DVSF III updates for May-Sponsors, Jenny's car, ID cards, etc., etc., etc.

[Double Venom]

It's Sunday, May 18, early AM. Just thought it was time for doing a little catch up.

First the bad news. We have lost "MAC Tools" as a sponsor for this year. Seems MAC had just been bought out by "Stanley Electric," lost some serious money for the last three quarters of business and has been forced for the first time ever to lay off hundreds of employees. Stanley has forced MAC to chop millions from their budgets, from laying off top people to cutting their racing budgets by millions. Needless to say we were at the bottom of the heap.

The MAC guys had no idea this was coming, I mean talk about being blind sided! The local MAC leaders have asked me to explain to our "family" why they had to withdraw this year.
They have also told me that they will do everything they can to persuade the powers to be that this event needs their full attention and support. I truly believe DVSF IV will have the entire MAC Tool industry behind us and Jenny! MAC.."we" do appreciate what you have done, what you tried to do. I am convinced you will do for us in the future.

On a brighter note Jenny's motor is making huge advances! Thanks to so many of you for sending really great parts to all those that send money for more parts. One guy alone, who shall be named at a later time, sent in a check for $500.00! David (Kirkham) just got us the new custom made center section for the rear end and we will be installing it today.

The Clutch and related items were going to be one of our most expensive items we needed to purchase to do the final assembly.
Not wanting to take any short cuts I asked DAVID KEE what he would recommend for pushing the power through his fabulous transmission. Not hesitating for a second he said a McLeod! and gave me the number to call.

I called, I talked to "RED" and it was done! Of course their is more to this story than meets the eye! Not being the bashful type I told Red who gave me his name and number and that David had given us one of his top loaders for free. Of course I had to tell him what it was going into!

Well of course Red was a little taken back wanting to know why in the blazes Kirkham, who he knows well and Kee, who he apparently knows real well gave us these great toys (I was hoping he would ask! )

As soon as Red heard the story of what our family was doing he, without hesitation not only send us the right pressure place, clutch disc and hydraulic throw-out bearing, he insisted that we put a new flywheel on the motor! I even told him ours checked out all right, that Columbus CO-Weld had magnafluxed it, rebalanced it and refinished it! Red didn't care. It was old and should be replaced. Oh well...don't argue with the Pro's!

Another gentlemen donated an almost new MSD7 box no less complete with Distributor! (Fella, you know who you are and the world will know soon-but check your new distributor!) The gear on the one you sent was badly "ground" and had severe "markings". I suspect it would have self destructed in less than 100 more miles! See the Butcher's full story on these gears!

No problem for us though--we are swapping the gear to match the cam anyway.

Hopefully we now have or will have by Tuesday everything we need to finalize the motor and put it in it's rightful place.

For the many, and I do mean many people that have offered to buy the needed parts, or to send money to help pay for the parts, I think we now have it all. We went out and bought a bunch of the smaller items, i.e., plug wires and holders, spark plugs, a few gaskets, thermostat housing, ( I forget a thermostat! ) and a chrome fuel rail for our really cool custom built Holley.

CobraRat, our web guru, was in the shop Friday and took a bunch of pictures of Jenny's car, our neat Scooter that Bill from the FFR forum donated and pictures of the motor going together. Hopefully he will post them soon, if he hasn't done so already!

Onward.
Donations for the DVSF III Raffle. In the past two years "our" family has been amazingly generous donating everything from Ginny's fabulouos quilts to hard to find Cobra parts. Once again I ask you to go through the shelves and rafters of your garage for parts you might need and out of the goodness of your soul are willing to donate to Jenny's raffle/auction.

Don't stop there! Climb into that attic and see if their aren't some hidden treasures you and the Mrs. might be willing to seperate with. Remember we have almost as many lady's and kids coming as the guys! An old rocking chair, a neat lamp, "whatever" you think some of our family might be interested in.

Wayne Presley does a fund raiser in California and they auction off "frequent flyer miles", to a time share condo in Florida. Anything you guys can come up with that might help us raise money for Jenny! Remember Turks' ahh, unmentionable! We did real well on that one! Of course Turk bought it, and it hasn't been seen since!

You can go right to www.DVSF.com and list your donations there!
You can mail them, or bring what ever with you, but please let me know in advance what you have AND if you do mail them please list the value of the item and include you name and number!

OK, I know this is to long for a Sunday morning read--get up, re-fill the coffee cup and let's finish this up.

Registration: Very important, if you haven't put everyones name on the web site that you are bringing, please do so! It is very important that we have everyones names. If you don't have one of our very special ID tags this year you will NOT be able to get in to some of the events! Mikeic---your on the site, would you please enter Ginny's name for us? If not she is going to be one very unhappy lady!

Last but not in the least, remember that Mrs. DV and I have made arrangements for transportation to and from the Party for Friday night. Leave your Cobras at the hotels. (Not to worry CPD's finest will be on duty all night!) It's a BYOB-meaning come to party and watch the famous "RAKI" group get silly!

Party, Raki, auctions, raffles, "The RipCords", dancing and dining all in one night at one place and with our Cobra family, it just can't get much better!

DV...Think I'll go to the shop and turn some bolts on a very special small block! Remember "WE" are family!