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NSXPO 2013 Post Event Information

Joined
17 July 2006
Messages
1,081
Location
Calabash, NC
I would like to use this thread for several purposes. First to thank all those who worked so hard to make NSXPO 2013 a success. Also to recognize the many sponsors who contributed funds, products and facilities to help subsidize the event. I will be posting official results and scores for the Concours d' Elegance winners - 1st and 2nd place positions for all 10 classes. Also to thank those who attended NSXPO and made this event successful. And finally to allow those who have some comments and recommendations for making next year's event even better.

First and foremost three individuals that were key to the success of NSXPO 2013…and a little bit about why.

Steve LaClair was chief instigator and got me seriously involved. He is fairly new to the NSX community, however has a long history of track activities, primarily with his Integra. He had the idea for an NSXPO in the vicinity of VIR and started the ball rolling. He got me involved and committed and assumed responsibility for the entire track portion of NSXPO 2013.

Carla Lebentritt - during the many months leading up to NSXPO, there was hardly a day that I didn't exchange one or more e-mails with Carla (Pooh to those of you on Prime). And on those days that I didn't have an e-mail from Carla, I started to get concerned. But then I realized she had a business to run and purchased a new home (with a GREAT garage and business space) during this period and had to sell a house and make a move while preparing for NSXPO. She made a trip down to Raleigh early on to see the hotel facilities and participate in a food sampling. That was great fun and we actually had difficulty narrowing down our selections from several great entrees from the Hilton Garden Inn banquet Chef. Carla served as chief advisor, consultant and guru for NSXPO 2013.

Doug Danuser, VP at HondaJet, a Honda/Acura veteran (24 tears) and avid NSX owner/enthusiast. As mentioned during the banquet on Saturday night at NSXPO, I met Doug at a car show at Foreign Cars Italia, and that changed the course of history for NSXPO 2013. Doug worked tirelessly during the months leading up to NSXPO on many fronts. He is well connected with Acura/Honda and is the primary reason that Ted Klaus was alerted to NSXPO and made the decision to come participate in our annual event.

While not corresponding with me every day, Bob Ondrovic and Don Lebentritt actively supported everything that Carla, Steve and I were doing in preparing for NSXPO. There were so many things from the pair of them, that it would be difficult to enumerate them all.

Additionally, Larry Bastanza and Ken Gladden who served in various ways during the process. Ken even served as one of the judges for the Concours event and helped to make this the professional event that it was.

Our many sponsors - some who participated in helping to fund our event, either with dollars or products for auction. Included are Science of Speed, Autoworks, CT Engineering, Pride Exhaust, Vince's Autobody, Foreign Cars Italia, Hagerty, and A.S. Motorsport and Meguiar's. Others who both funded and actively participated in NSXPO itself - Brian Urlage of Source 1, Wei Shen Chin from Chin Motorsports, Darrin Paley from Croftgate USA and Michael Dobbins from XPEL. These sponsors help to subsidize our NSXPO event, keeping the cost to a minimum for NSXCA members attending, as well as serve up important products and services during NSXPO and throughout the year. Please thank them at every opportunity and especially by using their products and services.

NSXPO 2013 would not have been nearly as successful as it was without the hospitality and service from our host hotel, the twin facilities of the Hilton Garden Inn and Hilton Doubletree. When I first started evaluating hotels in the Raleigh area - there were many that fit the requirements - banquet facilities, good parking areas, easy access to major highways, nice accommodations at reasonable pricing. I was looking for a newer facility. The Hilton Garden Inn and Doubletree met every criteria and then some. The Hilton Garden Inn is one of very few HGI hotels in the country with banquet facilities. When I saw that we could park right outside the reception/banquet area with glass running the entire exterior of the building - I was sold. After a few meetings with Laureen Trainor - Sales Manager for Parks Hotels (who own and operate both hotels) I knew we were going to have a great experience. In future meetings I met Jo-Anne Paradis - Catering Manager, Amulya Singh - General Manager and Doreen Turgeon . Each and every one of these senior staff managers were actively participating in our event - there was not a minute during the event that one or more of them was not on duty supporting the hotel activities that were a part of NSXPO 2013. Some of them actually stayed over night at the hotel during our weekend to make sure they were available. You might not have realized it, but every meal we had, except for the box lunch at Foreign Cars Italia on Saturday afternoon was served by the hotel. I probably don't have to tell you that at most hotels, that would have been near disaster - both from the standpoint of food quality and service. Every person at the hotel that had some hand in our event - from the General Manager to those busing the tables after our banquets, had a CAN-DO attitude that made every event move smoothly with perfection. I can't thank the hotel staff enough for their part in NSXPO's success.

The Concours d' Elegance competition judges who very "judiciously" examined each and every NSX submitted for competition were Russell Fluery, James Payne, M-P Spierer and Michael Slobodnyak (former owner of my NSX). All of these judges are either current or former NSX owners. Russ has a long Porsche history and actually tutored the tour guides for the Porsche by Design exhibit. I thank them all for their diligence during the judging.

And last, but certainly not least I'd like to recognize the local NSX owners and NSXCA members who served in various capacities to make this event happen. There were many things too numerous to mention - but a few stand out and deserve recognition - my wife Terri -not only did she pitch in and do a lot for this event, but she tolerated a lot of hours less of my time. My brother Dave (combatdad - '99 NSX) who spent the whole week ahead of NSXPO with me getting all of the loose ends tied up. Wayne Bunting who handled the food service at Foreign Cars Italia -Steve Gooding (and his family) who helped handle registration and the Tech Session - Tom Baranek, Ron & Taylor Hewett who checked and rechecked the Winding Road Rally. Darrin Paley who organized and actively participated in the car washing and detailing operations. The other members of our NSXPO 2013 committee, and who served in various capacities before and during the event include Jeff Hutchinson, Russ Percenti, Michael Christian, Berry Fairly and Robbie Smith.

By the way, they all came up to me after NSXPO and said, let's do this again next year, this time with sunshine!!!

Look for additional information soon about the Concours results and other important aspects of NSXPO 2013. Hoping to see you all next year!

John Komar - Co-Chair NSXPO 2013
 
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John. Even with a little liquid sunshine. I had a great time seeing everyone. Great job and :cheerful::cheerful:
 
John, as I said in another thread, everything that you guys could control was flawless. So much so that the weather didn't matter. Great job.

Ed
 
John,
You inspired greatness in all who helped and attended! Even my NZX (Nissan ZX) felt welcomed...but I can't wait to get my NSX back on the road!
 
John, thanks for the kudos. You knocked the social event out of the park, I was just observing every last detail of coordination and was extremely impressed. Everything went extremely smooth and was flawlessly executed. Had I been tasked to take on that social event I would of went into a meltdown.

Carla was definitely momma bear keeping on us to remember every last detail to ensure each milestone was met. I would say her proper title would be Project Manager rather than "Consultant" and liaison to NSXCA in order not to downplay the level of involvement in the process from planning to operations. Major credit for taking this role year after year working with new locals, that has to be a difficult balance to maintain.

NSXCA committee, thanks for the trust and the charter to run the event virtually as we pictured it.
 
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Again, I'd like to echo what's been said above, and on other threads. You guys did a fantastic job, the weather may not have been very cooperative, but as said above, you barely noticed it. I'd also like to say that the Hotel did such a fantastic job, that I sent an email to Amulya, mentioning a few "standouts", and received a prompt and appreciative response. Southern Hospitality was shown at every step, my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
 
Carla,Don,Bob,Larry B and Peter are the wind beneath the wings of the local committees.They help in many ways.I must comment on John k. he had the right attitude,willing to listen,and change things as needed because he checked his ego at the door..great quality to have in any "club" type events.
 
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Thanks for all the work by everyone involved. The track portion had great weather, cars and people. I love VIR too :) I'll have some videos from my car soon once I'm less lazy.

It was good to see old friends (including the grid out crew!) and meet some new ones.
 
A+ from start to finish!

THANK YOU to all involved in NSXPO 2013.

Hotel and staff were super - food was delicious. Rooms were excellent. The armed guards patrolling the precious parking lot (in the rain) all night provided priceless reassurance.

Top notch NSXPO. Great job.

Oh the visual treat of waking up, looking out the window of our sixth floor room, and seeing the lot full of NSX's in all colors :smile:
 
Thank you to all who helped put this event together. I was only able to make the track portion but had an absolute blast! VIR holds a special place in my heart as I popped my track cherry there back in 2007 with ITR Expo. It was great to get back there and with so many great friends, and a few new ones. Don and Carla....it was great to see you again! As always, wish there was more time to chat. Steve, Jack and Nick.....great job in making the track event feel like home. Integra Friends 4lyfe!! :) :beer:

Looking forward to hearing about next year.... :)
 
John ... thank you for all your effort in putting together a great NSXPO! 2013 NSXPO will be a tough one to beat.

Ted Klaus speaking ... really? How did that get arranged? WOW!!!! All the social events, the rolling NC hill rally. The tour of Foreign Cars Italia, Porsche by design, the after Midnight gang Raleigh car shows, the prizes, the sponsors, the food, the hotel location and the track ... VIR who just the weekend prior to NSXPO hosted the American Le Mans Series race. John and the organizing members, what a great event and a standing ovation to all of you for making it a HUGE success! So much fun and so many things to do during this event. It was great meeting many of you and hope to see you all again at the next NSXPO and to keeping in touch here on NSX Prime.

Darrin Paley
Prism Detail & CroftgateUSA
 
I have been to 12 NSXPO's. First one being in Atlanta in 2000. There is little doubt that the organizing committee executed in a fashion that will be sooooo hard to beat. EVERYTHING was well thought out, and executed on perfectly. Hospitality was outstanding, everyone wanted to help. This is how it "gets done". I cannot thank everyone enough for their hard work and dedication together to make this an unparalleled event.

Contrags to all for the outstanding effort.

Regards and Thanks,
LarryB
 
contrags to you El presidente.
 
Any idea of when or if a video or transcirpt of the Ted Klaus talk might become available? I was really bummed that I could not attend, but would love to hear what he had to say.
 
John
The organization and implementation was first class.
Well worth the drive from BC to attend!
 
Any idea of when or if a video or transcirpt of the Ted Klaus talk might become available? I was really bummed that I could not attend, but would love to hear what he had to say.

Hi

I have a video from my cellphone from Doug's and Ted's speech. I have not released it yet as it is something that John++ has to agree on me releasing.

So John if you could let us know and I will be able to share it or not to those that wants.

Best regards
 
Michael here. First off, I want to thank everyone for welcoming myself and XPEL into the NSX world. I get to tour the country and attend events like this and not all car clubs are as welcoming as the NSX crowd so thank-you! I had a great time and I know that it went well for XPEL too. We appreciate you trusting us as the preferred paint protection film of NSX.

I'll create a new thread too under photos and videos but I'll share here as well. Of the many many photos taken I've narrowed it down to 190, and the video is complete too! Let us know what you think and we look forward to seeing everyone out next year!

NSXPO on blog.XPEL.com
 
Just wanted to chime in real quickly and say GREAT job to all who were involved from a Ground Team perspective. I participated "digitally" throughout the event and I'm glad to those of you who shared such detailed pictures and experiences. I love this XPEL video and have shared it with more than a dozen friends. Thank you!
 
Just wanted to chime in real quickly and say GREAT job to all who were involved from a Ground Team perspective. I participated "digitally" throughout the event and I'm glad to those of you who shared such detailed pictures and experiences. I love this XPEL video and have shared it with more than a dozen friends. Thank you!

Thank-you for your kind words and for sharing the video. We had a great time and will definitely return next year!
 
Thanks for those pics and vids........some rare bee footage.:biggrin:
 
Fantastic video - huge thanks for the memories and effort to make it -and it's great promotion for future expo's.
 
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