Not Knott's review (with Pics)

[Monster]

Well,

The forecast scared some folks away from this the inaugural Not Knott's, but those that "risked" it were rewarded. To be honest it was questionable as to what the weather was going to be like on our drive down to Santa Barbara and for that matter, what the weekend would be like once we arrived.. Saturday morning was gray with drizzle when we left. We switched to a Livermore departure since the only ones leaving the area in Cobra's were "Livermoron's" (no pun intended that's what we're called) . So we met up with Mr. P (aka. Larry Davi, who's cam decided to shave down a lifter earlier in the week...another story) down the road in Pleasanton. We ran into some light spotty rain, but nothing to bad, on our way to our meet up with the south bay group in Salinas. We found 8 more Cobras had decided to brave the elements and so we had a respectable 11 Cobras to make the trip to Santa Barbara. We would have had 12 however, Larry & Carol Gross didn't think folks would be bringing their Cobras but were not going to miss the event and they drove their Chrysler Hemi....interesting both of the couples that didn't drive their Cobras were "Larry's" and both had "Hemi's" hmmmmm.

From Salinas to Santa Barbara we had NO RAIN and DRY roads. and got down there in 3 ½ hrs to be greeted by ........SUN and 65 degree temps. The hotel had a reserved their covered parking for us which was a nice added perk. We also had an area to wash the cars and get them ready for the Sunday show. After getting the cars show ready it was time to "cruise". The car show organizers had planned a cruise that assembled a few blocks from the main street which would host Sunday's show. We drove the Cobras , as a group to the staging area which was at the opposite end of town from the hotel, which provide us a "private- Cobras Only" cruise before the main show cruise. Needless to say we turned a number of heads and had folks coming out from the many business on State St. to see what all of the noise was about. After the cruise we had a bit of time to relax and gather at our self-hosted wine and cheese reception. We got a chance to socialize sample some nice wines and enjoy fruit, Prosciutto, veggies and cheeses before we walked a few blocks to our group dinner. Dinner provide a semi-private room and a very nice selection of tasty entree's (http://www.sohosb.com/menu.html) a great way to complete day one.

Sunday provided more sun as we made our way (3 blocks) to the car show for check-in. The show had a well organized registration, each car was pre-assigned parking area and cars were organized by marque ( our Cobras were grouped side by side with ample room between each car) . There were an 400+ cars parked along 10 blocks of State St. with attendance in the hundreds (possibly thousands). In addition to the 11 Cobras another 4 were in attendance from the area along with Shelby GT350's and a GT500 Mustang in the same judging group. Congratulations to Chris Hutchings for taking 3rd with his ERA and Al Solomko 2nd with his FFR in the combined Cobra/Shelby group.

Unfortunately, Russ Thompson couldn't make it to Santa Barbara event until after judging, he was to busy capturing awards for his beautifully done FFR Daytona Coupe at the Knott's Kit Car show ( two from FFR, best coupe and best of show along with The Knott's trophy's for 1st place Grand Touring and the Presidents Trophy.)

Sunday evening we again gathered to finish up the little cheese & wine left over from Sat. before we walked a couple of blocks to the Buenos Aries restaurant for another outstanding dinner set in their beautiful indoor/outdoor courtyard http://www.santabarbara.com/dining/r...restaurant=614 )

Monday we gathered one last time for breakfast at the original (and last) Sambo's restaurant before leaving for home. As with the weekend weather again co-operated with more sun for our drive back and we took a side trip via Santa Barbara coast and Hwy154 past Lake Cachuma. before getting back on 101. Only issue of the weekend was in King City on the return when Tom Howland's fuel tank developed a leak at our gas stop. Fortunately, we were 75mi. from Tom's home, so his cobra completed the trip on a AAA provided flatbed under his 100 mile tow coverage.

All in all an excellent inaugural Not Knott's.
thanks to all who attended,

Mike "monster"

PICTURES: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mdvmon...el%3as,1%3af,0