Its Been Awhile...

Its been a while since I wrote anything for the blog or even looked at the Club Website to see if it needs an update. I have been focusing on our Facebook presence more lately but that seems to be more of a "right now" sort of interaction. Lets re-post the post someone else posted along with the occasional fresh content. Its good for a few things but not for lengthy posts, tech articles or reference guides.

That's where the website comes in. We have a lot of good reference material available as well as ways to stay connected to our members world wide that it can be a very daunting task to keep it all focused and organized.

In the coming months I will be completely overhauling the Club website to better represent all of the things we've done, all of the projects we've accomplished and all of the reference materials we've accumulated.

I hope to have a better online reference for all things Early Valiant and Barracuda for many years to come. Stay Tuned!

EVBC Berkshire Power Cruise 2013

Carlisle Celebrity Award

Its almost two weeks until the All-Chrysler Nationals in Carlisle, PA and I Can't Wait! I took the last two years off from going to the show and I am looking forward to meeting up with some old friends and meeting a few new ones.

The club tent is all set and my car is registered, all done well in advance of the event, so when I got an email from Carlisle Productions last week from a person I don't usually have contact with I had to wonder what was going on.

I have been invited to attend the Celebrity Luncheon on Saturday during the event. What does this mean? Other than getting a free lunch I was chosen to judge a "Celebrity Pick" for the event this year. I'm stunned, surprised and ecstatic to have been chosen for this. This is going to make the show really special for me this year.

So. I have to set some criteria for my pick. It goes without saying that for the purposes of fairness I won't be choosing an early Valiant or Barracuda. I don't want to play favorites.

So I guess it gets philosophical. What do I believe a car should be? What are some of the trials and tribulations we as early Valiant and Barracuda owners have we had to endure during the restoration or resto-mod process of getting our cars back to driveable status?  I have a very "Do It Yourself" attitude about this hobby so any car chosen must have a hands on approach by its owner and family.

The chosen car must exhibit some resourcefulness to overcome some the adversity of finding available parts, or the lack of parts. We all know how hard it is to locate that one trim piece or match the seat covers for some models. We can't just open a catalog and order everything needed for a repair and that will factor into my choice.

Does it need to be painted? No. Does it need to be driven? Yes. Does it need to be a complete restoration? Probably not as I have a soft spot for "rolling restoration" projects.  It will most likely be a 1966 or older Mopar but I'll leave a caveat for that one because you never know what will show up at Carlisle.

Will it be a modern Mopar? NO! No PT Cruisers or 2012 Challengers. Will it be a cheesy 4x4 Duster painted orange with a "01" painted on the side? Don't hold your breath! Will it be an E body? Doubtful.

This is going to be very hard and very fun at the same time. Picking a car that represents the Club's attitude of "Just Fix It, Drive It and Enjoy It" will keep me on the show field more and in the swap meet area less.

But that's OK. Because this year, I'm a Celebrity Judge representing The Early Valiant and Barracuda Club at the biggest all-Mopar show on the east coast! Its going to be a good weekend!

The Club Turns 10.

A little more than ten years ago I was working as a auto technician, with a small family, one real income and a car. My 1966 Barracuda. There was no money to do anything to the car at the time, so with time on my hands and my newly acquired used piece of modern technology I logged onto the newest fad, the internet, and created a website.

In 1998, this was the cool thing to do. I logged on to AOL with my 14.4 baud modem and created my personal site of family pictures and my Barracuda. Slowly it morphed to a site of just early Barracuda related info, the 1964 to 1966 Barracuda Homepage. I quickly outgrew AOL, switched to a local internet provider and recreated the site as The Early Barracuda Homepage. I added features like a mailing list, a chat room and used a guest book as a simple "want ads" listing. Tech articles were written and archived for future reference for all.

Step into the Wayback Machine for view of The Early Barracuda Homepage in 1999.

As one of the first Mopar related websites and a early member of the Mopar Webring, as well as swapping links with many other sites, the traffic through my site increased. I featured a new "Readers Ride" each month and more and more links to new sites and parts suppliers.

I talked to the guy I asked to be my chat room moderator about an idea I had about taking things to the next level. Well, I paid him a chicken for his time (old joke) and in 2000 we decided to rename the site The Early Valiant and Barracuda Club.

Step into the Wayback Machine for view of The Early Valiant and Barracuda Club in 2000.

This was way before MySpace and Facebook or web 2.0 apps. Before forums, Flickr and blog sites like this one. In the early days of the internet, there was no social networking sites. We had our mailing list, weekly chat nights, a place for people to send pictures of their cars to be displayed for all to see. We helped each other fix their cars by offering advise, technical support and help finding parts.

Step into the Wayback Machine for view of The Early Valiant and Barracuda Club in 2002.

We created our own social network of Mopar automotive hobbyists. An online community that has made it 10 years. Many people offered to help with club operations over the years. Don Hill with our printed newsletter "The Early Connection", Erik Ievins with webmaster and programming duties, Stacey Wisniewski as treasurer and Jeff Kopp with the new mailing list. Many others helped with advise or stories and technical assistance for all our members.

Things are a little different than when we first started, but all-in-all the same sense of community remains and that has been our main goal all along.

This blog post may be a little self serving, but with all the people who have contributed in ways small and large, and all the effort put forth to provide a gathering place for our small section of the collector car hobby, I think it's ok to honk our horn once in a while.