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was just over-excited in his selling efforts, but it was funny hearing about the 500+ rear wheel horsepower coming out of a stock V6 from a production car, and the factory lightweight body panels when they were poor quality fiberglass panels, etc., etc., etc.  It was pretty strange indeed, but just another example of the kinds of things one runs into during the historics in Monterey.   Then again, maybe the margaritas were just affecting me, or him, or all of us.  Who knows, but it was a fun weekend!
Plans for the Holiday Party are being finalized, so mark your calendars.  The Holiday Party is on Saturday December 15 at 7 PM.  It will be at a restaurant called Acorn, located in Menlo Park.   It will be very similar in format, price, etc. to previous ones, and more details will be published here in the Chapman Report.
It is too bad that the All British Car Meet has been canceled this year!  We are trying to figure out an alternative venue/activity for us, so look elsewhere here in the Chapman report for details, since as of this writing, we haven't decided.  And remember, just a little over  a month until our next track day.  Get signed up and your cars ready, as the weather should be perfect, and it will be a blast!
I'm finally recovering from Monterey!  Many of your readers know all about the annual car Mecca there in mid-August every year, but for those readers who don't, you won't find a weekend more filled with car stuff; races, car shows, auctions, and just hundreds of cool cars cruising around.   So if you've never gone, plan on going next year. However, many people don't return year after year because of the crowds.  This year wasn't as crowded as usual, and that was nice, since there are ususally just too many people in too small an area.  I noticed the car auctions seemed a little off this year also, and that is probably because the economy is down and more people are selling cars.   I'm doing some warehouse cleaning myself.    I did miss seeing the Lotus tent outside of the Friday Concours at Quail Lodge, and it is too bad Lotus didn't have a presence there since that is probably one of my favorite events. 
We had a good turn out of Lotuses at the track on Saturday.   Last month's meeting in the Lotus corral was well attended by Lotus cars, but not by too many people since I guess the people were too excited to see the race cars to wait around for the meeting.  There are always many Lotuses competing at the historic races, especially 23's and a few Elans and always a few F1 cars.  I love to see the Lotuses dominate on the track.  One year I especially enjoyed an Elan 26R outrunning Cobras and other big engine beasts. 
This Monterey story is too strange not to share.  After spending most of the day at the Concours at Quail Lodge on Friday, we did the usual and went over to Baja Cantina to cool off and drink a margarita or two or three.  Of course, many people park their cool cars right in front, and it was interesting to see a small crowd of people gathered around 
one particular car.  I'll leave out the specifics to protect the innocent/guilty here (ask me in person and I'll tell you more details), but I was surprised to see the lead singer for a modern/alternative rock band talking up a particular car.  I recognized the guy because I had seen them in concert a while back, but something looked funny about the car.  On closer inspection, the car turned out to be a rough-looking, poorly finished reproduction of an exotic car, and he was trying to sell it for huge bucks.  He said they used it for music videos and other productions, and also as a track car.  The money was going to a charitable cause benefiting children in some way or another, so I liked the cause, but I couldn't understand why he was there pitching the car.  His band's fan base is mostly high school or college aged, and most of the people at the car show were older, and probably didn't know him or of the band, although their children probably might have, so the fame part wasn't really working.  And what he was saying about the car was complete salesmanship, is you know what I mean.  Maybe he 
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