C5 Registry First Annual Birthday Bash West -- October 27-29,2000

Last updated: November 13, 2000

Friday, October 27th

Friday morning we were all up early to caravan out to Carroll Shelby's manufacturing facility and mini-museum. Shelby currently makes three products: The original Shelby Cobra CSX3000 (about $500,000 each with valid VIN numbers from the 60's), the Shelby Series 1 (about $177,000 each) and "roller" Cobra CSX4000 replicas (or what they call "component" cars). The latter are delivered finished except for engine and transmission. The three components are shipped to one of a dozen Shelby dealers and assembled there (to avoid EPA entanglements).

Rainy morning but here's the lineup of most of the C5s at Shelby:

Here's Dan and Sharon Dibble enjoying the morning (click to see larger):

Here's the Series 1; let's see... you could have this (without even an airbag) or four C5s....:

Here's the Series 1 nekkid:

The Series 1 is powered by an Oldsmobile Aurora engine and has a carbon-fiber body.

Here's a Cobra CSX4000 "roller"; notice the hole in the transmission tunnel where the shifter will go when the dealer completes the assembly (click to see larger):

And here's another (there were three in the showroom):

...and then...

Friday was a day of two split events. You could either go to Bragg-Smith for a one-day driving class in your own Corvette or go on a road tour of Red Rock Canyon.

Red Rock Canyon Road Tour

I opted for the road tour and offered a seat to Scott Jarvie C5R#V0018 (who was down from Canada and vette-less in Nevada) and he got some great pictures.

The weather was bleak and rained much of the way. This did nothing to diminish the beauty (and great road) through the Canyon.

This time I had my camera along but was driving so these pix are courtesy of friend Scott. Hopefully someone when went to Bragg-Smith will send me pix to put up for that event as well.

It's not for nothing it's call "Red Rock Canyon" and, I suspect because it was raining, we saw a waterfall -- in Nevada!

After leaving the canyon, we caravanned to the Suncoast Hotel for one of Las Vegas' famous buffet lunches.

This buffet was quite a spread. I heard several folks remark that the variety was well above expectations. Oustanding food and the hotel had us in a private area of the dining room.

We returned to Sam's Town in time to wash up and get ready for the C5 Registry dinner at the hotel.

Bragg-Smith Driving Day

These pictures were submitted by Dick and Shirley Kling.

They apparently left at 0:dark:30...

Here are the cars massed up at Rupert Bragg-Smith's Driving School.

It was gray and a little rainy but at least the snow was some distance away...

First order of business is the briefing by Rupert himself:

Not only do they teach you to drive competitively here, they serve lunch, too!

And here's Shirley Kling getting ready to take on the Callaway:

Here (thanks to Roy Larrick) is a real treat (if you can view .AVI files). Click HERE to see a fifteen second movie of Dr. Christy Lasich C5R#X1953 at speed on the track. And listen to those Corsas sing!

Of course, everyone didn't spend the entire day on the tarmac... (click to see larger):

Friday Night's C5 Registry Dinner at Sam's Town

All the C5R drivers were there signing autographs:

Pictured (thanks to Philip Long) are Ron Fellows, Justin Bell, Andy Pilgrim and Chris Kniefel.

During dinner we had the usual Registry door prize drawings. Dan and Jake introduced Janet and her team, Frank Smith and me. The food and fellowship were wonderful!

Thursday Saturday Sunday

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