<VV> Performance Workshop

[Rick Norris]

> Another great week end at the fourth annual Performance Workshop with all
> the usual suspects, Corvairs, hi-po parts, airplanes, general B.S.ing
,good
> food and an ice storm!
> As the good old boys say, It don't git no better'nis!
>
> Friday after unloading the car at Gary's place several of us went to the
> USAF Museum for a special behind the scenes tour of the restoration shops.
> What a treat! We were all in "airplane resurrection heaven" as it were. My
> wife would have called it junk.
> The highlight of the tour was seeing the Memphis Belle, the famous B-17 in
> the initial stages of her eight to ten year restoration. To see and touch
> that piece of history was thrilling.
> We also toured some of the other parts of the museum where I held an
> impromptu class on two airplanes I am very familiar with. I spent my first
> years in the Air Force on F-101B Voo Doo's, of which they have a
beautifully
> restored version and the F-100D which I was on in Vietnam.
>
> For the second time in a row I brought a Corvair for "show and tell". This
> time it was my tribute car or the Sunoco Corvair as everyone refers to it.
> It seemed to be a hit with the Workshop crowd. The real deal was Ray
> Claytons Corvair powered dragster. What a beautiful piece of work. We had
> our own "cackle fest" as he fired it up inside! Man, the sound of that
> engine and the smell of race gas was just what the doctor ordered to shake
> off the winter and get fired up for the racing season ahead.
>
> The weather was fair up to Saturday night when a freezing rain hit while
we
> were chowing down at the local steak house. By Sunday morning it was
mostly
> rain and slush. It was an odd day as it was 31 degrees and raining when we
left Dayton
> and by the late afternoon when I was home washing the road crud off the
> Corvair and trailer it was a sunny and 64 degrees! Later that evening we
had
> a thunderstorm!
>
> As with any event such as this there are many people to thank but I'll say
> thanks to Gary Funkhouser aka "Da Funkster" for providing his shop and
> facilities as the venue for this annual gathering.

> Rick Norris