[jmbinjax]

Thanks Keith and Harold for a great meeting.

Special thanks to everyone involved coming up with a solution to get me home.

I had a major engine failure exactly 19 miles from the hotel. Fortunately, I had left early enough that most had not left yet. Upon the failure I contacted Edwin and Harold. Between them and everyone else they came up with a solution to get me and my car home to GA in the same day.

That's where Tom and Sally came in and I can't thank them enough. They have the awesome red Kadett Rallye. With the help of Harold, they had an empty trailer heading to GA. We had my GT loaded within minutes of them arriving. My GT was in my garage only 2 hours later than my original travel schedule.

The problem, it now doesn't run.

Thank you Opel community!

 

[tomking]

Thanks Keith and Harold for putting this together. Great venue to have the meet and show. Thanks Gil for all your support to our community.
It was great to get reaquainted with many of my Opel friends. Good Opeling to all.

 

[opelspyder]

Recap of the Show

I want to thank all that decided to come to the events, and hope everyone had a good time.

Friday the show started with several folks trickling in. Weather held out and we had a lot of traffic with people just seeing the signs about the show.
1st thing was the Gyro-X was being loaded up heading to a concours show after a 5 year restoration
Gyroscopically stabilized Gyro-X car headed to the 2017 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance
2:00 the Nissan Heritage Collection tour was going on, special thanks to David Bishop (Broken back and all), I heard it was very interesting and full of information.
Friday night the majority of the group went to the Bavarian Bierhaus. Had mixed feelings about it from the group, it was very loud as the acoustics were not good, but the atmosphere was awesome, food was good, and I think it was fun.
Saturday the show turned out 18 cars. We sold out the basement tour, and the food truck had some pretty good burgers and catfish going on.
The awards are as follows

Best of Show Tom Larson 1968 Opel Kadett Rallye
Stock GT 1st Tom Adkins 1969 Opel GT 1.1
Stock GT 2nd Harold Collins 1972 Opel GT
Modified GT 1st David Smith V6 GT
Modified GT 2nd John Bartnick 1973 GT
Stock Opel 1st James Edmonds 1967 Opel Kadett
Stock Opel 2nd Edwin Monsess 1970 Manta
Modified Opel 1st Mike Brooks 1973 Manta
Modified Opel 2nd Bill Hoffman 1975 Manta
People's Choice Tom Larson 1968 Opel Kadett Rallye
Longest Distance Traveled in an Opel David Smith V6 GT 815 miles

Saturday evening took some work, it was a bit hard to get people together at the Parthenon, some got there early, no real caravan happened. It was very busy there, but we got lucky, and could clear out enough room for the Opels that were there. Then the crazy Opel people that followed me to the Gerst Haus for dinner, I praise you for following the blind...I royally screwed up getting out of there, but we got a really nice tour of all of Nashville! Nice dinner at the Gerst Haus, and back to the hotel for bench racing.
Sunday several folks came out to the invite at New Vintage Auto and toured the shop and checked out the projects there.

 

[opelspyder]

The family that Opels together...sort of. Took the family, but let them go have fun on there own for the most part

 

[Ooooner]

Great Opel Nationals! Yvonne and I got home after a 7 hour drive. Worth the drive to and from the show as it was fantastic. I finally was able to get Yvonne to go with me to Opel event and she was impressed, although she didn't know what "bench racing" was. She does now!

Thanks Keith and Harold for hosting this years Opel Nationals!

Great seeing old friends and meeting new ones!

 

[dsmith]

Well Deb and I made it as far as Dandridge,Tn and the V6 started cutting out. I think the heat got my pcm and may have cooked it. We found a motel and I put in my spare pcm and it seems to be ok now. Will start out early tomorrow morning when it is cooler and hopefully be in the cooler north by afternoon. To top things off when I put my 4-ways on the side of I 40 the switch broke and then they would not shut off. Had to pull the blinker can to shut them off. Now I have no turn signals. I'm not tearing that instrument cluster out on the road! Back to the old hand signals to get home. God I love my Opel!

 

[Ooooner]

Well Deb and I made it as far as Dandridge,Tn and the V6 started cutting out. I think the heat got my pcm and may have cooked it. We found a motel and I put in my spare pcm and it seems to be ok now. Will start out early tomorrow morning when it is cooler and hopefully be in the cooler north by afternoon. To top things off when I put my 4-ways on the side of I 40 the switch broke and then they would not shut off. Had to pull the blinker can to shut them off. Now I have no turn signals. I'm not tearing that instrument cluster out on the road! Back to the old hand signals to get home. God I love my Opel!

Sounds like it overheated from all the weight of the trophies you won!

(Sorry for your problem. Hope it gets worked out)

 

[P.J. Romano (R.I.P.)]

I had a major engine failure exactly 19 miles from the hotel.

What happened?

 

[The Scifi Guy]

Is PJ the only one of us who's car never breaks down?


:lmao:

 

[dcm013]

Great weekend. The TN boys put on a great meet. I took on the Tail of The Dragon (in my Chrysler) today after leaving Keith's shop. That was fun, and tomorrow I'm going to hit the Blue Ridge Pkwy.

 

[jmbinjax]

What happened?

Cruising along at about 3,000-3,200 rpm and suddenly lost power, looked in rear view mirror and saw nothing but smoke. No warning whatsoever. Turns out to be coolant and not oil.

Coolant in #1 and #2 cylinders
#1 spark plug beat up
No compression in #1
No coolant in oil
Valves are intact and moving freely

That's all I know so far.

 

[GoldGT]

Is PJ the only one of us who's car never breaks down?

Says something about the mechanic doesn't it :yup:.

 

[opelspyder]

Don't want to make this as a business, but the registrations and the auction allowed us to come pretty close to breaking even, which is great...it means we can operate a show and come out close to what it costs. I was -22.00 at the end, and didn't account for copies of maps and schedules, office supplies. No complaints, but I have 30 extra dash plaques if those that could not attend but would like a memento of the 2017 Opel Nationals, they are $5.00 shipped regular mail. Send payment by Paypal to [email protected] with you address and I will get them out this week or whenever you order. If they sell, I will have a moderator delete this post.

 

[crliwa]

Thanks Keith and Harold for putting this show together... Nashville was a great location.

Gerri and I are leaving this evening. After everyone left yesterday we spent the day as tourists first with Gil and Patty at Gaylords Opryland resort then Gerri and I went downtown by Uber and checked out a few Honky Tonks. We left downtown which was packed for a Sunday nite just as 2 concerts (Santana and ?) were letting out and closing off Broadway, so we had a bit of a hard time getting Uber. Thanks to Don and Ron for the rides to all of the venues.

Thanks Keith for loaning me your bike so I could get in a workout every morning. I found that there are plenty of hills in Nashville so I got to use many of the 18 gears on the bike.

As usual there were some awesome Opels and we got to meet some fellow Opelers that we hadn't yet met.

Hope to see you all next year in Vegas

 

[dsmith]

Deb and I just got home safe and sound. The car ran with no problems with the spare pcm. I'm going to have to figure out how to keep that bugger cool before Vegas! Help PJ!

 

[GoldGT]

Deb and I just got home safe and sound. The car ran with no problems with the spare pcm. I'm going to have to figure out how to keep that bugger cool before Vegas! Help PJ!

12 Volt computer fan?

 

[dsmith]

Ya that might do it. You, PJ and I can brainstorm it over a beer at Watkins Glen!:yup:

 

[opelspyder]

Same thing they are doing to the early Compufire units too, they were getting hot so they put a fan under it, I think the new ones have a heat sink now.

 

[P.J. Romano (R.I.P.)]

Those computer 12V fans work really well. They are cheap, quiet, drawing negligible amount of electricity and have sealed bearings rated at 30,000 hours, far less than what we will ever put with our Opels.
I installed such fan under Compufire unit and it has been coping with the GT under-the-hood heat for the last seven years.

 

[greenopelgt]

Opel Nationals 2017

I wrote a detailed overview but the damn site ate it up - so without a total recall thank you all for a very pleasant Meet. A"special" thanks to Keith, Harold and Gil. Ms. Opel sincerely appreciates your consideration. Hope to see ya down the road. Keep Opelling!