CONVENTION INFORMATION
Thought I would take some time to explain the schedule.
Wednesday. Registration and “meet and greet”. I purposely did not plan anything for this day to conflict with everyone wanting to go meet everyone else!! We might have a possible cruise that evening but will have to wait and see. Can’t imagine any one Sonic being able to handle all of us!!! I picked the Embassy Suites hotel for it’s facilities. Since we would be gathering at some place for the first 2 days, the foyer and lobby, has tables and chairs and seating for approximately 250 persons!!! That will make it handy for all the “meet and greet” sessions. A restaurant and bar are inside also, so that should provide most of the necessities. They will let me park my “registration trailer” in the parking lot for the 2 days along with Lee Cromwell’s Hilborn fuel injected 409 engine and all Donnie Shaffer’s 348 and 409 engines and drag racing tires. Donnie will have at least 12 engines for display and 28 pairs of slicks that he will be bringing. Plus, the Embassy Suites is right across I-29 from the KCI airport for those needing to fly in for the event.
Thursday. Registration continues. Now..the good news!! My company, Classic Motor Co. and Tony Shaffer’s Day Automotive, are putting together a 474 stroker engine. Realizing that a lot of guys have not had the opportunity to see a dyno run on a 409 engine……we will be providing bus service from the Embassy Suites on Thursday, to Day Automotive for exhibition dyno runs on the stroker engine. I am anticipating 3 to 4 bus loads spread out over the day for this. Tony’s shop is small and in a residential part of town and could not handle any volume of cars for parking. So, we will provide busses for those that want to participate. A nominal fee for the bus service may be needed to those that go. It’s one thing to hear the dyno runs from inside the shop…..but something completely different from outside!!!!!!!! Tony will explain how everything is hooked up and how it works. More on the dyno engine later……..
Friday. We move the venue up the road about 2 miles to the Kansas City International Exposition Center. The parking lot there will handle approximately 700 cars. This is where we will have our “car show”. No classes…No judging….and No trophys!!! Just meet each other and enjoy their cars. We will have our “registration trailer” there also. Food will be catered outside…the usual menu of hotdogs, hamburgers and some of our famous Kansas City bar-b-que!!!!
Inside the Expo Center, will be our 35,000 square foot banquet room. In the room, will be a collection of 1962 and 1963 Z-11 cars. I don’t know if a Z-11 collection has ever been put together before, but we’re going to try. Now, we won’t have all 57 but hope to have a very good representation!!!!
Also, inside the Expo Center, we have a conference room reserved with seating for 200. This room will be for our seminars and speakers. Scheduled to appear at this time are:
1. Dave May…IgnitionMan!! Yes..”our” IgnitionMan!! Asked Dave to speak on his ignition systems and his history with Chevrolet R&D and working with Zora.
2. Tom Straley… Brisbane47. Asked Tom to speak on his experiences with his Nascar work in the 60’s.
3. Lamar Walden. Turn Lamar loose to talk about all kinds of 409 stuff!!!!
4. Hayden Proffitt. Spend an hour with Hayden asking all kinds of questions!! Biggest problem…..holding him to under 7 hours!!!! I spent 4 days with him last fall and he was still talking when I pulled out of his driveway!!!
5. Going to assemble a panel of Z-11 persons. Have them discuss their experiences and have the meeting open for questions and answers.
“The Banquet”. Some of you have expressed how boring banquets “are”. THIS AIN’T GONNA BE YOUR MAMA’S BANQUET!! It is my intent to provide an evening that will never be duplicated!! First, we are going to have some convention related items for sale after dinner. I hope this one “surprise” will give everyone a lifetime of memories every time you look at it!! I’m not going to mention that part any more!! Secondly, I have a very dear friend and customer, whom I’ve never met. But Dave and I have known each other for about 15 years. Dave called and said he would be here and wanted to help in some way. Dave has a sign company….he wanted to donate a sign to sell to help pay for expenses. I asked him what kind of sign he wanted to donate. He said it was my choice….I said “well, all the guys like neon”. Neon it is, Dave said!!! So Dave is designing and making “a one only 409 neon sign” to be auctioned off!!!!! What can I say!!! Also, I am having a “one only” 409 “surprise” made also. It will be unveiled after dinner and auctioned off also. That will probably blow out most of your freeze plugs too!! Remember the 474 dyno stroker from Day Automotive? It will be available after the banquet also!!! Details on that to follow!! So…bring a little extra spending money with you!!
Saturday. We move to Kansas City International Raceway for the 348-409 FALL NATIONALS. The track will be open from 10AM to 6PM. We will be sharing the race track with another racing series but we will all be parked together. All “display” cars will park in a certain area along with all the 348 and 409 race cars. Everyone will be able to run the track for times if they wish or just park and watch if you don’t wish to race. In trying to make this event “like the good old days”, I have asked permission for something different. Hayden Proffitt is our guest for the event. At times during the day, I have asked permission for Hayden to “flag start” some races!!!! He can’t do it all day but we will try to have him flag start some races several times during the day!! Want a picture of that for the guys back home….you and your car on the race track with Hayden???? THOUGHT SO!!!!!!! There will be no classes or anything like that. Just “run what you brung” and enjoy!!! There will be a charge to get into the race track…I don’t have any control over that. Also, we have a local sports cable TV channel with a program called “The Racing Boys”. We have asked them to be at the track today for filming and they will be taking selected interviews. Hopefully they can fill a segment of their show out here.
Also….at the race track, there will be a Swap Meet for those wanting to bring parts. If you are a registered participant, your swap meet space will be free. You will still need to pay at the gate though to get in. I’m not really expecting any tractor trailers here but a pickup and trailer is fine.
Doug Marion is scheduled to be here. As you may know, Doug is Executive Editor of Chevy Rumble magazine. He will be here to participate and to get pictures and information on future articles for the magazine. Get to meet Doug in person.
We will have a lot of convention related items and collectibles for sale also. Most all will be marked PARTICIPANT INAUGURAL 348-409 NATIONAL CONVENTION.
I have hired a video production company to film the entire convention. And Don used to have a 63 425HP Super Sport!!!! All the seminars, banquet, show cars and drag racing will be filmed as well as, selected interviews with guys and their cars. Tapes and CD’s will be available some time after the convention is over!! You can have the memories of the convention to show your grandkids!! Or you can see what you missed if you couldn’t make it!!
We are currently building a website where all the convention information will be available. Our website will be
www.348-409natlconv.com. This website will have a registration form that you can download and fill out, sign, and send in. We expect it will be the first week in April before the website will be working.
And lastly, I will be contacting Dennis Gage of My Classic Car TV show when the flyer and website is complete to see if it would fit in their schedule, to attend our convention. It may be too late for their summer schedule but we will notify them.
Guess that’s it for now. This has been a lot of work and I still have a lot of work to do. BUT THIS IS ABSOLUTELY A LABOR OF LOVE!!!! Hope to see you all here in September!!
This sounds like a deal made in heaven. Tell Hayden to hang on. He's got to be there. 
