, couple 80's Vettes, new model Z28, M3, 924 Turbo, a mustang, few VW Golfs, coupla Hondas, little tube-style open wheel race car, and a bunch of S3's. Fastest speed and time on the course was 71 mph and 1:30 run by the 97 Vette. I personally ran a 63 top speed and 1:45 time. Ed ran the fastest time of the S3's. And again (as at the East Coast Gathering 3), I smoked a VR-4, hehehehe, by running faste rspeed and time than did Lorne - sorry! :-)

Anyway, the weather that day felt like it was a hair above freezing, it was soooooo cold and windy, such a stark contrast compared to the gorgeous day we'd had Saturday. So we left there once we'd all made our runs, went ot eat, and said our "see ya at the next gathering!"'s and headed home.

Definitely another successful gathering full of lots of fun, excitement, cool t-shirts, and definitely memories that I know those of us who were there, especially "The Crash Test Dummies" will never forget...

The Pictures:

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Page set up December 15, 1997.