Spring Social

Hands down, winter sucks. If you live in the mid-Atlantic area, you know what we are talking about. Several months of looking at your DeLorean parked at your house waiting for nice weather to return so that you can cruise your stainless steel beauty down the road again and get some heads to turn and do double takes.

As always, the DMA is ready to kick spring fever into full gear with our annual Spring Social and tech session. A chance to shed those winter blues, see some old friends, and get your DeLorean ready for the 2007 season.

Each year the DMA tries to put on a bigger and better event for our members. Truth be told, it's getting harder to out-do ourselves! With over 100 people in attendance (A NEW RECORD!) and 36 cars (3 cars away from beating our record) it was difficult for the officers to find locations to host this ever growing event! Many hours of hard work and planning paid off in the long run and the event was a huge success.

This year's social was hosted at Alternative Auto in Netcong, NJ. The owner of the shop Frank Koval, and his two sons Mike and Jared were ecstatic at the idea of hosting a DeLorean-centric event. Their newly refinished facilities proved to be an excellent location for our event offering a convenient location and LOTS of parking for all the cars.

We had a jump start on attendance as several members who traveled long distances came into town the night prior to the social. Those who arrived a day early gathered on Friday night for an informal dinner to relax and prep for the next days events.

It was apparent early Saturday morning how huge this event was going to be as car after car came rolling into the parking lot of the shop at 10am. Not only had the guests from Friday night arrived bright and early, but so had everyone else who decided to attend!

With the weather set for 76 degrees and sunny, it appears that everyone couldn't wait to come out and enjoy this spectacular spring day.

More cars continued to arrive, but wait... what kind of car is THAT? A LOTUS!!!!

Yes, we invited our friends from the Lotus Enthusiasts Organization to join us for the festivities this year, and they came out in force! We had more than 10 Lotus cars in attendance!

Working closely with the LEO Club, we also arranged for tech sessions specific to their cars provided by Bill Thomas of William Thomas Roadsters.

Both the DeLorean and Lotus owners we excited to be in common company and exchange stories. The DMA wishes to thank the LEO CLUB for coming to the event, and we hope to see the Lotus owners again at future gatherings!

As always, the DMA Spring Social includes many features throughout the day. Safety inspections performed by Rob Grady of P.J. Grady, torsion bar and door adjustments, raffles, elections, dinner, a photo shoot, and tons of good food.

As attendees arrived, they were provided registration packets that contained all the information they would need to make the day flow more smoothly. Packets containing time schedules, information on the DMA, and upcoming events were handed out along with our new name tags (Thanks again to the Card family for making all the new name tags!).

There was no question about it, we were "on the ball" for this event, and the day ran without any snags. We even had free suntan lotion at the registration table so nobody would get sunburned!

Once the Lotus club completed their tech session, the garage bay was free for DeLorean inspections. Rob Grady raced around the shop for the majority of the day inspecting cars on the ground and on the lift.

The DMA officers would like to formally apologize to those owners of cars we were not able to inspect. Due to time limitations we took people in order of first arrival\first serve, and Rob Grady felt it would be best to inspect cars he had never seen before.

With the day in full motion it was time to bust out some food! Catering fully provided by "Mom Abato and Cheryl Abato" proved to be a HUGE hit with a full line of hot foods and cold beverages for all.

Special thank you to Mom Abato and all her DMA helpers who assisted in making, setting up, and serving lunch!

The DMA would like to thank all of the following people for donating time, raffle items and helping plan the 2007 Spring Social. Without your help, we would not be able to host such a great event! Rob Grady - P.J. Grady, red Dellis - Legend Industries, Stephen Clark - BTTF.COM, Ken Koncelik - DeLorean Car Show, Byron and Sophia Arnao - Libeso Media, Stephen and Ruthie Card, Tiffany Olejnik, The Brandys Family, Scott and Carol McMullan, Karen Weintraub and Shari Deutsch, Atwell Haines - Lotus Enthusiasts Organization, and Frank, Mike and Jared Koval - Alternative Auto

With the raffle, elections, lunch and other items completed for the afternoon, the DMA members slowly started to gather our belongings and clean up the shop area before we departed.

Dinner was set to be at the Stone Fire Grill in Randolph, NJ, but along the way we were scheduled to stop off at Horseshoe Lake in Roxbury for a photo shoot of all the cars lined up near the lake. We did a quick group photo since not everyone would be joining us for dinner at the Stone Fire and then headed on our way to the photo shoot.

At Horseshoe Lake, Byron had everyone line up for the photo shoot layout he had designed. We always like to try to get a shot of each car with its owner(s). This page is dedicated to all the DeLorean owners who came to the photo shoot. Sadly, we don't always get everyone and have to improvise some shots.

With all of the cars lined up for the photo shoot, we gathered a large crowd of spectators at the lake. Everyone was blown away at the site of all these exotic cars gathered away in one location. As the on-lookers gaped in awe, Byron lined up the cars and their respective owners for the layout of the shot.

Time was short, and people were hungry again. After a few clicks of the camera's shutter, it was time to head off to dinner where we would be entertained by our guest speaker Fred Dellis.

Dinner was a blast, and the food was Great! Fred Dellis of Legend Industries was present to show us some new material he dug out of his archives from his time spent working on the Legend Turbo engine that would have been an optional package in the 1984 DeLorean.

Fred was excited before the event and kept telling us that he had some truly historic DeLorean photos and information that had never before been seen. Suffice to say, FRED DELIVERED! Some of the stuff he showed us was really amazing.

Usually with dinner completed we would say "that's the end of the social." but we had over 20 rooms booked at the hotel that night! We all saved room for a second desert and headed to world-famous Cliffs Ice Cream for some exotic ice cream treats, and back to the hotel lounge afterwards for some late night drinks before bed.

The event crept well into Sunday afternoon with a mid morning brunch and more socializing before the event "officially" came to an end.

Thank you all for coming out, and we hope to see you all at the DMA Summer Fun Run on August 11th!