Hurricane Gordon shortens NSX Club weekend meeting!

NSXs park at a deserted beachfront lot next to St. Armand's circle in Sarasota

Winds gusting to 60mph and torrential rains from hurricane Gordon shortened  Sunday events at our monthly Florida Chapter meeting.  This is the THIRD consecutive meeting at which weather played a major role, the most recent being a deluge that threatened to cancel our Aug.13th track event at Sebring.  So much for Florida being the Sunshine State.  Despite the terrible weather, 21 NSXs braved the tropical storm to welcome new members and a new Acura dealership to our group.

Gordon comes ashore

Despite the weather we had a great turnout, thanks to the organization of Tampa representative Scott McKay.  Crown Acura (Clearwater) hosted the entire group for a luncheon on Saturday at 12noon.     Service manager Chip Bierweiler welcomed our group with Crown Acura T-shirts for all.  He announced a club discount of 10% on parts and labor for all NSXs.  We toured the facility, and played videotape of the recent Track Days event at Road Atlanta, a preview for NSXPO.  The new showroom and service center were spotless.  We placed 6 of the 21 cars (blue, yellow, black, red, green, and silver) in the service center for photos.

TJ Wright in his Silver 2000 NSX-T

Andy Lehrer introduces his Blue 97-T

NSXs lined up outside the service department

my NSX in the service "line"

Scott McKay inspects his car for raindrops! (and tells Gary Jensen that he doesn't have to worry about them anymore because he's lightning fast with his new 6-speed and 4:55 R&P)

Gary Jensen's Z-NSX

lounging in the lounge

Service Manager Chip Bierweiler (to the left of Scott McKay) greets our group

6 different color NSXs grace the service bays of Crown Acura!

a higher view of the group

NSXmembers around Andy Lehrer's car as he describes it's amazing handling to Crown service advisor John Shaw

After stuffing ourselves with sandwiches, it was off to the Wingate Inn to check-in and take a snooze before our planned evening trip to St. Armand's circle.   Scott negotiated a great rate of $54 a night for this first rate hotel.   Interestingly a "driving school" class was being held in the conference room....wonder what those speeding violators thought when they walked out and saw 15 NSXs?

NSXs in the roped off parking lot

With radios charged up and the weather deteriorating, we met at 530pm for the short drive to Sarasota over the beautiful Bay Bridge.  But first, we all had to stop for gas.  It was a tight squeeze....15 NSXs in a Citgo/7-eleven.  You should have seen the gawkers when we stopped! 

NSX Citgo

We were joined by several new members including Brett Kappes of Tampa and his girlfriend Danielle who just drove up as we were posing for our bridge pictures!

(L to R)...TJ Wright, Kevin McKenzie, James Cruz, Marvin Hausman, Robert Scheunke, Nicole and Greg McCarthy, Marie Hollar, Nelson Landa, Vinnie Hollar(backrow), Heather and Scott McKay, Deborah and Vince Howard (backrow), Danielle, Brett Kapes, Gary Jensen, Bob Bandzul, Mike Jensen, and John Grieco

We had no difficulty finding parking at the usually crowded St. Armand's circle due to the impending storm.  Dinner at Tommy Bahamas was excellent with delectable ice cream for desert next door.  It was great meeting all the new members and a great time was had by all. 

Nelson Landa driving into hurricane Gordon over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge (photo by John Grieco)

After dinner and dessert it was off to the Import Car Show.  11 NSXs blitz through the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in low level subsonic flight, arriving in time to "upstage" the show at Miami Subs.  Unfortunately the cops were enforcing parking rules very strictly and the Miami Subs parking lot is only so big.  If anyone has any pictures of the car show, please email them to me and I'll pop them onto the website.

By the next morning it was clear that the wind and rain had won and some of the Orlando NSXers decided to head back.  Flooding was major concern...not the winds.  The rest of the local group and those from Miami rode out the storm.   The brunch at Safety Harbor was excellent according to Scott McKay.  By late afternoon the sun had come out even though the winds were still strong.  If anybody has any good storm photos, please send them my way (wchin@ctinet.net).

Brett Kappe's NSX on the ocean being sprayed by the gulf water....(amazing what new members will endure to attend a meeting)..photo by Brett Kappes

Thanks to all the members who braved the elements to make this a great social event.  Thanks to Scott McKay for all the time and effort it took to make this happen....now if he could just avoid weekends when hurricanes are "scheduled" to hit, we'd be golden!

Kevin McKenzie and Bob Scheunke

Vinnie and Mary Hollar, James Cruz

Danielle, Brett Kappes

Dave and Teresa Rubin

Bob Bandzul and Marvin Hausman

John and Angela Grieco

table 1

table 2

Hope to see everybody at our next meeting...NSXPO....scheduled for Atlanta GA, Oct.20-24, 2000!

(written by Wei-Shen Chin)