Thoughts/Opinions

[quad4berettagtz]

Well its been a week since the close of Bfest 2006.  I'd like to share my thoughts on 2006, and hopefully get some other's opinions so that we can be ever more preppared for 2007.  

1.  I enjoyed the quality of the hotel at the price we got, but as they say you get what you pay for and so we got snobby recourse from them about our parking lot "activities".

2.  I could have done without the 2 full days of rain...  I believe this was the first Bfest since 2000 to have steady rain that cancelled activities.

3.  Etrude Hone was unbelieveable!  They really opened up the doors for us and was seriously the highlight for me.  I can only hope that we get such hospitality for years to come.

4.  Saturday started out a bit rough (see: I got lost and was late to the car show   ) but finished nice.  All the cars in the Show were very nice, and it was real great to see another 1 owner car show up (Jake and Jen Dvorak's '89 GT).

5.  On a 1-10 scale I give Bfest 2006 a 7.  It was very enjoyable on many levels, and saturday realy made up weather wise.  We only goofed on one thing (misprint in directions to park), and only had one car break down.  

FYI Brad Zechman's '92 Quazar GTZ had to be left saturday night at the park with a toasted clutch (151,000 on OEM clutch!!).  The bad news is that his car was broken into that night through the sunroof of all places.    Nothing important was stolen, but there are scratces up the rear decklid and dents in the roof (from being walked on), plus the busted glass.  IMHO, some people should be shot.  If you guys got a good look at that car at the hotel, it was pristine.  Would have been my vote for 91-96 interior too (blue).  Anyway, just thought I'd pass that along.

In closing, I think 2006 was an overall success, with most of the downside being the weather.  I encourage EVERYONE to put in their .02 and let me, the committee, and everyone else know what you thought of '06 and what you think we could do to improve our event.  Remember this event is for everyone, and we won't know how to improve your event if you don't speak up!  

Thanks to everyone again who helped me out at the picnic and whenever...  you all really showed that this is truly a group event, and your effort and hard work really saved me a lot of trouble and kept Bfest 2006 afloat.  I really appreciate it all.

[gtuturbo]

My two cents:

The communication from the owners/management of the drag strip was sad. They had told the committee about events on that day that actually weren't happening. As you know, valuable gas and time were wasted travelling out to that place.
A little more correspondence next time as Berettafest gets closer would be beneficial. This way any changes or nuances can be cleared up prior to the event.
We nned to have a reliable source from the establishment.

As Dr. Evil would say:  http://www.geocities.com/jtrevolt/needinfo.wav

[irelynx]

It was kind of depressing to find that everything would be rained out until saturday. However, it wasn't too bad, and we made due with what we had to turn it into a fun time.

1. I was a bit frustrated with the go-kart deal on saturday. The group left from the park without us; they left about 5min before us. We assumed that we could follow the directions to the karts that was included in the registration packet. These directions said to take "exit 83 on I-79 north". Being from NY, we assumed that exit 83 would exist on both sides of the interstate. This was not the case. There is no exit 83 on I-79 south, only on I-79N. To get to the go-karts from the park (the north), the go-kart's website says we were supposed to take rt 422. We did not know this at the time. We ended up wasting time taking 79S, and getting off at exit 79 (the very next exit after exit 85) after we realized there was no exit 83; we turned around & went back north. We had tried contacting a few different people to ask how to get there, but no one answered their phones.

2. I liked the Extrude Hone tour, but it was a bit long for my tastes. My feet & back were killing me about halfway through the tour.

3. I'm sure everyone knows the issues with the hotel. My biggest problem with them was the parking issue and not even considering keeping the pool open later...especially considering that when we called to reserve a room (on June 7th), they told us there was a 24hr pool. There was also supposed to be a sauna, which we were told was there when we reserved our room. My personal opinion is that they were just too upscale (business class) for our group. It was a nice hotel, but above what we needed. I would have gladly paid $55/night for a smaller place, something similar to what we had in Columbus, OH.

4. I really wish there had been time set aside for a group dinner the first night. The proposal last year had registration until ~3pm and from then until ~6pm was open time for everyone to split up for group dinners before going to Magic Mountain. This year, with registration going until 5pm, and go-karts planned for immediately after, there was no time left for people to split up and go to dinner as a group. In my opinion, the group dinner is an excellent way for everyone (especially the new people) to get familiar with one another. It's like an icebreaker to start the weekend off right.

5. It would have been nice to have gotten a group together on one of the rainy nights (at a point where it wasn't more than a drizzle) to go into pittsburgh to explore and for some photo opportunities. Or even just announced over the 2-ways that a group would be leaving to go see the city.

6. Compared to last year, I thought everyone was really well behaved. This was part of what aggravated the whole hotel security situation since the noise was kept down after 10pm. I honestly thought the wedding parties were much more annoying, but then I suppose the hotel really wouldn't complain about them since they were spending money at the bar. I wasn't too happy with the wedding parties since I watched drunk people get in their cars and leave (which was a risk to our cars since they parked in our lot), and they weren't the greatest people to be in an elevator with.

I don't think negatively of the whole thing. I just figured I would point out the downfalls I saw. Aside from those minor things, everything was great. We had a good time and we'll be there next year too.

[bonecrrusher]

Heres my $ .02.....

Hotel rooms... awesome, only ended up paying $90 for the whole weekend.

Security... wanna be CIA/ Secret Service agents with nothing better to do then heckle their PAYING guests with bs 'County Ordinances' and calling the cops on us. Erich stood up and the cops ended up being on our side.  Security like that was not needed.

Parking... Reserved spots for the first couple of nights where nice, then were complete BS on the weekend.

Drinking/Partying.... We were really tame this year, got yelled at a couple times but that was about it for me. Oh and new rule stay away from Will's anti-freeze, it will give you hell of a hangover..... I had one until I had a couple beers the next day.

Pittsburgh... Nice town, went down there with Cack Shay Steph Mark and Chazz and ate some trendy mexican restaurant.  

Kiddy pool... was fun for like half an hour then I got cold.  Learned you can place a full beer on an upside frisbee and it will float, usefull for pool parties.

Driving... wasnt  too bad, I really enjoyed going to Lake Shore Drive through Chicago, really points out the highlights of the city and is faster then the freeway at this point.  At least no one broke down going both ways.

Quad 4's.... seem to be a dying breed, either their already broke or there on the way.

Z26's plentiful, mine will be there next year.

I need an award.... 4 bfest's and no beretta!

Thats gotta be some kind of record.

-Boner-

[speedygtz]

the thing with the quad 4's are that most peaple who have them dont realize what they have and dont realize how rare and awsome they are so they just scrap them like an ordinary car so far ive found 3 since ive been going to scrap yards


  i never understood why gm didnt tell peaple how few there were

[bonecrrusher]

I scrapped mine....  

[Guest]

1. The hotel was nice but id rather have gone to a hotel like the one in Columbus. It was much more drinker friendly especially with the ground level sliding doors.

2. Make sure the hotel actually reserves a block for us and doesn't scatter us around the face of the hotel.

3.  Check local drinking and hotel rules next year so that we dont run into this years problems.

4. Make sure directions work! Getting lost in the state park is NOT fun.

I hope to have my gt going this year and maybe drive it to bfest next year.  I would like to see a functional cack shack next year.  

I did like the reserved parking this year, the atleast small use of the cack shack, the go karts, extrude hone and the car show.   I also liked how all those major shopping centers were close to the hotel and were easy to get to.

Biggest complaint is the general road quality East of Washington State.  That is why im not taking my GTZ next year.

[spacecadetz26]

how are the pictures coming from the car show?

[quad4berettagtz]

Working on it     Need to get Cliffy's pics onto a server essentially.  If anyone is willing and able speak up now, or forever hold you peace.  Either way I'm thinking they will be up soon.

[CKr]

(quad4berettagtz @ Jul. 08 2006,10:04)Q
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EWorking on it   Need to get Cliffy's pics onto a server essentially.  If anyone is willing and able speak up now, or forever hold you peace.  Either way I'm thinking they will be up soon.
All my photos are up here if you want to add them. Or if you prefer I can throw them up in a zip file for whomever wants them. I didn't take that many, wish I would've taken more!