Reunion 2000

Tennessee - SVO Reunion - October 21-22

Awards and AutoCross results
AutoCross Pictures
Show Field Pictures

Of course, everyone's experiences will differ from person to person especially depending on where you were standing when something happened!

Friday: Reunion attendees were already in town as of Thursday night. I think Mike Pate (84 1C) had been in town since Weds! Now that's an enthusiast! Paul Becker (86 teal) Gator (86 2R Project SVO), Mike Ray (84 Euro-SVO), Mindy Becker (true owner of previous mentioned teal 86), Ted Schaefer (86 1C), and Eric Walton (silver frost SVT Contour) all made a trip to Murfreesboro (approx. 50 miles from Goodlettsville) to help me with transporting 3 Mustangs (2 SVOs and 1 Cobra) to the event.

While they were here - we drove down to Delk Performance and visited with the local Mustang Performance guys. They also deal in salvage parts - and it seems everyone was buying something while they had the chance to browse.

Road trip to the Host Hotel and set up the Hospitality Room - which opened at 6pm. Of course, free pizza - cokes - and beer are always on hand - courtisy of the club. The Hospitality Room and nearby parking lots were FULL of Reunion participants hanging out - swapping stories - cleaning the road grime - etc. Things went late into the night. I think I headed to bed at 1:30am and Gator was still wiping his Jalepeno Red "Project SVO."

Saturday morning: Myself and Mike Ray started shuttling cars to the Show/Shine site. Passing many car owners that were already at the car wash along the way. It would be in vain - because - just before 8am....the bottom dropped out and boy did it rain. Talk about a %&% for Brains weatherman who said it was going to be sunny and 73 deg. Well - it wasn't all bad...rain stopped around 10am and would just leave us with a cloudy day. Better than a nasty sunburn on the back of your neck I suppose.

We had attendees as far away as Texas, Canada, New Jersey, and Florida! Everyone seemed to have a great time - but it was Sweet William in his recently painted "Patriot" that was running around snapping all kinds of pics! Bill is definitely one of my role models - 73 yrs old and still enjoying a weekend of cars with his Son, Mark, and all his SVO buddies!

Charles Tiongson from Texas who drove his beautifully painted 85.5 1C to the Reunion won the T03/04 hybrid turbo door prize that was donated by Reid Patridge at

Final count for the day as follows:
45 SVOs
23 SVT Cobras (including a 93 & 95 R model)
20 SVT Lightnings
5 SVT Contours
4 Saleens

Holy Dearborn, MI. Batman! 97 cars and trucks!!! Thats not counting a few
cars that came in late with For Sale signs and what not.

Saturday night: The 1/8 mi drag strip open it's gates for competition starting at 3:30. The only problem was....it brought in every hillbilly from 12 Counties and parts of Kentucky. I remember someone saying there must have been over 300 cars there! Sheeessh! I personally didn't make it to the track - 2 reasons. MY FEET were KILLING me and we kinda had the responsibility of the Hospitality Room once again that evening. The drag racers returned and reported that Jon Huber from St. Louis had run a 6.84 in his SVO powered 79 Mustang (which by the way - was the very first Mustang
off the production line at Ford to come with a 2.3 turbo originally) and Marcus Harrison had ran a 7.94 in his SVT Lightning!!! Them some fast time folks!

Of course, the crowd ended up being at the Hospitality Room well into Sunday morning telling stories, getting complained on by other guests, and told to "take it inside" by the Police. I can't remember what time we finally called it quits but the biscuit making ladies from Shoneys were arriving to work.

Sunday: Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! The Autocross competition was on it's way - well....after the TRSCCA finally got everything set up. We paid our monies to the TRSCCA, found a class to run in, changed tires, checked air pressures, made it through tech, had the drivers meeting, and put on the helmet for our first attempt of the day at some conehead competition.

The Lightning guys seemed to have their hands full - it was a really tight course and much better suited for the Matai owner who designed it. It did have a few straight-aways, but the gates were so very small and hard to see at times that it caused major problems with most of us. I think ever driver there had a DNF at some point during the day for missing a gate. I myself ended up making 3 DNFs in a row before I figured out the course for the day....shhhesssh! But, everyone had a great time! I'd have to say Eric Walton (SVT Contour) or David Sloop (Indy Dave - 85 2A) were having the most fun of all. They had never been on an autocross course before and were loving every minute of it!

Sunday evening: After we said goodbye to everyone who was leaving out for their long road trip home the remaining hardcore enthusiasts headed for some grub. Not too much was said for about 30 minutes as everyone jammed the long awaited food in the mouths....paid the checks and started the hand shaking "cya next year" rituals.

This had to be one of the best Reunion weekends we've had so far. The diversity of cars, trucks, and people were outstanding. It gave everyone something to see and talk about,   and yet there's always next year to improve!!

Thanks to everyone who attended and we look forward to seeing you next year!

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