| Karen & I returned Friday night Aug. 24th after traveling 3,183 miles (2,738 on truck & 445 on Prowler) since Tuesday Aug. 14th. We traveled to Pontiac for the Woodward Dream Cruise 2001. The Detroit Sunday paper estimated there were 40,000 classic cars & 1.6 million people this year on the 16 mile stretch of Woodward Ave. We had a lot of fun seeing some old friends & meeting some new ones. We also made a side trip to PA. to meet our daughter, son-in-law, two granddaughters from CT.
On the way to Pontiac we stopped in Bowling Green, KY. to visit the Corvette plant. Well, Wednesday morning we wake up & there's two Electron Blue Corvette Convertibles outside the room. It turns out they're for two guys from New Orleans (John Mushary (sp?) & Randy Hebert) who had taken museum delivery of their new vettes the day before. So, it really is a small world & it saved me a trip through the vette plant because that was the color I wanted to see...
On Thursday we toured CAAP (the Prowler & Viper plant) & than took a cruise to Hell (Hell, MI). It was a hell of a ride (rain & some gravel road on road construction areas). But the day turned out great in spite of all that. We learned a few new things on the plant tour. The Prowler has a new Torque Converter since Oct. 2000 (to meet DC corp. standards). This may explain why some of the newer Prowlers seem a little quicker. New tire sensors & receivers in Run Flat tires (these match new ones used in new Jeep). Since Aug. 1st, the dealers can now order Prowlers. And, factory delivery or pick-up is now available for the Prowler at the CAAP plant in Detroit. There are six approved Prowler colors for 2002 (five listed in 2002 Chrysler Prowler brochure; Inca Gold, Silver, Orange, Yellow & Candy Apple Red). We were told they would build 400 to 500 Yellows by Dec. this year. A couple of folks got to ride in one of the Prowler test cars. And, they said it was much faster than any Prowlers we have. We were able to get a quick look under the hood. However, no one is admitting to any modifications or saying what modifications have been done... Not sure this will make it into any Production Prowlers or it may be test for some other vehicle. No pics of this... We were told again, that the current plan is to build the Prowler through the 2003 model year which would end sometime July 2003. On the Viper side, since Apr. this year, the Viper V10 engine is now being built assembled in the plant at CAAP. This has to be the first. They build 7 Vipers per day & 14 Prowlers per day. Karen really liked the Yellow Viper. We also saw a one of kind steel gray Viper that is being built for the Viper club to raffle...
On Friday, while gathering in the parking lot for our first cruise we had quite a surprise. Jerry (our friend from Chrysler & Sr. Tech on Viper & Prowler team) drove up in the all new 2003 VIPER CONVERTIBLE. This is the Viper that has new V10 engine that delivers 500/500/500 (HP/Cubic inches/Torque). I was able to sit in it & took lots of pics. We were not allowed to photo the engine. Some additional new features beside engine outside design. Run flat tires 19" rear & 18" fronts, side exhaust & red start button. Still has the six speed manual transmission. And, Jerry tells me this Viper is still pulling with all that torque in 4th gear. The speedometer says 225 mph... We than traveled to Harold Sullivan's private Mopar collection of Muscle Cars. He has 35 Mopar Muscle cars in his garage with three under restoration. All of these are in a low number of production vehicles. Quite a collection. Of course the original "Silver Bullet (67 GTX)" a 10.4 ET car at that time for a street car.... He has built a "Silver Bullet II" & both cars will be on the drag strip mid September. SBII runs in the 9.4 ET time.
Friday night we headed to the "Black Tee" party hosted by Chrysler at the Chrysler museum. But first we lined up at the Chrysler HQ to make a cruise down Woodward Ave. You're talking about quite a site. We had 57 Prowlers & 600 Pts with a police escort blocking the intersections so we could get to Woodward. We cruised a ways down & made U-turn when we got into a little traffic returned for the party (about 8 mile cruise). The Party was great with live music, Elvis, Marylin Monroe, Diana Ross look-a-likes, food, wine & ice cream. The museum was open & has quite a collection of vehicles. We had a few of the new cars here. I have pics of the PT Convertible, PT Woody & Woodward 01 (Inca Gold). This is suppose to be same paint code as Prowler. However, the color looks much better (more yellow tint) on the PT than on the Prowler (which appears to have more green tint).
On Saturday, we left early to make our first cruise down Woodward to try & beat the mass crowds... We cruised around 12 miles down Woodward & stopped at 13 mile road to look at the Chrysler area & watch cars cruising on Woodward & than continued on down to nine mile road & made U-turn returning to Pontiac. I saw the yellow Chevy SSR pickup cruising. We head back to our host restaurant Pike Street Restaurant in Pontiac, MI. This was an excellent restaurant & we had reserved parking on two blocks of Pontiac. We made five cruise down Woodward on Saturday. As the day got older, we didn't cruise as far down because it was like a parking lot.... We would go down & make a U-turn & head back to Pontiac. Woodward is lanes of highway. We had Prowlers four wide many times... And, we had one cruise with 45 or so Prowlers & ten or so PTs. All the other cruises were in smaller groups of 10 to 15 or so... We did a parade with police escort through Pontiac Saturday evening at 8:00pm just before the PT giveaway. I had someone from Children's hospital ride on the back of the Prowler for the parade... We actually had a little rain after the parade. We headed back to the hotel about 10:30 & it started to pour.... I decided I would wait until Sunday morning to load the Prowler on trailer and that worked out OK. No rain early Sunday morning... We stayed at the Marriott in Pontiac and it was much better hotel & location compared to last year...
On Sunday morning after loading up the Prowler, we left Pontiac heading for Hershey Park in PA. to meet our daughter (Rachelle), son-in-law (Bill), two granddaughters (Amber (7) & Brittany (5)) from CT. & our son (Beau) who had flown up there while we were on the road. We took in the park, toured the Lancaster area (Dutch & Ambish country), & Gettsburg. Some very nice areas. We really enjoyed spending time with the kids. They enjoyed the park. However, I think they enjoyed the hotel pool as much as the park. They spent three days swimming. Karen & I than headed south to the Gatlinburg & Pigeon Forge, TN. area. We unloaded the Prowler & went Prowlin into the Smoky mountain area. Both of these areas are well worth a visit. We had lunch at Bayou Bay seafood restaurant in Knoxville (owned by cousin of Karen). We had dinner at Applewood Restaurant in Pigeon Forge (this is a must if you're ever in that area). They started out with a glass of apple/Pineapple/& one other juice, than apple fritters with apple butter, vegetable soup, salad (garden or fruit), entree & two vegetables (Karen had the pork loin & I had the pork chop) the loin was the best, & of course dessert (which we took away in box). My rating is outstanding & the restaurant is in back of orchard.
Well, it was terrific trip and now we're getting ready for Cruisin the Coast Oct. 3rd to 7th. laddie...
|
