I have been waiting for this. I figured one of the magazines should be covering this years Carlisle All-Ford Nationals. One of the Mustang Monthly people was around the Saturday of Carlisle and I saw him snapping pictures of the four feature convertibles in Building T. The article covers the show as well as the pony trail from CJ Pony Parts.

It is a nice article with a couple of pictures covering the feature cars. Continue reading →

Well folks, it’s in the books. And, I have to say that my first Carlisle All-Ford Nationals was more fun and more successful than I had hoped. I am still riding the adrenaline rush of it all. I haven’t had a decent nights sleep since Thursday of last week. It’s all a blur. We had many of the people who had previously committed join us as well as a good number who found out about us at the show join us on-the-fly. I sought out nearly every limited edition LX 5.0 Convertible I saw and told them what we were doing. Many found us on their own.

I already gave a brief summary of my travels and arrival at Building T so here’s a recap of the rest of the weekend. Continue reading →

Well, I actually made it to Carlisle and the car is in one piece. We rolled into there around 6:00 PM and had an hour to detail the car after the 300+ mile trip before they kicked us out at 7:00 PM in order to close the building. Road construction sucks. Here is a picture I took just as they were closing the building. It’s not the best picture I ever took but it will have to do.

I promise to post lots more pictures but probably not until I get back. I still have yet to visit the tent location. I’m sure others will get there before I do tomorrow. I need to get some rest. It was quite a day and I couldn’t have done it without help from my Dad! He’s the blurry guy in the background of the picture.

I keep getting a trickle of people expressing a desire to join us. Some are previously registered and only recently became aware of what is happening with the “feature” cars.

This is very good and I try to keep the people in-the-know at Carlisle aware of this. I email them regularly with updates on how many I think are attending. This is usually less than they think are attending and have registered under our group. I originally told them 10-15 when I filled out the tent application. Now the number looks like a solid 16 once the cars going indoors are excluded as well as a couple people who have not responded to my latest inquiry about their attendance.

I have reformatted the list to break out attendance by car (no surprise here as you must know how analytical I am by now).

For a long while, the list of people attending Carlisle has remained steady at 11. Since the beginning I knew that one of those cars was going to be indoors. Recently, I mentioned that now 2 more of them will be indoors. They are mine as well as the 1992 Feature Car that I had previously indicated had a scheduling conflict that prevented him from being there all three days so he was going to join us at the tent until that conflict cleared. That takes the 11 down to 8 that are expected for the tent. This week I checked with the Carlisle folks and they told me that 6 people had officially registered under my club. That leaves a few unknowns among those 11 cars. Along with this, there are still a few people who are on the fence who have yet to make a decision.

The great news in all of this is that the five cars I had alluded to in an earlier Carlisle Update have just confirmed their attendance! They are a club out of New Jersey and consist of two 7up cars, one yellow 93, one white 93 and one red 92. There attendance will be on Saturday. With them and considering the cars lost to the indoor display as well as a few no-shows, I think we will still be around 11.

Just last night I completed the graphics work on a new version of my car show sign as well as a second sign that can be used at the tent to describe the details on our unique cars. They are currently being printed and I will have an update when that process is complete in order to give you a preview.

I still have a lot of work to do. I need to get my car cleaned and make sure it is road-ready for the 5 hour trip. I have gone back and forth on bringing some t-shirts to offer for sale but I went ahead and asked the Carlisle people if I could sell “club” merchandise and they said no. Although, they said I am free to sign-up new members. Hmmmm. Maybe that sign-up could require paying a $17 fee and result in an official club t-shirt? Or maybe not, since I don’t want to get into any trouble and I have enough things to manage and bring.

Regardless, it promises to be a good time! If you are on the fence, there is still time to register and join us!

In my last post on Carlisle, I mentioned that only two of the four cars for the indoor display had been confirmed. It now looks like all four cars are in place. The scheduling conflict with the owner of the 1992 Vibrant Red cleared and he can now bring his car. And, they asked me to bring my triple white in for the indoor display and I accepted the offer and submitted my application.

When I first learned they were still looking for a triple white, I have to admit that I considered offering mine. I did not originally go through with it because I wanted it to be with all of the cars that were joining the triplewhitefox.com group. I have spent a lot of time arranging this and encouraging others to attend and it only seemed right that I was on the show field with everyone else. I have been looking forward to the photo opportunities most of all. But, as the deadline neared, a fine example couldn’t be arranged so Mike Poore (who is coordinating the feature cars but, like me, is not officially affiliated with Carlisle) suggested that I submit mine. So, after a little thought, I did. Once I did, the Carlisle people stated that they had expected mine to be the indoor example all along?!

I couldn’t pass it up because I think this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. It will definitely add to the history of my car. It is going to be a lot more work to get my car ready. My car is nice but I now feel that I need to take it to the next level in order to be of the same caliber as the other cars being displayed there. My general opinion on my car has been that it is nice but not the quality required for something like this. But, as with many things, I sometimes get obsessed with the little imperfections and it spoils the bigger picture. I’m sure my car will be just great there.

My wheels are definitely the weak point of my cars appearance. But, the good news is that I have a new set waiting to be installed. I just need to find tires since my current set is now 7 years old and, though they still have decent tread, I can’t see putting something that old on new wheels. So, I am in the process of locating something to replace them with. It’s a bit of a challenge to the purist in me since all of the OE options are now discontinued. I want to remain as close to original as possible so Goodyear Eagle F1’s are probably out of the question. I’ll post soon on what I have found regarding tires and what I ultimately go with. I have started a discussion thread on this topic to hear your suggestions.

Less than two months to go! It’s been pretty quiet with not a lot happening on the planning front. I have been pretty busy with some other things so it has not received my full attention. Things are still moving, though…

Tent reservation
I submitted the tent reservation so we are all set on that. One interesting note about it is that it asked a question about how many cars attending the show are parking at the tent and how many would be parking on the show field. It further indicated next to the tent question that it is (non-competition). I was not aware there was a difference but it makes sense that cars that are competing need to be located together on the show field. I guess you will make the decision where to park once you arrive there so you have some time to think about it. Personally, I hope you forego the competitive nature of the show and park with us at the tent. That will increase the value of the photo opportunity.

On the form, I had to take a guess that most people will attend at the tent since that is what I have been communicating to people about (i.e. joining us means parking at the tent). My intent is to gather better information on where the cars attending will be parking and relay that information to the Carlisle people. In the next week or so I will be emailing those confirmed attendees where I don’t know the answer to this question on what their thoughts are. I’m also curious to find out who will be attending on what days. I am going to be updating the “expected attendees” chart with that information. If you are reading this and haven’t told me your intentions, please email me with them. That will save me some time in sending out another round of emails.

Still need a 1993 triple white (and possibly a 1992 Vibrant red)
As far as I know, a fine example of a 1993 triple white feature Mustang has not been locked in for the indoor display. I got involved very late in the process and have had no success personally in locating one. I had a lead on one from Florida with less than 100 miles on it but its owner did not return my phone call. I suspect that the trip is much too long for him to make. So, if you own or know of a triple white worthy of the indoor display, please let me know.

Also, I think they are still looking for a 1992 Vibrant Red feature car as the owner of the one that was scheduled for the indoor display has developed a scheduling conflict. So, if you own or know of one of those, please let me know that as well.

Next steps
I plan one more round of follow-up with those people who originally indicated they might attend but have not gotten back to me with a definitive answer. I had an interesting proposal from a gentleman from New Jersey on joining his group of six of seven cars into ours. Most were feature cars but two were Mclarens. He asked me if the Mclarens were acceptable. I said, of course! I am still waiting to hear back from him. I foolishly asked if they were convertibles (I think all Mclarens were). I hope I didn’t insult him.

I am hopeful that we will have 25 cars for Carlisle. If you remember, that is the number required to qualify for the free tent. Right now there are 11 people who have confirmed that they will be attending. I have heard from a few of them that even if we don’t reach the 25 cars they would be willing to pitch in toward the $150 tent fee for groups with less than 25 members. I think this is a great idea. It is always good to have a shady spot to gather. The last several times I have had sunburn has been from car shows.

So, I am going to reserve the tent and put up the $150 fee. It will be reimbursed later should we reach the 25 car mark. If not, I am hoping that everyone will consider chipping in. It is, of course, optional. We will divide the fee by the number of people who attend and it will probably be in the area of $10 a person. If necessary, we can decide all of this once we get there so don’t send me any money now.

One other reminder: the tent is an important reason to make sure you specify “triplewhitefox.com feature Mustangs” when you register. That will not only help us to be organized together but is also counted toward the 25 registrants we need for the free tent.

Things are going well with the organization of the reunion. We had our first 7-up car confirm. This is thanks in large part due to an email that was just printed in the March 2007 issue of Mustang Times:

Dear Mustang Times,

I saw the news item in the February 2007 issue of Mustang Times on the Carlisle All-Ford Nationals to be held in June 2007 and the mention of the inclusion of feature cars as well as the encouragement of owners to attend the event. Well, I wanted to inform you that I have been trying to organize 1992 and 1993 feature cars owners since late last year and now, with the help of Steve Cracknell who runs the 1990 7-up registry (90limited7up.stangnet.com), the 1990 feature car crowd. My hope is to get a good representation of these cars organized together under Carlisle's car club program and I already have a fair number of interested owners. I am hoping that you can help me to get the word out to owners of these cars. I am pretty sure this is the first ever “reunion” of these feature cars. For more information, I encourage feature car owners to check out the details on my web site, www.triplewhitefox.com, on how to join our group in Carlisle, PA.

Before I even received my issue I heard from two 7-up car owners regarding my letter. They were very nice to print that especially since the Carlisle show isn't an official MCA event. Also, if you haven't already seen, I have added the list of expected attendees to the Carlisle page.

I also sent an email to Mustang Monthly in early February. If we're lucky, they'll print that.

I have been in contact with Steve Cracknell who runs the 1990 7-up car registry and web site. It’s the second time I’ve emailed him. The first was after both of our web sites were mentioned in Mustang Monthly back in April 2004. He’s from Canada so Carlisle, PA is a little out of the way for him and doesn’t think he can attend. He has agreed to post an informational item on his web page about the Carlisle event and reunion. I think that is really cool and hope it will help get the word out.