Cadillac Allante/XLR Club Annual Grand National Event, Nashville, TN 14-18 Oct 2015

[GizmoQ]

I have been asked by the president of the Cadillac Allante/XLR Club to spread the word on this event.

More info will be shared as its received.

 

[cubby558]

Need a Change of Venue!!

Supa & I were going to sign up for this event; however after hearing the way Nashville is treating Chicago area people; do to the NHL playoff against our Blackhawks, we'll spend our money anywhere but Nashville!!

Go BLACKHAWKS!!

 

[Eslic1]

Wow...

Wow... I would love to take that drive but like Cubby I don't want to drive hundreds of miles only to be treated like crap. October is a long time off, hopefully the climate will have changed by then... What do you guys think?

 

[GizmoQ]

Newa Release from Cadillac Allante/XLR Club:

Allantés /XLR Cruise the Heartland

12th Annual Cadillac Allanté XLR Show / Vacation

And Our 2nd Allante XLR Grand National

October 14th to the 18th

Special Award for the 25th Anniversary of the “1990 Allante”



Here is the Itinerary… If any of you are leaving from the north east, I created a driving plan to make the drive more pleasurable. If you are deciding to drive straight through, this can be some of the reason why you and or your spouse may hate road trips. Owners coming from other directions can make their own plan. I can help you get in touch with owners around you. We encourage you to join us in a convoy to the Heartland.



Tuesday, October 13, 2015.

We will be leaving south New Jersey on Tuesday October 13 by 2pm. We will drive to Castalia’s 33820 Old Valley Pike #8 Strasburg, VA 22657. We should be there by 6PM have dinner and by 7:30 back on the road and drive to about 11pm. to Ft Chiswell VA. Stay overnight. Then back on the road and by 3pm we will just be in time for check in.



Wednesday, October 14, 2015

After we get settled in, we will go to dinner at a close by restaurant TBA. Then back at the hotel for a night cap.



Thursday, October 15, 2015

The group may split up because we have 2 places planed.

A- Corvette museum and plant / with possible chroming tour

B- Jack Daniels tour / and the Lane motor car museum

Then dinner at one of their finer Italian restaurants then as always, back to the hotel for our night caps



Friday October 16, 2015

If all goes well, we will be picked up at the hotel for the time of our lives on the Trash bus tour. We just had a member do this last month and he said if we do anything there, we must do this… After the bus tour, they will drop us off in the Honky Tonk area where all the museums and bars are. Some will stay there all day and night, but if you need to go back to the hotel, it’s a local bus ride away.

I feel for dinner, we will stay there and do some bar and restaurant hoping.


Saturday, October 17, 2015 Allante XLR Day
At 9:30 AM, we will head over to the Opryland Mall and behind it is the General Lee Cruise ship. There is a large parking lot where we will stage out cars and you can vote for your favorite cars. By 11pm, we will board the ship for a cruise down the river for the sights and sounds alone with a lunch buffet. By 2:30, we return to the dock and then to the parking lot and continued our judging. Once all the voting ballots are all handed in, we will return back to the hotel.
Saturday Evening,
At 6:30pm, we will all meet in one of the banquet rooms where we will have our Awards sit down dinner banquet. After dinner, we will present the awards. Remember, if you have a 1990 Allante, you may win the greatest trophy of all.
It would be nice if we can get the past three 25 Anniversary winners… then there will be 4…
Sunday October 18, 2015
We will head out late morning a drive to the Downtown Mall located in Charlottesville Va. Where we will stay overnight and do dinner. Looks like a great place to walk shop and dine.
If you have any questions about this event or anything for that matter, you can always call me 609-634-6518 or you can email me at Itsonlyluv@comcast.net or go to Home - The Cadillac Allante XLR Club click on the top right, there you will enter the Allante XLR chat room. It’s a 24Hr room for anyone to used, even for you non-members. We like to show you how helpful we are. But our weekly day is Wednesday at 8PM EST. See you there…

In case you’re confused the Cadillac Allante Club has been doing nationals shows since 2004. Now if you remember we were the Delaware Valley Allante Group, (we had to change our name because since we became a national club, we could not label it to one area) we were a sub chapter of both the Allante Appreciation Group and the Allante Association. During the last 4 years of the AAG, I single handily did their nationals shows. So this show will really be my 17th national Show. And we plan not to stop…
Now by calling this event our 2nd Grand National which means that all our sub chapters and other Allante XLR clubs come together for one show. I have done this back in 2000 in Brigantine NJ (Atlantic City) where I got the AAG and the AOA to get together. That was a wonderful thing. And were doing it again…

 

[68barracuda]

nashville event

hi my name is Marcus Hawthorne and i live in nashville,tn just let me know if you need any help here

 

[XLRGeorge]

Nashville native suggests Hockey Hillbillies don't know what an XLR is

Please don't let the behavior of a few nut cases, for a specific hockey event (fights expected on ice) color your thinking about Nashville. It is a great tourist city and is all about fun.

Go to downtown Broadway section to see all the out of town people having a great time.

Also, take a top down trip to the Natchez Trace Parkway. Beautiful, no stop signs, smooth twisting country roads.

Local boy, XLRGeorge

 

[RetArmy]

That sounds great

Please don't let the behavior of a few nut cases, for a specific hockey event (fights expected on ice) color your thinking about Nashville. It is a great tourist city and is all about fun.

Go to downtown Broadway section to see all the out of town people having a great time.

Also, take a top down trip to the Natchez Trace Parkway. Beautiful, no stop signs, smooth twisting country roads.

Local boy, XLRGeorge

That's what I'm talking about XLRGEORGE. I'm a Chicago boy but I retired here in SC (had enough snow). The wife and I will be there for sure. I hope many others drive down as well.

 

[david jones]

Nashville

Please don't let the behavior of a few nut cases, for a specific hockey event (fights expected on ice) color your thinking about Nashville. It is a great tourist city and is all about fun.

Go to downtown Broadway section to see all the out of town people having a great time.

Also, take a top down trip to the Natchez Trace Parkway. Beautiful, no stop signs, smooth twisting country roads.

Local boy, XLRGeorge

I agree Nashville is a lovely place. My 2004 XLR came from Andrews Cadillac in Brentwood which is another lovely area. Was in your town first of June and another lovely area. Hope folks do not judge the State of Tn. by the city of Memphis. I live across the line in Ms & plan on driving the Natchez Trace Pkwy. this fall. David J

 

[GizmoQ]

From the event organizer:

This is a must read… If you have any intentions in joining us at the Grand National Cadillac Allante XLR clubs Show / event, then you must send in your registration and check off what you like to do. If you get it in late, then most likely I will not be able to book you at some of the events were having. A few of the things were doing only handle an x amount of people. The great price we got for the hotel will expire at the end of the week. So book it, you can always cancel it.

We also doing a keepsake booklet for every Allanté XLR owner whether or not you’re coming to this event. There is also a dead line of next week; we need to go to print. It will really be a shame if you’re at the event and you’re not in the book.

Another shame may be that we're presenting a special trophy for the 1990 Allante which is 25 years old this year and we only have 2 registered.

You do know this show is open to ALL Allante XLR owners. You do not need to be a member of our club to participate.

I wish to thank the owners who are helping me to try to get the word out. I send an email out if anyone would like to help the club to make some phone calls to the owners because I do not think emailing if as effective as it should be.



Now if you’re deciding to coming to the show and you want to caravan, he is some of the states the attendees are coming from:

AL, CA,Ct,DE,FL,GA,IL,IN,MD,MN,MO,NC,NJ,NY,OH,PA,SC,TN,TX,VA, WI & Canada

Do you see you state, call me and I’ll tell you where there leaving from. for the Attendees coming from the north of me in NJ, check the Itinerary , you may want to join us…

If you really love these cars, you should be there and see what owners have done to them.

Thanks for reading…. Please get back…to me and sal if you want to be in the booklet

John Itsonlyluv@comcast.net Sal 93Bluetoo@gmail.com

 

[GizmoQ]

PJ and I attended the event this weekend and these guys were a just slightly older version of the Midwest Marauders. We drank, joked, drank, talked cars and trivia, drank, repeat... Notice the similarities yet? Everybody was super friendly and loved talking cars. Members were there from across the country and one couple from Canada. Found out one couple there lives less than 5 miles from my home, PJ and I will be having lunch with them later this week and hopefully on a regular basis.

Nashville was jumping all weekend with a concert in the park across the street from our hotel, several college football games, TSU homecoming, and an NFL game.

There were 32 Allantes and 3 XLRs. Saturday we had a car show and Sunday we worked on cars.

 

[GizmoQ]

From the Atlanta Allante Car Club:

Allante Atlanta Members wowed by Cadillac Allante’ XLR Club Grand National Meet

October 14 – 18, 2015

If you joined us for the Grand National's this year you know it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

The Allante’ Atlanta Car Club met on Wednesday, October 14th at the Cracker Barrel Restaurant at intersection of GA 20 and I-75 North. Nine AACC members and one Tampa FL club member caravanned from the Cartersville area to Nashville, stopping for lunch at the Smokehouse in Mont Eagle, TN.

After a delicious buffet lunch and some shopping for souvenirs and gifts, we got back on the road headed to Nashville and the Grand National. Now it’s appropriate at this time to mention that the Penfields drove both their Pearl Red Allante’ and Linda’s 2006 Silver XLR. Next in the caravan was Bill Corn in his 93 Polo Green; Bill and Cathy Winkler in their Pearl Red 93 Pace Car; Sal and Colene Caravello were in their 93 Teal Allante’; Barry and Vicki Murante in their beautiful 92 Burgundy Metallic Allante’, with the Vopelaks completing the lineup in their 2006 Infrared XLR. Norman Penfield in his 93 Pearl Red Allante’ led the charge to Nashville where we met another AACC member, John and Beth Nash.

At arrival and check-in at the Holiday Inn Vanderbilt, we met and talked with other Allante’ owners who arrived earlier. Naturally, the AACC guys hit the parking lot to check out early competition, kick tires and generally do what men do in a parking lot of beautiful Allante’s. The ladies unpacked and then started visiting in the Lobby with other Allante’ and XLR ladies.

The hotel lobby was our primary meeting and greeting place as more Allante’ owners arrived and checked in. We greeted friends from other national meets; met new Allante’ friends, and generally asked, “what year is your Allante’?”

After the meet and greet in the lobby, we headed upstairs for the traditional 5 pm AACC Social, chaired by the Prez himself, Norman Penfield. Norman had the cosmos ready, the martinis shaking, and the bar set up for his precision bartending. After our usual laughter, tales of whatever and discussion of plans, we boarded the hotel shuttle at 7:15 pm for transport to our first Nashville fine restaurant, the Watermark. We dined with two large tables of 13 current and new Allante’ friends. The Lobster Bouillabaisse was delicious and very hearty as were the steaks and other yummy entrees. We returned via the hotel shuttle and other transportation to the hotel for our first night of rest having a 7 am wakeup call.

Thursday was the day for a large caravan of Allante’s to the Corvette Assembly Plant and Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The Assembly Plant tour was outstanding. The Corvettes being built were awesome and the processes were truly impressive. We especially liked seeing a lucky Corvette customer building his personal performance engine (with the help of a Corvette supervisor) in a glass enclosed room. We were told that customer privilege cost a mere $5,000. The Assembly Plant tour lasted about an hour and a half after which we drove our Allante’s and two XLRs across the street to the National Corvette Museum for a box lunch, personal museum greeting and tour of the beautiful museum. We visited the area of the sinkhole under the dome that claimed eight Corvettes of which 3 are or have been restored. The museum left the remains of the Corvettes on display; and truth be told there was some weeping in the vicinity.

Dinner Thursday night was at the Hermitage Hotel’s Capitol Grille enjoyed by another two tables of Allante’ owners. The dining room is breathtaking. Everywhere you looked—beautiful details, quiet opulence and superb service. The food was excellent and enjoyable company. Friday was a nice day with a few hours of relaxing activity for the girls before we went tosee the Opry Mills at the Gaylord Opryland Resort. Yeehaw!! Of course the guys joined us only for the drive there. They parked themselves at the Food Court while the ladies hit the stores. It’s amazing what you can find in just a couple of hours before lunch.

We returned to the hotel, changed clothes for dinner that night and called Uber for transport to the Music City Rollin’ Jamboree Bus Tour at 4:30 pm. What a hoot the bus tour was. The two gals and guys were funny, sang some great country music songs and offered a lot of fun history about Nashville and some of its more famous stars. Naturally, the gals added to the entertainment by selecting current Allante’ folks for some teasing and roasting. You wouldn’t recognize who they were by their new names—Mary Kay from Georgia and T.S. McKee from New Jersey. We also had a stop at the 100+ year old maker of the finest sweets in the world—Goo Goo Clusters!!! The place was mobbed with folks buying bags of “little Goo Goos” and packs of Goo Goo Clusters. The Goo Goo line has been expanded to include “peanut butter Goo Goos” and “coconut Goo Goos”….all delightful and well, gooey. Oh by the way, the Johnny Cash Museum was across the street but we were time limited until another trip to Nashville.

Saturday was the big day!!!!!! Guys were up early, having cars washed and detailing their beauties. The day was sunny so the glare from all that waxed and polished paint and chrome was blinding. But promptly at 9:30 am we headed for the General Jackson Showboat at the Gaylord Opryland Resort for our car show, lunch and paddle-boat tour on the Cumberland River. It was truly amazing to see all the Allante’s and the three XLRs one of which was an XLR V…..a black beast in a bevy of beauties.

We had 45 cars on display in the parking lot of the Opry Mills and there was a lot of foot traffic around the cars while the cars were being judged by their peers. It was honestly a spectacular sight. While we were on the General Jackson enjoying the Nashville Live entertainment and delicious lunch, we heard from “Gizmo” (owner of the black XLR V) that the Opry Mills folks were not happy with us about taking too much parking space. Therefore after disembarking the General Jackson, we quickly started our cars, and drove back to the hotel to continue our car show. So we had a glorious finish to the show.

Saturday evening—the Awards Banquet…….the tension in the room was high, the cash bar was being overrun by the attendees and the food was being served to calm the nerves. Dinner was delicious and plentiful. John delayed the awards by thanking Sal and Colene Caravello and others (rightfully so) for their hard work on the beautiful and very well done Keepsake Booklet for the Grand National. After a couple of drawings for some door prizes and other preliminary awards, the moments finally came.

The Kogge Award (the most prestigious award given for an Original Allante’) was announced. Fred Koontz of Pasadena Maryland for his 1993 Teal Allante’. Norman Penfield, President of AACC presented the award. Ken Kogge would have been proud to see this beauty.

Let’s note that three members of the Allante’ Atlanta Car Club (AACC) won Best Allante’ in their class with the fourth member winning BEST OF SHOW. Congratulations to all winners for their fine Allante’s. We are proud of our four members for their awards. Well done!

And, although not an award for an Allante’, it is important to realize that through the generosity of Allante’ and XLR owners purchasing door prize tickets, contributing sponsors to the Keepsake Booklet and other purchases, the Cadillac Allante’ XLR Club is contributing $750.00 to the U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots Charity.

Very well done Allante’ and XLR family! See you soon!






The Kogge Award 93 Allante’(Teal)
Fred Koontz of Pasadena Maryland

The Best 87 Allante’ (Pearl White)
Dean and Dan Fuson of Taylorsville, KY

The Best 89 Allante’ (Bright Red)
Mike Hugyo of Waterford, CT

The Best 90 Allante’ (Bright Red)
Sam and Judy Demme of Lebanon, TN

The Best 91 Allante’ (Pearl White)
John and Marlene Sandor of Rocky River, OH

The Best 92 Allante’ (Burgundy Metallic)
Barry and Vicki Murante of Tampa, FL

The Best 93 Allante’ (Teal)
Sal and Colene Caravello of Conway, SC
(AACC)

The Best 93 Allante’ Modified (Polo Green)
Bill Corn of Duluth, GA
(AACC)

The People’s Choice (93 Pearl Flax)
John and Beth Nash of Summerfield, NC
(AACC)

The 25th Anniversary Award
Sam and Judy Demme of Lebanon, TN

The Best XLR (06 Black XLR V)
Marvin (Gizmo) Carroll of St. Louis, MO

BEST OF SHOW AWARD (1993 Pearl Red)
Bill and Kathy Winkler of Sarasota, FL
(AACC)

These guys and gals remind me a lot of the MMs:


Decorating the host hotel



Fine Dining




Cocktail hours and hours and hours




Prime Parking between events




Getting up early to clean the cars



Drawing attention everywhere we go

 

[onalaska]

Giz, thanks for the update. I would have liked to have gone and driven my 1990 Allante', but had a local car show here that I had already volunteered to help with. One of our Allante' club members did call me at the last minute to tell me he was trailering his Allante' up there for the event.

 

[GizmoQ]

Giz, thanks for the update. I would have liked to have gone and driven my 1990 Allante', but had a local car show here that I had already volunteered to help with. One of our Allante' club members did call me at the last minute to tell me he was trailering his Allante' up there for the event.

Oh yeah, there were two cars trailered in, but they both looked to be non-running and both were for sale.