Sep. 15, 2007 VCA vs. Corvette Club of VA "Horsepower Challenge," Richmond, VA

[HowardBJr]

We’re going to have a “Horsepower Challenge” again this year in Richmond, VA. The event will be part of the “Christmas in September” event at the Children’s Hospital on September 15, 2007. This is a charity event for the Children’s Hospital. Last year’s “Christmas in September” yielded approximately $24,000 in money and toys for the children. Santa Claus even makes rounds in the hospital for the children too sick to come out and see the cars.

The Viper Club of America and the Corvette Club of Virginia have challenged each other to see which club can get the most horsepower to the event. The losing club president will present an award to the winning club president.

We had 20 Vipers at the “Horsepower Challenge” at the Veteran’s Hospital last year and “smoked” the Corvette Club of Virginia. Let’s make it two wins in a row!

Be sure to bring your dyno slip if you’ve modified your Viper. Each club will use the published horsepower or a dyno slip with a 15% allowance for driveline loss to determine how much horsepower they have.

We will also have four awards exclusively for VCA members. The show will be a judged event and there will be first, second and third place trophies for the best Vipers. In addition there will be a “Top Dog” trophy for the Viper with the most horsepower. The Vipers will also be eligible for the other awards given as part of the overall event.

The entrance fee for the event is an unwrapped toy for a child.

I’ll post additional details as the event approaches.

 

[Batboy]

I will be there again Howard. Hopefully it won't be quite as eventful as last year. Any chance of you coming up to Freddyburg this weekend?

 

[HowardBJr]

My car down for repairs so I'm not going to be able to make your cruise this year.

 

[Batboy]

Oh that *****. I hope it's just routine and nothing serious?!

 

[HowardBJr]

The Viper club will judge the Corvette club’s cars and the Corvette club will judge our club’s Vipers. I need three volunteers to judge the Corvette club’s cars. Lee Stubberfield, who is a nationally recognized expert on Corvettes, has volunteered to head up our team of judges. If you are willing to be a judge, please send me a PM.

Thanks.

 

[Fast Too]

I'll be there. Having a Paxton put in right now along with other mods. I should have a pretty respectful dyno slip to present to help our numbers.

 

[Batboy]

Greg, let me know when that bast is done. I want to come see it!

 

[Fast Too]

Matt,

Near done, doing something with injectors and a boost a pump to accomodate the VEC and paxton. Should put down 700 give or take a few HPs's at the rears. I am going to have to learn how to drive it all over again...

 

[HowardBJr]

Matt,

Near done, doing something with injectors and a boost a pump to accomodate the VEC and paxton. Should put down 700 give or take a few HPs's at the rears. I am going to have to learn how to drive it all over again...

I ordered the trophies today. It looks like you’re going to win the “King of the Hill” trophy. I wonder if we’ll get any twin turbo Vipers?

 

[HowardBJr]

Below are a few photos from the first Horsepower Challenge which was held at the Children's Hospital in Richmond, VA. We lost that year by 1/2 of a Viper.

Here Santa Claus visit with the children:

The Vipers and Corvettes lined up nose to nose:

Our president awards the trophy to the Corvette Club of Virginia's president:

 

[HowardBJr]

Who all is going to be able to help us beat the Corvette Club of Virginia this year? Below is an email from Charles Hawkins, past president Corvette Club of Virginia. He’s talking a little smack. We’ve need to make it two years in a row that we put them in their place.

Hi Howard,

I'm ordering the Viper vs. Corvette trophies on Tuesday in 3 sizes. What is the wording you are using on yours?

P.S. My direct port (up to 1200 hp) system will be ready for the show. Can you say 2 stage 250 and 500 hp shots for now? We’re not feeling benevolent or sorry for the Viper Club this year. Pure overwhelming horsepower is what we will bring. Submit your long list of Viper lack of horsepower excuses before the show in writing. Please bring everything you can beg borrow or steal. No mercy (or freebies this year) just a horsepower reality check and wake up call for Viper owners. Ouch! Just bring 1 viper over 800 rwhp if there is such a thing! We need something as an appetizer before we break out the big guns. Viper owners must be disheartened that for $15K a Z0-6 twin-turbo is putting out 800 + rwhp. Keep trying with the Hennesy Viper. Does one actually exist? Where is it hiding? We would love to spank one real hard and get it over with.

Charles

 

[Fast Too]

As earlier stated I will be attending. What time is it at?

 

[HowardBJr]

As earlier stated I will be attending. What time is it at?

Great! So far it looks like you're going to be "King of the Hill."

Schedule:
Arrive 10:00 AM – 12:00noon
Judging 12:30 PM – 3:00 PM
Award ceremony 3:30 PM – 4:00 PM

 

[HowardBJr]

Below are the awards for the "King of the Hill" car club for the Horsepower Challenge. I sure hope we don't have to use the one to the Corvette Club of Virginia. With the 2008 Viper having 600 horsepower it would be a shame for the Corvette Club to be the "King of the Hill" car club.

I picked up the Viper trophies today and will post a picture of them as soon as possible. They look nice.

 

[HowardBJr]

Here is the "King of the Hill" trophy for the Viper with the most horsepower and along with two close up shots of it:

Here are the first, second and third place trophies for judged Vipers:

 

[Flyntgr]

Please accept the Viper Club's compliments on your willingness to benefit these wonderful children. If I weren't driving a Viper, I'd be driving a Corvette; I have owned 3 of each, and they are all great cars. As to the 800 h.p., please don't be offended if Joe Dell and some others can degrade their cars to reach such a low h.p. level. Joe's pulling more than 1500 h.p. at the rear wheels, and would have to pull off one of his turbo's just to approach 800. That King of the Hill trophy will look great in Joe's garage, so I hope he can make it there. Thanks for the gift, fellows.

 

[HowardBJr]

The weather forecast looks good for Richmond:

• Saturday: Morning clouds followed by afternoon sun. Highs in the low 80s and lows in the low 50s.

It should be great top down weather.

Be sure to shine your Viper for the judged portion of the event. We will have trophies for the top three appearing Vipers. You will also compete against the Corvettes, muscle cars and street rods for “People’s Choice” and other awards.

 

[mike & juli]

As earlier stated I will be attending. What time is it at?

Spank 'em with your awesome Viper, Greg!!!!
Flyntgr: We also have owned Vettes in the past, traded in an '04 Z06 for our current Viper...we always say everyone loves their OWN cars...nothing wrong with Vettes, or any other car...we love our Vipers, right?!! BUT, seeing as this is a competition between Vettes and Vipers, I'm kinda leaning towards the Vipers
ENJOY!~!~~~~~juli

 

[HowardBJr]

I just noticed some typos on the card that Lee mailed out about the event. All of the decimal points are missing before the mileages in the directions on the post card. All of the mileages are in tenths of a mile. For example, when you get off of I-95 you will go .2 miles not 2 miles before turning if arriving from the north. If you add a decimal point to every distance that will fix it.

Sorry about that.

 

[Fast Too]

uh oh - Accuweather forecast for Richmond 9/15/07:

A passing morning shower; otherwise, mostly cloudy

 

[mike & juli]

uh oh - Accuweather forecast for Richmond 9/15/07:
A passing morning shower; otherwise, mostly cloudy

So, do you think you will go? Rain is not good, but if it's a passing shower, and clears up, even being cloudy--the competition can still go on? Hope it turns out to be a good day for all, cus FastToo, you GOTTA show everyone your Viper now!!! TOTALLY AWESOME!~!
Good Luck...not that you need it! ~juli

 

[Fast Too]

Still plan to go unless the forecast changes to rain all day.....

 

[mike & juli]

Still plan to go unless the forecast changes to rain all day.....

Oh, good--hope the rain does not happen...that'd be a major bummer....juli

 

[Batboy]

If any one from the north is cming down let me know and I'll plan a caravan in the Fredericksburg area. I too am going unless rain develops.

 

[HowardBJr]

Word is that the local press is going to do a Webcast of “Christmas in September” which is the umbrella event for the “Horsepower Challenge.” I don’t have a link yet for the Webcast but will post it as soon as I get it.

Be sure to logon and cheer on your favorate snake.

 

[HowardBJr]

The “Christmas in September” event of which the “Horsepower Challenge” is a part will be Webcast at:
http://www.yourwcexchange.com/index.cfm
by Cameron Walker. BTW for you NASCAR fans she’s the fiancée of Denny Hamlin.

Cameron is the reporter for the “In The Field” segment of the Website. She and her cameraman will arrive at the Children’s Hospital about 11:00 AM and leave about 3:00 PM. They will film about 2 hours worth of material and edit it down to a 5 minute segment for posting on
http://www.yourwcexchange.com/index.cfm

The Webcast will be on the current “Watch This Week’s In The Field!” link and then archived on the site.

 

[JeremyS]

Hey you guys (and gals) -

i'm in baltimore county and was going to go to richmond. i am unsure about the weather. is lee still doing a caravan? is anyone? feel free to call me @ (443) 829-9320

Jeremy

 

[HowardBJr]

Hey you guys (and gals) -

i'm in baltimore county and was going to go to richmond. i am unsure about the weather. is lee still doing a caravan? is anyone? feel free to call me @ (443) 829-9320

Jeremy

As far as I know Lee is still has a group cruising down together from MD. If you need his phone number call me before 7:00 AM. I'm going to the hospital early to help set up for the event.

We had 1.5 inches of rain Friday night but it has stopped as of 3:30 AM. The forcast is now:

Today: Areas of patchy fog early. A few clouds this morning, but generally sunny for the afternoon. High 78F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph.

Hope you can make it.

 

[HowardBJr]

We “smoked” the Corvette Club of Virginia again! This makes it two years in a row. With the rain we had Friday night it didn’t look good for us early on. When Terry Bagley arrived it looked like he was going to have to represent the entire Viper nation. As the day progressed we ended up with 13 Vipers with a total of 7,718 horsepower. This was more than twice what the Corvette Club of Virginia was able to produce with 8 Corvette’s.

More than $20K in money and toys was raised for the children. I’ll post the figure when it’s announced. Santa made his rounds again this year and the children enjoyed it. The hospital asked me not to post any pictures of the children without the parent’s permission. The children in the hospital are very sick and many of the parents don’t want their children’s pictures on the internet.

We had three supercharged Vipers with Mike Baxter’s being the “King of the Hill” with 1,029 horsepower. This was 400 horsepower more than the Corvette “King of the Hill” which belongs to Charles Hawkins. Somehow all the nitrous Charles emailed me about didn’t appear.

I hope the interview that Cameron Walker did with Lee Stubberfield, VA/MD VCA President, and Mike Baxter, owner of the “King of the Hill” Viper, makes her Webcast. I’ll post a link when she puts it on her site.

The Corvette Club judged our Vipers and we judged their Corvettes. Lee awarded their trophies to them and R.J. Hrapsky, Corvette Club President, awarded the Viper trophies. In addition we won the Club Participation award for the entire event and we had two Vipers win a top 25 award.

Below are some photos of the event:

Charles Hawkins, past president of the Corvette Club of Virginia.

Charles's dyno slip - a little short of the 1,200 hp he talked about having.

He's a member of the Corvette 10 second club. I think he'd like to race one of our Vipers.

This is the trophy we lost to them in 2005 by 1/2 of a Viper.

Lee Stubberfield presents the 3rd place Corvette trophy.

2nd place Corvette:

1st place Corvette

3rd place Viper - Greg Magel, 766 hp SRT-10 Coupe

2nd place Viper - Chip Connell 1997 GTS

1st place - Dan Neuland 2001 RT10

And a drum roll please. The Viper "King of the Hill" - Mike Baxter's 1,029 hp GTS.

Mike's GTS. Approach with caution!

We won the Horsepower Challenge, but look who is smiling.

We did this for the kids.

I would like to thank everyone for participating in the Horsepower Challenge. It shows that Vipers owner’s have a heart as well has a need for speed. Thanks for helping the kids.

 

[Lee00blacksilverGTS]

Howard, congratulations for once again pulling off this great event. And thanks to all the club members who started their day off in dreary, rainy, cold conditions and drove 300 miles round trip to pull this off. Many do not like to partake of car events when the weather is not perfect. For those who took the chance it turned out great. As usual we brought the horsepower, although we were again outnumbered (as expected) by the usual outpouring of Vettes from the Richmond area. Thankfully total horsepower is what wins and we did. I sure hope the part of my interview where I described how many Corvettes were built in one year vs. the number of Vipers built from 92 on were about the same. And that we could still win this HP contest as so many of the Corvettes only had about 200HP, and indeed there were quite a few from the 70's there with those kinds of hp ratings.
And major congratulations to Mike Baxter, Mr. King of the Hill, with 1000+ HP who I drove down from Maryland with, I will probably have dreams tonight about the sound of that car, after spending several hundred miles in tandem with him, the next time they film a science fiction movie with a dragon in it I suggest they use this cars exhaust note as the voice. I've been around a lot of modded Vipers but when Mike started this car after we met up on 301 I actually jumped. Of course he nailed it under every bridge we went under. Wish I could bottle that sound and sell it.
And for those who might be wondering, Underground Racing in Charlotte built this car and Mike adds that it is reliable as well, indeed he drove it home from Charlotte and then did another round trip from Maryland to North Carolina to add some additional enhancements to the build.
And if the video link ever gets to working it should be noted that the very attractive interviewer is Denny Hamlin's (Nascar driver) fiancee.
And watch for the BEST comment when she asks Mike if "She can drive his car"
Congrtulations to all VA/MD Viper members who got up early, and drove long distances to support this very worthy cause for the kids. A ton of money was raised and it was very gratifying to see that big pickup truck filled to overflowing with the brand new toys that were the price of admission to the event for each car.