Carlisle History et. al.

[Fred32v]

While at GM Carlisle this year I purchased yet another T-Shirt. Someone suggested that I should take a picture of each of the shirts that I have. It caused me to think about exactly what events we had gone to and when. I put together a spread sheet with dates, events, location, memories, if I had a shirt, and if I had a brochure. Can you remember which ones you were at and suggest a special memory? Things like that breakfast at Helen’s Beer joint in 1986 going to Super Chevy or the ride home from Charlotte in 1996 with BP’s GLH and Matt’s Buick. TireSmoke and Mostmint driving their vettes sans top and t-top through the rain to the Corvette show. WXO and I started this annual get together in 1985. I dug all my T-Shirts and brochures out. I took pictures of every T-shirt that I have. Here is a sample.

Summer Car Events……………….......Super Chevy 1986……………………..Summer Carlisle 1987


Charlotte 1996……………....…..……….Corvettes 2007…………………………All GM Nationals 2012


Carlisle never fails to deliver a really great time. I can hardly wait until the next year.

[TireSmoker]

Some of the most memorable parts of Carlisle tend to revolve around getting there or getting home..

I can't remember the exact years all the time, but let's see.. I think 1992 was my first trip there, with Jeremy Schuster. Fred hauled home a rearend for Jeremy's '69 Camaro in the trunk of his Delta 88. First time I ever got 40mpg, on the way home in my old Cavalier. I think it was also that same year that I found a Ford guy selling a front disc-brake setup for a Chevelle. It was complete and he wanted $20. Everyone else wanted $100 for similar stuff. I remember offering the guy $15, as Andy had told me never to pay the asking price. The guy knew it was worth more and just gave me a look. I forked over the $20 easily. I just finally sold those parts this year on craigslist for $100.

Then there was the year that I was two cars behind BP (gray Mustang LX 5.0) in my El Camino, and got pulled out of the middle of a 10 vehicle group for speeding on the PA Turnpike. 1998?

I won't easily forget riding my bike in front of John's Corvette, in the rain, losing my front cylinder for what seemed like forever until the rain dried out, and then doing a victory fly-by of the Fairground upon our arrival. I seem to remember making it to a gas station along the way on absolute fumes. I felt lucky to not have had to walk. The ride home was waaaay better and I did a lot of twisty 2-lane. That might've been my last time to Carlisle.. 2009?

The year we went to Corvettes, in Corvettes. There was a nasty storm that weekend, and I remember seeing some other C2 that got pretty wiped out by a falling limb. Didn't the lights go out at the restaurant that year? 2007?

I remember riding up with Andy one year and we were just gabbing like girls in the car, when saw interstate signs with "New York City" on them. We had missed the I-76 splitoff.

What about the year we went to Spring Carlisle, and came home to a foot of snow on the ground? In April.

We had "do the deal"

I remember walking through one of the buildings one year, and Edmund Fitzgerald was playing on someone's radio and goofing on it with John the rest of the day/weekend.

Lots of races to/from dinner. And after dinner.

Good times, all of them.

-Dave

[MostMint]

Well sir in 1984 I went there with Rodney Bennett, Don Kral, and Bob Fabrizio. We slept in Bob's van just outside the fence in someone's yard. We paid them for parking on Thu, then they woke us up Friday morning at 6 AM to collect that day's parking fees.

That may have been the catalyst to getting this started.

I know I drove the white Chevelle there one year on Friday night. I was following a semi and he was moving pretty good. I got to where I had to take a leak but I hated to lose my "rabbit" semi. Then we came upon one of the steep grades. I charged ahead as he was slowed by the grade and stopped at some little runoff at the top of the hill and took care of business. Got back on the road just in time to resume following my speedy semi friend.

One year I drove my white Firebird there and GMJohnny rode with me. That year I bought a Formula hood and brought it back - strapped to the hood of the Firebird.

I recall riding back with Dave in the El Camino one year. Watched a guy blow out a tire right along side of us. I also recall no working seatbelts in that vehicle at the time.

One year Bill Brockhoff had a bad fuel pump we changed there.

Wasn't there a year where we were passing parts out through the hotel window?

On the way to Charlotte I remember the long overnight drive through the fog in the mountains in one of the big blue Oldsmobiles.

On the way back from Carlisle with the Vette Bill rode with me. I was having some kind of problem with the fuel supply (IIRC there was a piece of silicon basically blocking the fuel filter) so I could only make like 55-60 going up some of the hills.

Don't forget the fire alarm in the middle of the night at the truck Carlisle.

Made a beer run with WXO's C5 one year.

Of course there was the evolution of the wagon and grilling our own food also.

Dave we were "bench racing"

[ttamrettus]

I remember driving to Walt's house and going up with him.

I remember the Buick Special and BP's GLHS.

I remember Andy's RS.

I remember "the beer run" with Andy in Walt's vette.

I remember Studly, Andy and I in Dave's car racing some girls in a TSX on the way home.

I remember Mike's 66.

Good Times..........many more to come too.

[Maverick]

I remember feeling welcome in your fun group of hot rodders.

I remember finding a nice pair of Mustang (turned out to be '88 Camaro ) bucket seats for the Maverick for $30. (Now its fun to watch reactions when I tell people those Sprint buckets are really from a Camaro. )

I remember the 2nd generation of tiresmokers hauling the seats around all day for me.

I remember catching Fred asleep at the light.

I remember seeing a wreck on the way back to Raleigh where a lady managed to drive a strut up thru the front fender and crush the top of the hood on the pavement without a scratch on the roof.

I remember a beautiful Camaro being totaled by a careless new driver. Hope she was "carless" for a while. (Made me a fan of air bags.)

Thanks for the memories.

[Basement Paul]

I know I've driven these cars there:

White LeSabre
Pinto Wagon
Mustang LX 5.0
S-10 multiple times
Cadillac
Grand Marquis

I think there was at least one more but I'm not sure which one, maybe the Roadmaster.

I've done over 130mph in 32V's Eldorado after dropping Matt off at the Harrisburg airport at 6am.
I've gone over 100mph probably on every trip that I've driven there (assuming the car I was driving didn't have a speed limiter).
I remember going for the first time in 1986 to Super Chevy. I was only 14. I still have the poster in my garage.

We broke my wife's wagon on it's first trip there with a set of wheels / tires for my 5.0. Then the wheel upgrade to air tires arrived later.

I vaguely remember many happy hours at Rod's (or whatever it was called before that).

I remember "booger flips" in the pool.

I know I look forward to it every year.

-BP

[Fred32v]

In all those years, I only drove 6 different cars on those trips, many times riding with someone else.
The first was the white 1980 Buick Electra Wagon. It came with a 350, but after two years I swapped in a used Qlds 455.
It burned a little oil. I took a case with me and had to buy oil to get home. It smoked like a diesel.
The rebuilt and hot rodded 455 created some memorable moments in that car,
a Carlisle Saturday night street race that surprised a TransAm.
The 1978 Olds 88, the 1978 Olds 98, usually a little fun with whatever WXO had.
The 1999 Eldorado, my STS-V, and the 2005 Silverado.

How will I get there next year, I'm not sure, but I will be there.

[wxo]

OK, I guess it's my turn. Keep in mind that only some of this is clear in my mind, so feel free to correct and/or fill in the details if you remember. I think the year is 1989 and my son, Michael, and I drove up to Carlisle in my new '88 Firebird Formula 350. I had just gotten it back after it had had it's engine torn down by the dealer in Raleigh. As we arrived in Carlisle on a Friday night (I think), by chance, we met Fred on the street and had a little impromptu street race. Just after that Mike looks down and asks me if the oil pressure should be reading that low (it was close to zero). Then I started hearing the knocking. From there we nursed the car to the fairgrounds to regroup and come up with a plan. We found a Chevy dealer that was still open (it was around 6 PM) and he agreed to take the car in. Fred followed us over to the dealer and dropped it off. So now Mike and I had to figure out how we were going to get back home. Since there was nothing more we could do about the Formula, we attended the swap meet as usual. It was there we spotted a black '78 Impala 2-door with Crager mags. I've always admired the styling of these cars so it was easy for me to overlook a lot in deciding that this could be our ride home. We took it for a test ride and saw that it was losing some oil, but how bad could that be? Many cars leak oil. Anyway, I bought it for $800 and thus started another adventure. On Sunday morning, we decided to go to church and driving through the motel parking lot, one of the front upper ball joints let go and the front wheel just fell over. We looked at the situation and saw that someone had jerry rigged the ball joint to hold it together for a while. Well, I don't remember exactly how we did it, but we found some shims or spacers and bolted that thing back together and drove back to Raleigh like that. We had bought extra oil and kept it full during the trip and arrived with no further drama. Later when I tracked down the oil leak I found that the timing chain was so loose that it had worn a hole in the timing cover. No wonder it was spewing oil. Later after I fixed it up, I gave it to Michael to use at school. It wasn't too much longer before the rearend gave out. That was the last straw for this car. If it had been around home, I probably would have fixed it, but that wasn't to be. It was a great adventure, though.

So you are probably wondering about the Formula. We when I called the dealer, I found that it had spun several bearings and they were going to fix it and send it back to NC to the dealer I bought it from. Understandably, I didn't want the car back, so I used the lemon law to convince the dealer to exchange it for an '89 Firebird Formula 350. That's the one that finally made it's way back to Cleveland to Matt Davis. ...and that's the rest of the story.

[GMJohnny]

Most of my memories of Carlisle deal with the ride there and back. Due to my work schedule,
and my desire always to wake at 4 am on Sunday for the drive home, I make the trek to the
meat ( meet ) on my own. I've made that trip myself in a 65 Olds Dynamic ( which with a 2bbl carb got
over 17 mpg! ), my 96 Roadmaster wagon, and my C5. It was always fun pulling into the hotel
parking lot and doing a huge burnout to announce my presence at midnight! I also drove with Tim
in his Ford f250 with a bench seat, where about 150 miles into the trip, I had to beg Tim to let me
drive, because I was so cramped up from the seat being so close to the dash that it would've been
better to walk the balance of the way than ride another mile. I got Tim back a bit later in life when
I made him ride in my 81 Trans Am with the t-tops out all the way home in 95 degree weather. The
ride Dave mentioned with his bike was great. I can remember looking at the poor bastard in my rear
view getting drenched, saying "Damn, I'm glad I'm not him!" There was another time when Fred, Matt
and I were in the wagon, and Paul and Camaro Bob were in the s-10.. I told Paul I'd wait up for him
because I was several miles ahead of him. When he called my cell phone a half hour later, I'd put a
couple more miles on him, because I was going hammer down. We laughed like crazy in the wagon! Paul
got his revenge as he made up several of those miles going 95 mph the whole next 1/2 hr.
The "Edmund Fitzgerald" meet was hilarious! Another funny that came out of Carlisle, that still gets
brought up regularly is "...One leg either side of the transmission! HAHAHAHA! " ... or how many times did
we get drunk at Rod's, then go go-cart racing?! Probably the funniest incident for me ( and the biggest
nightmare for those in my room that night! ) was when Paul purchased a HUGE rubber mallet, and while
Matt was trying to sleep, he stood on the bed over Matt and acted like he was going to drill Matt in the
head with it. It caught me totally off guard, and I laughed until I cried. The real funny thing was Paul was
laughing too. The laughter carried on for a good 45 minutes after lights were out. Just when silence FINALLY came over the room, one of us would bust up and carry on for another 5 minutes or so...I'm surprised that
the other guys in the room didn't make us sleep in the hall!!!

GM

[Fred32v]

Well I though I only drove 6 different cars to Carlisle, the count is actual 7,
since here is a picture from 2000.



The 1979 Olds Delta 88 was mine. It had a 260 and never got the 455,
my wife said I could buy the 1999 Eldorado if I got rid of that old car.

[wxo]

Digging through some old photos, I found this one of Zerox Bill's fuel pump replacement.

[TireSmoker]

Well I though I only drove 6 different cars to Carlisle, the count is actual 7,
since here is a picture from 2000.



The 1979 Olds Delta 88 was mine. It had a 260 and never got the 455,
my wife said I could buy the 1999 Eldorado if I got rid of that old car.

While at Canfield a couple weeks back, Paul said the Delta 88 in the car corral was this *exact* vehicle (ie-- same VIN). Was that ever confirmed, or even re-purchased??

Here's a few from 1999..













These pics were taken on my Canon Powershot 350, the first digital camera that I had. It took pics at 640x480 and spit out files that were relatively large at 900KB -- and in BMP format. Converting to JPG would make them < 75KB. It connected via SERIAL, not USB. Although, you could pop the card out, card-readers were not nearly as common or cheap then.

-Dave

[TireSmoker]

And here's a few more from 2003..

[Basement Paul]

And 2001:














THe only time the Caddy made the trip.

-BP

[Maverick]

WXO, do you think you could still catch the pimp to steal his hat?