[Double Venom]

I did just talk to Jack and now I have a little better understanding of what is taking place. First and foremost, I take total responsibility for the lack of information that has not been released. I honestly had no idea, especially about the raffle car. This needs clarifying right now, especially after hearing some of the rumors that have been going around. I want to once again reiterate--if you want to know anything, and I mean anything about past or possible future Flings, all you have to do is ask! Ask a "Direct" question and you will get a direct answer.

That is what I am doing right now, answering all the questions and comments. I really do not have a lot of time for this, but it will be done. I'm sorry if it's not as fast as you want it to be.

Another thing I want to interject here, Is that I MADE IT PERFECTLY CLEAR AT OUR PICNIC ON SUNDAY AT THE PARK THAT I WOULD BE 'OFF-LINE' FOR UP TO 5 MONTHS OR SO! We didn't even get a phone line in until about 6 weeks ago! Then I was further delayed trying to get a DSL line in, when that failed I went with this 'Dial-up'. I hope that at least answers the, "I disappeared" comments. My abscense and the reason for it were well known, and thinking back on it, I think I even posted this information at the end of Fling IV.


DVSF IV RAFFLE CAR:
The reason we went with my car for the event was; it was the ONLY "turnkey" car that we could come up with in time to actually get out and sell raffle tickets to. It simply was not fair to any of our Cobra manufacturers to ask them to donate at least a 'roller' in that amount of time. We did have an FFR Cobra that was almost complete offered to us, which supposedly had a good start to it, but still had to be finished. My memory is a little vague at this point but the Colorado Club (?) offered to get the guys car finished for us, we even had shipping arrangements made. Had we gone this route we would have helped the owner out tremendously, (I'm not going to go into that right now, it's irrelevant for this thread.) After that Cobra had been actually inspected I was advised by more than one person to let it go. At least two weeks had been used wasted in preparation for this car.

Time was of the essence, so that is how we came up with raffling of the original "DV Cobra". This was NOT an easy thing to do, nor was it a spur of the moment decision! Numerous people on this and other forums were asked their opinions, albeit behind the scenes, until we actually released the information to the public. Not one negative comment other than quite a few people thought we were either nuts, or that we really were'nt going to raffle off the original DV Cobra.

I personally thought we were doing a great thing. Alyce, at CF was asked, which of course went all the way to the top of the CF chain obtaining their blessing. "FinishLine" was advised of whatd what I wanted to do and got their input. Dean Rosen was asked about it, Dave Smith-Jenny's father for those that might not know, was asked his thoughts. (More on that conversation in a minute.) "We" discussed the cost with everyone and yes, at least one thing on this thread was right, an agreed upon a price of $50,000.00 for the car. NOW please, please understand this: Any money's above the $50,000.00 was to go to CF, all of it. IF THE RAFFLE DID NOT BRING IN AT LEAST $50,000.00 THEN THE LOSS WAS MINE! NOT CF'S. If that wasn't clear enough then let it suffice that not one Dime was or did go toward the purchase of the DV Cobra OTHER than from the raffle ticket sales! Not relevant, but I think he deserves some credit here, Randy, DV Jr. as most of you know him closed down his business, AT NO COST TO US, for over five or six weeks to transport the car from one show to another, to prep the car, making minor repairs and doing what ever he could to get the car ready. He alone stood out in fields, and parking lots for entire weekends selling tickets. YES, help was asked for and a few good souls did respond to help out.

Continueing on, Dave Smith made an offer that I thought was a totally above and beyond. He knew I was nervous about raffling of my car, the potential loss could have devastated us, and so he simply did what Dave is so good at, he offered to "personally-NOT FFR Racing" make up any deficit that we would suffer if the car did not bring in the $50,000.00 plus we were hoping for.

The Tally:
Total sales in the few short weeks we had were right at $41,500.00 (may be of on this a small amount). The "actual" costs to do the raffle, i.e., raffle tickets, transportation, hotel rooms, fuel, etc. were subtracted from the total intake. Had we had the full year to raffle off the car I'm sure we could have doubled ticket sales. I'm almost sure this is right, but I'm going by memory here. Let me do the math for you, we ended up being roughly $10,000.00 short of our minimum goal. Dave Smith did NOT make up the difference ONLY because we never asked him to! It was my decision to take this gamble for our event, not David's. We then donated another $2,000.00 out of the proceeds to Cystic Fibrosis.

*A note here to answer the naysayers, all in all $37,000 +/- IS a lot of money! How ever, it is a far cry from the $69,900.00 that this car sells for!

That is the complete story on the "DV" Cobra. I have no regrets it was my decision.

The rest will be forth coming.
Ed "DV" Combs