July, 2005

Hello again everyone!  This newsletter coming to you a little later than I had hoped it would.  I wanted to get this out by Father’s Day to share the great story of Brian Veit and “DADZ67” you’ll see in the Member Spotlight.  Better late than never… right?

Holly 7 Lakes Show

In typical Michigan Mopar Muscle fashion, a bunch of people met prior to the show at Big Boy’s to fuel up for the day and then caravanned to the show at 7 Lakes State Park. Hopefully, you got a chance to make it there.  We had a big club turnout with a section pretty much all to ourselves.  Usually this show is on the lawn, which has a nice, gentle slope that was the perfect place for a car show.  This year the park wouldn’t allow parking on the lawn and they also wanted the Mid-Michigan Mopar Enthusiasts (the show sponsors) to get insurance for the event.  Unfortunately, that may have been the last Holly show because of these two factors.  We’ll see…  The good news is we had seven members place for trophies!

        Mark Gerich – E-Body Plymouth

        Diane Collier – E-Body Dodge

        Kris Kopacki – B-Body Plymouth

        Brian Veit – B-Body Dodge

        Warren Myers – B-Body Dodge

        Chris Collier – Truck

        Jeff Dowbenko – Presidents Award

Congratulations to everyone!  You can see lots of pictures from the event at our website: www.michiganmoparmuscle.com

CEMA Show

Wow! This show seems to get better every year.  The weather was a bit threatening this year, but the turnout was still great… and the cars that participated were even better! Our club had approximately 35-40 cars in attendance – a great showing.  We met again at Big Boy’s for Breakfast and arrived at the show in a long parade of Mopars.

This year, CEMA addressed the registration line problem they’ve had for a couple years (when club’s like ours flood them all at once… oops).  The routed everyone into two lines in a separate lot and that totally eliminated all the problems.  Kudos to the CEMA Staff for coming up with the perfect solution!  Highlights of the show include "The High & Mighty II”, which was fired up for the first time and a Chrysler 300 Letter Series display. 

As you might expect, we had some trophy winners among our ranks!  Judy Dowbenko got the UAW-Daimler Chrysler PQI Choice Award with her 1970 Dodge Challenger. Ed Mazur and John Denyer each won one of three Best Modified  (Stock appearance with modifications) awards with Ed’s 1964 Plymouth Fury Pro Street and John’s Viper Powered 1968 Dodge Charger.  Congratulation all three of you!

        Judy Dowbenko with her award.                                                Ed Mazur with his award.

 MMM members enjoying the CEMA Show…  From left: Judy Dowbenko, Jeff Dowbenko, Diane Collier, Warren Myers, Chris Collier, Lindsay Myers, Denise Myers. Photo by: Marc Rozman.

Orchard Lake Road Cruise

Another Michigan Mopar Muscle last minute gathering…  John Seng and Brian Veit got the ball rolling on this event with a simple question:  Are we doing anything as a club for this?  Well, we pulled it together and got a great site reserved for the club.  Since I wasn’t there (too many Dads to visit on Father’s Day) I didn’t get an actual count, but we reserved spots for at least 35 cars with the option for more if needed.

The day started out at Motor City Steel in Commerce Township.  The shop that specializes in classic car restoration and repair treated everyone to a great breakfast. Thanks MCS! Just a little FYI:  Fellow member Tim Cornell is a painter at Motor City Steel and his work is incredible (I just had to mention that)!

Then everyone traveled to the Best Buy and K-Mart parking lots where we were treated with music from the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s.  The staff at Best Bust even took pictures of member’s cars, printed them out and gave them to us.  Thanks to Melanie and the staff at Best Buy for treating us so well and letting us use your lot for the cruise!

    New members John and Becky Denyer in front of their V-10 1968 Charger at the Orchard Lake Cruise.

You can see a lot more pictures from the Cruise at our website: www.michiganmoparmuscle.com

Mopars at the Hills Show

Our 2^nd Annual Show went pretty well considering the weather we had… mid-nineties and humid on Saturday and thunder showers Sunday morning.  We had a total of 39 cars register with an additional 10-15 cars showing up after registration closed.  We sincerely thank those of you who made it out to join us.  If you didn’t make it, I think Leroy might be looking for you! Just kidding!  Next year, we are only going to do a one day show… two days is too much and most people can only attend for one day.  We’ll also be looking for more volunteers to help plan and organize next year.

I must thank the following people for showing up and helping with registration, parking, set-up, signs, etc:  Tim Leslie (showed up sick and sunburned), Jonathan Leslie (guy is awesome), Beth Green, Brian Veit, Michelle Simpson (ran the 50/50), Donna and Ken Koenig, Kris Kopacki, and Randall Hiatt (comedy relief).

Also, a very special thanks to:

Vern Roberts and the staff at Southern Motors (248-338-1900) for their sponsorship and the trophies! www.southernmotors.com

Joyce Krom and Waterford Hills Road Racing (248-623-0070) for letting us use their great facility and allowing us to drive on the track! www.waterfordhills.com

Chip Pepiton at DJ Gemini Communications (866-857-8904). He did this event for free and he was the best DJ I have ever heard… Very professional with great mix of music! www.djgeminidetroit.com

    Here are the trophy winners:

    Best of Show – Richard Hale (1970 Plymouth Roadrunner HEMI)

    A-Body 1^st Place – Mike Barie (1972 Dodge Dart Swinger)

    A-Body 2^nd Place – Tim Leslie (1973 Plymouth Duster)

    A-Body 3^rd Place – Tom Palmer (1970 Plymouth Duster)

    B-Body 1^st Place – Brian Veit (1967 Dodge Charger)

    B-Body 2^nd Place – Bill Westwood (1969 Dodge Coronet R/T Conv.)

    B-Body 3^rd Place – Terry Pryor (1970 Dodge Coronet 500 Conv.)

    C-Body 1^st Place – Kris Kopacki (1968 Plymouth VIP)

    C-Body 2^nd Place – Randall Hiatt (1968 Chrysler 300)

    E-Body 1^st Place – Mike Lozen (1971 Plymouth ‘Cuda)

    E-Body 2^nd Place – Jehn Seng (1970 Plymouth AAR ‘Cuda)

    E-Body 3^rd Place – Dave Ross Jr. (1970 Dodge Challenger)

    Modified 1st Place – Robert Hollenbeck (1968 Plymouth Sport Satellite)

    Modified 2^nd Place – Gregory Schuck (1978 Dodge Aspen)

    Newer 1st Place – Jonathan Leslie (1982 Chrysler Cordoba)

    Newer 2^nd Place – Sharon Westwood (1983 Chrysler LeBaron Conv.)

    Truck 1st Place – Patty & Mark DuLong (1987 Dodge Ram)

    Truck 2^nd Place – Diane Collier (2004 Dodge Ram Super Bee)

Michigan Mopar Muscle Fund Raiser – Message from Lori Gerich

Throughout the summer, I (Lori) will collect items from the members (this means you) like tee shirts, mopar memorabilia, car care items, picnic items, posters, die cast, gift certificates, or whatever you think a fellow mopar lover-or his wife, her husband or kids might like.  Then at the end of the summer picnic/road rally, we will have a raffle and give it all away. Of course, everyone will buy zillions of raffle tickets and have lots of fun and the CLUB will make bunches of money.

So think about it, and when you are out shopping or picking something up for your MOPAR, grab an extra and donate it to MMM Fund Raiser! We have already collected some great things, thank you to those members that have remembered.

Thanks to everyone, see you soon, Lori

Message from Leroy, Donna, Bob, and Kris:

Even though our club is non-profit it still needs to make money to cover expenses, especially, the initial fees needed to make this club a legal entity in the eyes of the State of Michigan and the United States Government. Please understand that at the end of the year, the balance of our funds will be donated to charity.  Our club treasurer, Kris Kopacki, will have a full accounting at the end of the year to any interested party.  Thanks for helping support your club!

Member Spotlight

This month’s spotlight member is Brian Veit.  If you’ve ever been to a show / cruise / picnic with our club, you’ve probably seen or met him. He’s always present and always willing to help out.  He has his own business called Screwhead Graphics, which specializes in graphic design for corporate clients, presentation displays, logo animation, etc.  Several of your fellow members have display boards that Brian did for them!  Check out his web site: http://www.screwheadgraphics.com/

Brian’s 1967 Dodge Charger was originally his Dad’s field car when he worked at Chrysler.  He affectionately refers to his car as if it was a lady (which I’m sure she is)!  Here is Brian’s story:

After her term was up as a field car, Dad purchased her (as a used car now) for my Mom’s daily driver.  I can still remember trips in her to Cub Scout meetings, drive-in movies and even the dentist!  She remained a grocery getter for 7 years, until 1974, when she was garaged. As Dad was promoted through the Chrysler organization (meaning we relocated at least 5 times) she lived comfortably in every garage we owned, only seeing daylight when she drove onto the moving van or car hauler.  Because of her 7 years of extensive use (she was a year-round Pennsylvania car) she had already begun to suffer the ravages of rust, so Dad quietly acquired 2 new front fenders for her.  As a teenager (who was focused on earning the rights to her someday) I gladly primed them and helped hang them on the car.  Remember, I came of driving age in the days of the Aspen station wagon, the Omni and Horizon, the K-cars – all real badass rides!  I begged my Dad to get the Charger running, but my pleas were ignored… and I thank my Dad every day for ignoring me then!

She remained virtually unchanged until 1997 – when Dad called to ask if I was still interested in having her in my garage.  To be honest, at first I was hesitant to take her.   Afraid that the Charger would be too much for my meager mechanical abilities to deal with, I actually offered her to my best friend first. Shocked that I would even think of giving her up, he was the one who ultimately convinced me to keep her… I thank him every day, too!

I received her from Dad in the Spring of ’97, but let her sit in MY garage for another 3 years, until 2000 when I realized my Dad was getting older and I found that I really wanted to get her back in good condition for him.   I wanted him to hear her roar once more.  I had no idea she would mean as much to me as she does, until the first day I drove her.  It was August 19th, 2000 – that’s right – the 2000 Woodward Dream Cruise!  I had never even seen the Cruise before that day, and here I was driving my Charger!  No carpet, no seat belts, no bodywork, no gauges, but she was ALIVE! 

From that day on it’s been a non-stop love affair. And while I still don’t have much in the way of mechanical aptitude, I am fortunate to be able to afford to make sure the right things are done to her in the right way.  I’m smart enough to stay OUT of the kitchen, where I don’t belong, if you know what I mean.

It has been a learn-as-I-go process, and I am getting schooled in ways I never imagined, but I wouldn’t trade it (or her) for the world.  She’s my daily driver until it snows.  I’ve taken her on road trips North to Tequamenon Falls in the U.P., and also South all the way to Florida.  She’s a great highway cruiser who can’t get rubber unless on wet pavement thanks to the 2.94:1 economy gear, but she can hold 120 MPH as long as she wants!  (Don’t ask me how I know…)

Mom and Dad have long since retired and are now living in Western Pennsylvania.  You can meet them at the Frankenmuth Car Festival in September, if you like.  He’ll be the one with the ear-to-ear grin on his face.  My dad’s a real car guy and he loves to talk cars.

Brian in 1967 at 6 years old.                                                 Brian in 1971 at 10 years old.                

1997 Trip from PA to MI !!!                                                 2004 Same kid, same car.

Brian’s Mom                                                                        Brian’s Dad                  

Membership Contact Info & Web-site

I need to get a working e-mail address for everyone that has one… It’s the best way to quickly inform everybody of events or gatherings.  Also, this newsletter is VERY costly to print and mail, so I am only sending a hard copy to members I don’t have an e-mail address for.  Please check the member list that was e-mailed recently for accuracy. If there is anything to correct, contact me ASAP.  Also, please notify me if you move or get a new phone number so I can update the roster.  Lastly, if you haven’t been getting e-mail from us, you must let us know and check your spam filter (especially hotmail and netzero accounts). We don’t want anybody left out of the loop.

If you want to have pictures of yourself and / or your car on the web site, all you have to do is contact Donna Koenig (ChargerNut@MichiganMoparMuscle.com)  with pictures and info.  She’ll put them up as soon as she can.

Please be sure to visit www.michiganmoparmuscle.com for events, information, and photos. As always, special thanks to Donna Koenig for keeping the web site running and up to date!

2005 Events Calendar