A drive with a Hero

what a great time this event was. thanks again luke for putting it together. it was a pleasure meeting all of you guys and i look forward to seeing you all again soon!

Q

 

So when can another outing be arranged?

 

Rob,
Thanks for posting the video!!!!! Man what a cool day! Thanks for being so willing to allow Michael to drive your Viper, you are a true gentelmen!


Robert

 

Wow. That's unbelievable.

Great work.

 

I sent the ImageShack slide show link to Leslie (Michael's girlfriend) soon after the event.
For those that missed it in an earlier post in this thread, the link to the slide show is:
http://img519.imageshack.us/slideshow/player.php?id=img519/20/1191097513qcr.smil

She was kind enough to send me back this email message a few days later:

"This is great! I checked out ferrarichat.com at lunch. I shared the slide show with Mike’s mom and dad via an email. It actually brought Mike’s mom to tears. You guys are wonderful. Thanks so much. Leslie"

I thought I'd share this message with everyone in the group.

VA Viper's videos are incredible. I especially like this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlIf8h7FZ6o

You can hear the level of concern and/or panic in my voice change as Mike blindly accelerates in my car. Kind of funny.
Holding the video camera with one hand and the steering wheel with the other hand (from the passenger seat) while giving verbal driving instructions at the same time was more than I could take on the first few acceleration attempts. Great stuff.

We're going to have to do this again sometime. Hopefully in a larger location.

 

http://homefires.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/driving-blind/?ex=1192852800&en=072f508c3ab5d13b&ei=5070&emc=eta1

 

What a neat article! Mike really is a great writter...
On another note, Mike has given me the contact information of some folks at Bethesda who can help us put together another event on a larger scale for troops at both Bethesda and Walter Reed. As things progress, I hope to incorporate the FCA MAR and other FChaters who weren't able to attend the last drive. I am hoping that we can arrange it this year before the weather turns, if not, it will be one of the first things planned for next year. By the way, could someone pm me the contact info for someone from FCA MAR who could help coordinate this?
Thanks
Luke

 

Contact Bill Ebert... his info is on the FCA-MAR.org website. BTW we did discuss this at the last board of directors meeting and we would encourage anyone who wants to expand the event to step forward and do so. The intitial thought was to make it an event of next years schedule

 

WOW! What a great article!! He got every detail perfectly!!

Luke, let me know when and where and I will be there again!!


Robert

 

Outstanding article! Good pic VA Viper!

 

Bravo to all who made this possible, M

 

What a great article. You can tell how much that day meant to him!!

Bill

 

Jeff Allison, the Editor of FCA's Prancing Horse Magazine apparently caught the Michael Jernigan blog on the NYT site and was blown away. He contact my father and asked that we post a request for any FCA mid-atlantic member who was a part of this fantastic event to contact him re: writing a short article (w/ pics) for Prancing Horse about the event. Luke, since it sounds like this was your brainchild, do you want me to PM Allison's info to you?

 

Feel free. I'd be happy to try to put something together.
Luke

 

That was a great article, it would be great to do it on a larger scale and I bet you could find a much bigger parking lot for more fun for these guys who served our country so well.

 

Great article---Hopefully I will be off for the next event so I can partake in the fun..

 

Jeff also contacted me with the same request. I've coordinated with Ron Johnston who has graciously volunteered to write an article for the PH magazine. As of 15 minutes ago, Jeff emailed me that he has the article from Ron. Thank you, Ron, for the quick response.

 

Yes, today Luke and I conspired via email to get a draft article sent to Jeff Allison before end-of-day. We didn't have a lot of time to make refinements to it. We'll see if we end up in the next edition of the Prancing Horse magazine or not. I think it might be one of the Regional Events articles where it might show up. I sent several pictures to them, some of the pictures taken by Nate (with Amy's permission - thanks!). Nate and Amy are the owners of the amazing black 360 in the event pictures. You never know how a draft article ends up on the cutting room floor, but we'll see what comes out.

Thanks Bill for the opportunity to take a stab at writing the article. And thanks to Retired Admiral Phillips for letting the editor of Prancing Horse magazine know about our "unsanctioned event".

By the way, I'm hoping to some day see the Admiral's amazing vintage Ferrari racer. I think he has something incredible like a four-cylinder 750 Monza if I'm not mistaken. My wife and the Admiral's wife talked for quite a while at the last Marriott garage tour event. BrianP, if you can post a picture or two of your Dad's Ferrari, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Ron (aka "Toggie" on fchat)

 

I was lucky enough to spend a few hours the other day talking to Mike and Leslie. What an amazing time. He is absolutely an inspiration, and has some amazing stories. He had nothing but great things to say about all of you that made this happen.

 

What you guys did was amazing, you should all be very proud of yourselves for giving this person a chance!

 

Sorry, Ron, it has been awhile since I checked this thread. Here are a couple of pics of our 1955 Series II 500 Mondial. The high points of its history would be Eugenio Castellotti driving it to first in 2 liter at the 55 GP of Venezuela (my avatar), Rubirosa taking it to first in class at '56 Sebring 12 Hours and Dad's 48 years of ownership. Dad stopped racing it in 67. We are restoring/preserving the car now and will show it at Pebble this August.

pics are (1) dad waiting his turn to start a hillclimb in nothern California, 1961; (2) the new grill - about the only thing missing when dad got the car; (3) fitting new straps
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Beautiful car!
I understand fewer than 10 of these were made in 1955.

I think this is a picture of your car's body & frame at the 2006 FCA National meet, true?
http://www.ferrariownersclub.co.uk/happenings/2006/june/fca/popup/2.asp

BTW, have you seen these websites with other 500 Mondial pictures in them?
http://www.finecars.cc/en/detail/car/6267/index.html?no_cache=1&cHash=b0e64f853c
http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/classic-car-page.php/carno/27173
http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z13648/Ferrari_500%20Mondial%20Spyder/default.aspx

What a car! One day it will be back on the road fully restored.
Any chance we'll see it run some day at Summit Point?

Thanks for sharing.

 

It's our contention that there were 8 Series II Mondials - ours is the fifth. Dad is the acknowledged expert on these cars and wrote his first article about them back in Cavallino 61 or so in 1991.
That first link is, indeed, our car at the FCA 2006 National (see also my profile pic). It took me about 4 months of scraping to get it down to bare metal - have to be gentle with thin gauge aluminum.

The finecars link shows 0536MD which until recently was owned by Jan Biekens who raced the snot out of it in historic events in europe until he sold it this summer to a guy in Ecuador. Unfortunately, it lost its original top end a long time ago and has been running w/ a 500TRC ever since.

The classiccarsforsale link shows Meierhofer's 0564MD in Germany and I was not aware that it is for sale.

The last link shows Tom Mitler's series I car. I talked with him and watched him run it at Laguna Seca a few years ago.

After Pebble, I think dad will run it (gently) at Summit on club days.
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I know this is an older thread, but after just re-watching "Alive Day" I believed this thread needed to be seen again. I would like to thank everyone who participated in the event, im sure Mike had the time of his life, especially being able to drive these cars.


Are any of you guys still in contact with Mike anymore?

 

I haven't contacted Cpl. Jerrigan since the drive. I am sure I could dig up his number if others were interested in doing this again in the Spring.