Florida Chapter of Volvo Club of America

If you haven’t been to Bahama Breeze for lunch or supper and there is one in your area, you need to go. On May 18th, the Florida Volvo Community had a meet at Bahama Breeze in Tampa and there were 44 Volvo’s registered and over 90 people. Almost all models of Volvos were present with half of them being rear wheel drive. We are starting to see more of the front wheel / all wheel drive Volvo’s at each meet. The weather was great and the food was fantastic. Jose Leboy, the Bahama Breeze area manager and 164 Volvo owner, put on a spread that any meet would love to enjoy plus he kept us in water and soft drinks during the event.

The oldest Volvo there was Chris Smith with his black 1965 122. Chris does our flyers and this is the first time award for him at a Volvo meet.

Jose Laboy won the longest distance and people’s choice award with his gold 1973 164.

I think we are going to start having two people’s choice awards, one for rear wheel and one for front wheel drive. John Martin, from VSA Florida, was very involved with this meet and the prizes he brought to the meet were greatly appreciated plus John’s help in organizing the event. Tricia and Bill Rose were helping in all areas from parking to registration to MCing the event plus they drove up from Naples in two vintage Volvos. Although Jeannine and Clive Dowdell were at Carlisle, their help in keeping our website up to date and sending out reminders about the meet were very helpful. I can always count on Chris Short for registration material and coordination plus Gay Montgomery is always there helping with registration.

It helps a meet tremendously when sponsors donate prizes and without Volvo of Clearwater, Volvo of Tampa, Freeman Volvo of Tarpon Springs, Auto Clinic of Naples, Rock Auto, Dan’s Volvo Service, I Roll Motors, VP Auto Parts and Volvo Sports America, the Bahama Breeze Volvo meet would not have been the success it was. Look at the Florida VCOA website, flvcoa.org, for pictures from the event thanks to Ralph Porzio and John Martin. We also have a 50/50 drawing which Mark Capwell was the winner.

Dave Montgomery

The 2013 Bahama Breeze Meet photos by Ralph Porzio have now been posted.

Click here.

Remember to use the Slideshow option for best viewing. Thanks for looking.

Artwork by Chris Smith.

May 18. 12 PM – 3 PM. Bahama Breeze Restaurant Parking Lot, 3045 N. Rocky Point Drive East, Tampa, Florida  33607. 1-813-289-7922

Free Lunch courtesy of Bahama Breeze.

Prizes, Trophies, 50/50 Cash Drawing.

All Volvo Cars Invited. Bring Chairs.

For info call Dave Montgomery; 1-904-742-8228.

Hosted by Volvo of Ft Myers in conjunction with the SW FL Chapter of VCOA, CFL Chapter of VSA and the Florida Volvo Community On-Line Forum, Ft Myers, Florida. Saturday, November 3, 2012

There was plenty of sunshine in the “Sunshine State” of Florida for the City of Palms Volvo Day hosted by Volvo of Ft Myers in conjunction with SW FL VCOA, CFL VSA and the Florida Volvo Community On-Line Forum. Everyone working together made the event a success with a good time had by all.

The event featured live music and plenty of toe tapping going on thanks to the tunes of Black Water, food hot off the grill thanks to grill masters Frank Babarro and Richard Campbell of Volvo of Ft Myers, Pedal Car and Radio Control Time Trials for kids and adults, goody bags, door prizes, trophies, a 50/50 cash raffle in addition to plenty of Volvo chatter to go around.

Forty one Volvos, 74 adults and 6 kids made it out for the event with numerous models represented; the oldest, a recently restored, musical gear transporting, two-tone 1961 Duet of Kerry and Fay West to the newest, a highly modified, hot rod 2008 C30 of Jorge Castro. There were strong contingents of 1800s, 240’s, 740’s, 850’s, S&V 70 series and S60’s series, some highly modified, some stock daily drivers and several R and T5 models. There were quite a few “one of” with a 1963 544, 1967 132, 1973 1800ES, 1973 164E, 1996 960, a 2007 S40 2.4i and a 2007 S80 V8 AWD.

The Kids Pedal Car time trial was won by Marshall Andres, 6, with a time of 00:10:12, second place was Lucas Magnozzi, 3, with a time of 00:12:53 and third place was won by Avery Andres, 7, with a time of 00:15:22. The Kids RC time trial was won by Kevin Bjorkner, 13, with a time of 00:17:63 followed by second place Marshall Andres with a time of 00:37:60. The children proved to be more proficient at the RC time trials than the adults with several adults having times of over one minute on the same RC course.

The Adult RC Time Trial was won by Cody Tilden with a time of 00:17:16. The clubs thank Bill Rose, President, Auto Clinic of Naples, Inc. for his sponsorship of the time trials, printing of all club signage, dash cards, registration forms and trophy ballots. Bill also provided a gas grill and propane tank toward the food station in addition to items for the door prize raffle.

Thanks to the sponsorship of Loren Sheffer, Owner/Operator, Volvo of Ft Myers, nine participants went home with beautiful blue tinted acrylic triple arch trophies. The People’s Choice-Vintage Class trophy was won by Charles Pardee with his stunning red hot 1963 544.

The Golden Rod for Technical Innovation-Vintage Class trophy was won by Tricia Rose with her two-tone 1967 132E.

The People’s Choice-Classic RWD and Golden Rod for Technical Innovation-Classic RWD trophies were swept by Roger Patricio with his outstanding 1980 242GT. Roger edged out a 4 vote lead over the gorgeous 1984 242 modified mellow yellow machine of Ralph Porzio to win the People’s Choice award.

The People’s Choice-Late FWD/AWD and Golden Rod for Technical Innovation-Late FWD/AWD were swept by the highly modified 2001 S60T5 of Dave Bowling who won the People’s Choice trophy by a margin of one vote over Eric Conklin’s go fast 2004 V70 and Jorge Castro’s black beauty 2008 C30.

The Daily Driver trophy was won by Chuck Ufkes with his modified 1971 1800E.

The Longest Distance Traveled trophy went to Bob Porter who traveled 1424 miles from London, Ontario, Canada.

A new category was added this year to thank the good folks at Volvo of Ft Myers for their support. The Dealer’s Choice-Best of Show trophy was won by Volvo of Ft Myers own parts salesman, Jorge Castro, with his 2008 C30 by a margin of one vote over three other cars.

The clubs extend their gratitude to the crew of Volvo of Ft Myers for their support; Loren Sheffer, Frank Babarro, Richard Campbell, Mario Forcucci, Ryan Miller, Robert White and Jorge Castro. Volvo of Ft Myers was the Platinum sponsor that provided the location, food, live music, trophies, goody bags, and $50 gas cards for anyone pre-registered traveling over 150 miles to attend the event. The event would not have been possible without the fine support of Loren and his crew of capable men and women.

We also thank our Gold Sponsors, Scott Hart of IPD, for his most generous donations to the goody bags and door prizes; Tony D’Agostino of VSA for his donation of a $50 IPD gift certificate and two $50 VP Auto Parts gift certificates in addition to magazines and membership brochures for the goody bags as well as a full page ad in VSA Magazine and on the VSA website; Gretchen Adams of VCOA for door prize and goody bag donations as well as advertising in the Rolling magazine and VCOA website.

We also thank Silver sponsors Jack Johnson of Erie Vo Vo for door prize and goody bag donations, FVC member Ralph Porzio & Patty Rogers for detail kits for the door prizes, ARD Tuning for door prizes and goody bag donations, Roger Patricio of RP-R Sports Restorations for the oil filters, FCP for goody bag donations and Jose Laboy of Bahama Breeze for goody bag donations.

The 50/50 cash raffle raised a total of $302.00, which was divided in half. Jose Laboy won the $151 pot which was somehow karmic since he and his lovely wife Susan broke a camshaft gear on their 1973 164E on the way to Ft Myers on Friday night and had to be towed to the event and pushed into place on the show field Saturday morning. The remaining $151 was donated to FL VCOA webmaster & webmistress Clive & Jeannine Dowdell to support two years worth of website and blogs fees. The winning ticket was picked out of the hat by Avery Andres.

The event would not have been a success without the assistance of the Volvo club members who worked on the day of the event. Thanks go to Clive and Jeannine Dowdell, FL VCOA webmaster & webmistress for advertising and event email notices and for Clive serving as the event photographer while Jeannine assisted in setting up the RC course. We thank John & Debbie Martin, President of CFL VSA, for encouraging participation from CFL VSA members via two event email notices, rounding up door prizes, goody bag items and for stuffing the goody bags. We thank Robert & Ana Maria Cardwell of FVC for internet advertising, serving as the parking lot attendants, rounding up door prizes and goody bag items and producing the post event video for IPD’s Facebook page. We thank Jaime Seda and Mat Grayson for acting as the ballot tabulators…a time consuming job at this event due to the high number of trophies to be awarded. We thank Roger & Stacey Patricio for setting up the door prize table, serving as the door prize awards emcee and for doing a fantastic job of selling the 50/50 cash raffle tickets. Thanks to Marshall Andres for being the door prize ticket picker. I am sure there were many more who assisted in some way or another and I hope they accept my apologies if I have forgotten to mention them.
Submitted by:
Tricia Rose, Event Coordinator, SW FL VCOA
Member, CFL VSA & FVC

More City of Palms Volvo Day Photos are here, Click on the link and use the Slidewhow option for best viewing.