Long Island Cobras

[mrud]

Ray,
Mike R., I spoke with you on Sat. at Nick's. I belong to a Yacht club and you can do quite a lot with members who pay dues. Even if they do not attend all functions. With a club paying dues, you can get:
Monthly newsletter with photos and up coming events.
Discounts on repairs
Discounts on towing.
Guest speakers at least once a month.
You can lock on guaranteed track time at different tracks.
Etc, etc,
I am in. Although I cannot attend every event or on all weekends, I think that Long Island has enough car enthusiasts to make this work. I think we have a great opportunity at Nicks especailly for a meeting place. Count me in.
Regards,
Mike

[JCoop]

Mike, glad you found our little corner here. i've realized it'll be a slow process but moving is better than sitting. If we could just get a handful of "core" enthusiasts willing to organize, I feel others will follow suit. A call for a general meeting is probably the next logical step. Nick's may be too small for it, and more importantly, I don't want to turn off those who aren't regulars there. I know of 2 Cobra owners within 5 miles from me who may go to a meeting at a Diner, say, but would be intimidated to go to an established shop with a regular following.

Tony, what's the first show or event do the guys usually attend? I'd like to design and produce a banner for LIC and print a flyer for membership, etc.

[JAM1775]

Guys...first let me thank you for opening this local Long Island forum.
Terrific idea !

Regarding a chartered LI Cobra Club, I am in disagreement with the idea.
On cursory view, we may appear disorganized but we are not.
If you read the recent article in KITCAR what we have at Nick's is unique and attractive mostly because it is NOT an organized club. It is an informal weekly gathering of guys who have established friendships and Cobra service related co-dependancies. We gather at Nick's because he is gracious enough to provide us space in his own private business. Nick has a tremendous work load because he is a great mechanic. John Lucido collects 10 bucks a month which is the best deal on the planet. A small amount of that money goes to Nick to compensate for his leased space. The rest of that money is returned to those who contribute with everything from breakfast, pastries, gourmet coffee, direct TV and an occasional summer barbeque hosted and prepared by "chef" Bobby Burns. (oh Yeah!) Again....these benefits center around the room behind Nick's shop because he extends the use of his place of business for us.

Some of the guys gather at HRE. Some gather at Nick's. Sometimes guys pass each other enroute to either location or simply jump in their cars and pop back and forth . Me....I am mostly at Nick's with the larger group but do enjoy a sunny day drive to HRE because we have friends in both places. It's not about a charter allegience, club shirts, flying the same colors etc.
It's actually bigger than that.

We have planned at least 30 LI Cobra Runs to destinations ranging from Lime Rock to Manhattan ( thanks bobby!) to the North/South forks. We have done many day trips that often spur from spontaneity of simply being together on a sunny Saturday. Tony Aprile has been taking the helm the past few years on most of the LICR's resulting in conflict free Cobra fun ! The only conflicts on these LICR's are the trash talking hysterical exchanges by quite a cast of characters ! As info...also attend car meets on 2-3-4 nights per week across the island as well as weekend events. How do we do it ?? The cobra forums, posters, bulletin board notices are key but much....most of it is done by word of mouth. We have been assembling in this disorganized fashion since 1995.

You guys appear to have the right interests in mind. I wish you luck because I know it is not easy to organize groups. But do you know what ?
Why not just try to stick around for a summer and have some fun? You may find the informality of the way we get things done to be the best part of belonging to our group. Personally...I like the freedom we each enjoy individually .......as well as collectively. I have not been to Nick's shop for about 4 weeks but it is my perception you will find most of the guys simply like it as it is. When I say if it ain't broke don't fix it I might rephrase by saying just fire up your Cobras and see what we already have .

Please realize these are MY OWN personal opinions. So feel free to fire away. But ....my 10 bucks will continue to go to 401K. Why ? Because the rest just seems to fall in place.

Jim Marotta
JAM1775

[BCompy]

You silver tongue devil you! Well said ,well done,well put , plain just what I was thinking.
Whats wrong,use guys don't watch the Soprano's. Can't belong to the Mafia if the mafia don't exist.

[JAM1775]

Doesn't Allegra look beautiful ?
Allegra ? That's a cold medicine . What kind of name is that ?
It means "Love Song".
Yeah...And what does that have to do with a cold !
Facheem !!