Now for the story. It all started in April when I was browsing the MCO web page. I came across some information about a driving school at the Mt.Tremblant race track. Having done several of these schools before, I figured I should do this one as well, for fun and to meet some people in my area as I just recently moved to Ottawa. It was less than two days before the $150 (Canadian) deadline. Just for kicks, I decided to throw out a post to our mailing list (corrado-l) to see if anyone else from the Ottawa area will be going in their Corrado. In several hours I got replies from about 1/2 a dozen people that said they would like to come. I was obviously not prepared for this and had to make several frantic phone calls to Jason Belec. You can guess what happened to my productivity for the rest of the day. Several e-mail posts later (and trying to make this into a CCA event), we had a group of about a dozen people. Even with such short notice, everything worked out and everyone got registered.

Friday, June 5 was the day of the long awaited convoys. There were several of them and each everyone had some kind of story to tell when we met up at the condos in Mt. Tremblant. Jesse and Kris left early on Friday from Detroit, Jason and Yosh from Philly, Josh and JJ from Cleveland, Larry Leff from Boston, Vincent from Toronto (unfortunately without his Corrado) and Mike Cote, Mike Erickson and myself from Ottawa.

Larry's solo drive to Montreal (4.5 hours) was not too exciting although he did hooked up with a early 90's 911 (wide body) Turbo (which kicked his butt!) and a Testarossa (which also kicked his butt!) along the way. I would guess that Larry was hoping for better luck at the track.

Nick Gomatos and his little brother Andrew lead the convoy from Montreal. The meeting area was at the Orange Julep (Fifty foot high orange dome snack bar). Larry Leff from Boston showed up at 2:30 and Stephane Blanchette & Richard Nadler, local Montrealers, showed up around 3:00. While waiting for others to show up pictures were taken, stories were exchanged and they got know each other. They decided to take off at around 3:30 to meet up with Mike Erickson and Paul Machan that were already at the condos. What was supposed to take 15 minutes to reach highway 15, took 40 minutes due to the bumper to bumper rush hour. It seems that the fun began on their way there when Larry got a bit restless and decided that his race weekend would start on highway 15. Thats all it took to convince the others to follow. Needless to say, they had a bit of fun, accelerating, passing each other and others.

Mike Erickson and Paul Machan (my friend from Halifax in a Beretta GTZ termed the retarded cousin) left around lunch from Ottawa to meet with people there and prepare the condos. What should have been a 2 hr drive, ended up being 3 hr drive thanks to numerous slow drivers. You know it was a slow drive when dump trucks were keeping up with them.

I met up with Vincent, his girlfriend Leslie, Jesse and Kris (in a Probe aka ProbeBoy) as well as two MCO club members in a black and a white Integra Type R (I'm sorry but their names escaped me) at 5pm. We left at 5:30 and proceeded to drive to Tremblant. A little ways into the drive, part of our convoy falls behind. Thinking that something is wrong, we pull over and wait for them to catch up. About a minute later, we see them and a big caravan of cars going by at exactly the speed limit. After seeing a white car with those funny red light and blue lights on top follow the rest of our convoy, I wiped the sweat off my forehead and continued on. We then headed for the twisty roads to Tremblant. Unfortunately, there were several cars in front of us that found the twisty and hilly roads of Quebec quite challenging. To keep myself from falling asleep, I decided to make the best of it and slowed down to a crawl followed by short spurts of some awakening driving. Some of the others liked the idea and followed my trend. After reaching Mt. Tremblant, I realized that we had lost Vincent (in his rented car). Vincent caught up to us, after we waited on the side of the road for a few minutes. We then tried to find the entrance to the track, it was not easy and we actually passed it the first time.

Friday at the track, was all a blur for me due to the excitement. All I remember is seeing and being introduced to other Corrado owners that were there. I don't know who it was, but it was just so cool. A few others and I decided to stay a while and walk the track while others headed for the condos. After the walk and car scrutineering, we followed Paul to the condos.

At the condos we found even more people and two BBQ working hard heating the food. While bringing our gear inside, I took a peak in the fridge. Mike had stocked up the fridge with a case of beer (per condo) and bagels for the morning. We stayed up until about 1 am chatting, and munching on food and my home made salsa (not officially CCA blessed).

Unfortunately Nick Gomatos (with his younger brother) had to leave at 11pm due to a wedding the next day. Twenty minutes into his drive while going south on 15, a guy on a bike passed Nick at what appeared to be 150km/h. About 150 meters in front of Nick he lost control of the bike and ended up in the ditch. Nick stopped, looked for him, and after a few minutes found him 30 meters ahead of the bike. The guy was in bad shape, with broken collar bone, dislocated shoulder and the face was all bloody. We don't know if he sustained any head injuries. Nick called the SQ (Provincial Police) which in turn dispatched an ambulance. He stopped a motorist to help him out and lucky for them one of the guys that stopped was an ambulance technician. Finally, the Ambulance came and took him away.

However, Nick's night was not over yet. Once back on the road, twenty minutes later a girl (with an 8 month old baby) on the left side of the highway pulls Nick over for some help. She had fallen a sleep and hit a side rail damaging her front wheel. Nick offered to call her a tow truck, so he once again calls the SQ (end up with the same guy on the line as before), and as he is talking with the cop, a guy driving a Pontiac Grand Am does a 360 and hits a lamp post on the right side of the road!!!!!!! Nick yelled: "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING TONIGHT!!!!!!!" right into the phone. He then explains to the cop that he wouldn't believe him but that two tow trucks are needed now at the same location but for two separate incidents! Luckily for Nick, that was it for the night and he finally and safely made it home.

Saturday morning, we had a bit of a late start and we were a little late for the drivers meeting. The weather was cloudy but it did not rain. Saturday was the short track, the long back straight was blocked off. We were all hoping that we end up in the same group, but the organizers had us scattered in three different ones. The first session provided some basic introduction to the track and some basic driving skills to people that wanted it. We had one instructor per 2-3 people. The first few laps the instructors took us out in our own cars and then we drove with the instructor as a passenger. The first session went well.

Lunch was fun. Mike, JJ and Jason showed up at about 11:00 with fresh food and everyone had a great time chatting. The second session was a little more open. We had more seat time and a faster pace. In this session I had a great duel with a type R. We were basically even with me having a little more low end torque. At about this time, William Le from Montreal showed up in a blue/purple Corrado. It was great to meet yet another club member (William came up again on Sunday!).

At the start of the third session, in one of the more experienced groups, there was an unfortunate accident. Someone, at one of the turns, lost control and spun out. He caught his wheels on the curb and his car rolled over. Fortunately he was ok and walked away from the scene. You can not say the same for his car.

I inquired about taking out some passengers. It was approved and I took out our President, Mike Erickson. After hearing all those horror stories about my driving skills, he still trusted me with his life, figure that. I have heard several rumors however, that he took a few nitro pills beforehand and gave his will to Mike Cote. Anyway, we didn't have too much fun this session as we were stuck behind two slower cars that kept us up and would not wave us by (passing was not allowed unless waved to do so by the slower car). Mike probably picked up some not so nice Polish words in the process.

After it was the day was over, we lined up and took some pictures (sorry, not scanned yet). We even covered up an Integra with our CCA banner. The organizers had a nice roast dinner platter that I and a few others decided to get. The others wanted pizza so we then left for a pizza place in St.Jovite. We had a relaxing time there eating and talking. When we got back to the condos, we hung out till around 11pm.

Sunday we wake up, look outside and it was raining. Rain or not, we headed out to the track.

Josh noticed that he had a wobbly crank pulley on Sunday morning. He was much more concerned about that others who advised him but went out on the track anyway.

Sunday we had the long course. The back straight was open and even in the rain some of us reached speeds of 180km/h. Some of us took out passengers that day as well. The brave person to go out with me that day was Jason Livingood. Luckily, I and Larry Leff in his 2.9L (with Shrik cams and stuff) VR6, ended up within sight of each other. At the start of the session, I was leading and Larry was behind me. He and Mike E, his passenger, had some sight! At some of the corners, I had my tail a little loose but always under control. I was coined with new nick name…. PsychoBoy. Half way through the session I waved Larry by to see if I was holding him up. It was not the case. My stage III G60 and his 2.9L VR6 were dead even. It surprised us both. Not one car had passed us this session, it was great! Yosh, in his red G60, spun out at one of the corners and he has it on his on-board video! He was lucky not to do any damage and was given the nickname of SpinBoy by fellow on-lookers.

Lunch was spent inside the tower to keep dry. Needless to say, it was still lots of fun. Again, thanks to our great pit crew that provided us fresh food and drinks.

In the afternoon, several Montrealers showed up (yes, it was still raining). They took some great shots with their cameras and some even got to be a passenger on the track.

During the last session of the day, we had some interesting series of events. On the last lap, in fact, I believe it was the cool down lap, Yosh limped in with his Corrado to the paddock area. He was complaining about not having any boost. After taking off a few of the IC pipes around the supercharger, he found some metal shavings and confirmed that his supercharger had blown. It apparently was a rebuilt and had only around 10,000 miles on it.

During my last session and playing with Larry again, on my last lap, I noticed some weird vibrations from the steering wheel that went away when I applied the brakes. I decide to slow down and also limped to the paddock area. I thought that I have cracked my brand new drilled rotors. After some inspection, I found that most of my bolts on the drivers side wheel were loose about 3 turns. Talk about a close call.

We were supposed to have a huge group picture session at the end of the day but due to Yosh's misfortune and the rain, it got put to aside. We got Yosh's car towed to a gas station so he could order a shorter belt on Monday to bypass the supercharger and drive home.

The Corrado brigade split up at the gas station to drive home. The Ottawa convoy consisted of Andy, Mike C, Mike E, Jesse and Kris. We saw a hit deer along the way. The deer on one side of the road and the munched Golf on the other. Further along the way, as we were getting off the Ferry, our train of 4 Corrados and ProbeBoy passed a red G60. The look on Louis' face was utter amazement. He asked "Who are you guys", like we were a bad-ass biker gang, only in Corrados's (Karmann's Angels)? We explained that we were the CCA, and that he should join in the fun. It was not hard to convince him and another C owner enlisted.

While Josh (GolfBoy) drove the car to the chalet Sunday night, he felt it just wasn't pulling right. He stopped the caravan (Jason and Larry) to let them know and then slowly poked the car back the rest of the way to the chalet.

Monday morning, Larry and Josh attempted to shove the exhaust back together as it was coming apart. They failed. Josh then called SRS (Shine Racing Service) to get some advice about the other problem, the wobbling crank pulley. They thought for sure that the 4 allen bolts that hold the accessory pulley onto the crank pulley were loose. They asked to check them out and tighten them if possible. Josh did check the allens and tightened them a bit. He also checked the torque on the crank bolt. Big mistake! Not only did he strip out one of the allens holding the accessory pulley onto the crank pulley, but he also somehow managed to slip the timing belt on the lower tensioner pulley, screwing up the timing enough so the car wouldn't start.

Yosh and Jason arrived shortly after that (they were out installing the smaller belt to by-pass the supercharger), and then attempted to realign all the marks up with some coaching via cell phone from SRS. They did get it running, poorly, but didn't know how to mess with the distributor timing to get the car running better. After much cursing about the rain and the large swarms of mosquitoes (many, many) they finally had to throw in the towel and got the car towed to a garage in St.Jovite. While there, Josh actually had to show the guy the timing mark on the flywheel, as he had set the car up with the cam gear 180 degrees off. It is highly recommend marking that thing with a yellow paint pen, as its impossible to see. They finally got the car running there (after 4 hours), fixed the exhaust, and torqued down the crank bolt, which had mysteriously come loose.

Josh & Lar finally rolled out of St. Jovite (after a lot of frustration) at 8:30pm on Monday! After dropping his boxy ride (G60 GTI) off at Shine Racing Service, they landed at Chez Lar's at the ripe old hour of 4am. Lovely, but very much worth it. They actually made from St. Jovite to Boston in 5.5 hours - not bad, eh?

To add to Josh's bad luck, he managed to get a speeding ticket en route (79 in a 65). Miraculously, the cop actually passed Lar to pull Josh over. Even the New Hampshire cops realize how superior the Corrado is?! Hopefully Josh will have some better luck in the near future.

Yosh and Jason however, made it back to Philadelphia without a breakdown. Yosh's G60 belt fix worked and they could even cruise back at over 100mph. They made it back home in an amazing 7 hours and 45 minutes!

Josh called SRS Tuesday morning, to get the bad news. Dick (the owner) was amazed that Josh made it there. The crank pulley and nose of the crank were practically sheared off. Yosh was correct in his assessment that the keyway was getting screwed. Good call Yosh! Josh figures that another few miles and it would have been over.

The car is still at SRS, getting the crank dropped and a brand new crank installed with new main bearings etc. The price is still up in the air, but Josh figure this is going to cost $1000 US, plus the $240 CDN that he spent up in St Jovite to get the car going. Oh, and the $86 US speeding ticket. Josh is hanging out at Larrys until Thursday, when the car will be done and he'll then be heading back to Cleveland. The following weekend Josh will be at Nelsons Ledge hammering the car again! Needless to say, this has been quite a saga.

Paul Machan's Beretta did not fare that well either. After coming home, he found a coolant and oil leak. Although it was not too major (leak around the oil sensor and around the throttle body), it had to get fixed and can be added the Mt. Tremblant's destructive powers.

Despite all this, everyone agrees that it was one of the best CCA events to date. Most people are planning on returning next year. Several others from Halifax are planning on driving the 15 hours each way next year. I hope many other will join us as well.

	Suggestions related to the web site should be sent to the webmaster. Copyright © 1996 CCA