In the words of a few club members (as posted to the Saturn Performance Club mailing list):

"For any of you out there in SPCland who thought about it, but then decided against coming to the rally, for whatever reasons, take it from me that it's TOTALLY worth the effort/cash/time!  I didnt even make the Gingerman session, and the drag racing was rained-out and I still had a total blast!  So next year, get off your ass and show your support for the club by making the trip!  You will not be disappointed.  Plus, you get to check out all of the sweet rides fellow members drive.  All I could think about on the drive home was how much I wanted to just mod the shit out of my car.  It's just too bad my wallet doesnt feel quite as zealous.  Slow and steady...sigh.  Thanks to everyone who made the rally, you're a great bunch, and I can't wait for next year!  Deebs, you're a "hell of a guy", and you and Jon put together a hell of a rally!"

- Tommy aka "the canadian, eh?" (who drove 14 hours each way)

"Hey all, I thought the rally was a blast!   Initially, it looked like I wouldn't be able to attend the lapping days, but boy am I glad I did.  It was very cool to take my SC2 on the track as well as getting a ride in the fabled OLOA SC2.  It opened my eyes to what a Saturn can do if there was some company backing (hint hint)..."

  "..I also got a kick out of seeing the race-prepped Vipers go at it on the track.  In the evening, hanging out with the Saturn guys was an eye-opener on how Saturn Corp. views us perfomance types as well as sharing beers and stories..."

"But on a serious note, Go-karting was some serious fun, especially when Mr. "Scort" Carl and myself put the final nail in the coffin for the Go-Kart employees and got everyone kicked out.  The car show at Saturn of Countryside was also going pretty well unitl we got kicked out of there due to a certain "loss of front wheel traction".  It's been a while since I've seen so many clean, modded Saturns at one time.  -sigh-  Well, thanks to John and Jon for organizing the rally, Noah G. for making the trip on such short notice, Bryce A. for having another Minnesotan on board, Gary H for the definition of "smooth" on a race track, Tommy and Ian the Canadians for putting up with all the "eh" jokes, everyone else I missed, and especially to Saturn for sending their one lap cars and drivers for us all to drool over.  See everyone next year!!!"

- Alex P (Minnesota)

"Hello all! Congratulations on a successful rally!   For all those that couldn't attend, you missed out on a lot of fun. To those that were there, thanks for coming!..."

"...For those that weren't there, here is a recap of the week's festivities:

Tuesday: Tuesday was cool.  We arrived at Deebsville in the afternoon, and just seeing all the drivetrain components in his garage was way cool.   Everything from engines and transmissions on shelves to headers hanging on the wall.  Gotta love it.  We drove to South Haven, which was VERY cool, in part because of the radios that allowed us to communicate.  Unfortunately, we left without grabbing dinner, and all that was open at 11:00PM in South Haven was the local Taco Belch.  The hotel was great, though, and Deebs got us a HELL OF A DEAL for a place that nice.

Wednesday: We got up and headed to the track for tech inspection.  Unfortunately, my rear wheel bearings were shot, despite passing tech. at Blackhawk a few weeks earlier.  WARNING!!!!! There were several of us who had bad bearings, and they are EXTREMELY hard to come by.  Next year I'd recommend purchasing some BEFORE the rally, and then returning them if you don't need them.  Napa doesn't normally stock them, and the dealer will price gouge your wallet to death.  Dave S was kind enough to drive Amie and I over hell and highwater looking for a pair of bearings, but we couldn't find more than one (at $150!!!).  We decided to abort the search, and return to Gingerman.

Wednesday night, we had a wonderful discussion with the drivers of the Saturn One Lap cars, and with James Walker of Team scR racing fame.  I learned more about Saturn's philosophy toward "performance" in one evening than I have in six years.  James Walker gave a fantastic brake presentation, and was able to answer some questions about braking systems that I've had for a long time.  There were almost too many questions asked (IMHO), but James was able to handle them all.  Then we watched James's in-car racing footage, which was VERY exciting.

Thursday: This was it!  Racing in all its glory.  Everybody else got more track time than they knew what to do with, and whoever wanted to got to ride along in the one-lap cars.  I only went out for one session because of my bad bearings, but I REALLY enjoyed the time.  I was instructed by Mark (James Walker's co-driver), who did a fantastic job getting me safely around the track.  In total, I rode along with Alex, Deebs, both one lap cars, AND A RACING VIPER!!!  Yes, you heard that right. James Walker, Wally and I all took turns going around the track in Phil De La O's race prepped Viper. We're talking 550HP, stripped interior, full roll cage, fire suppression system, Baer brakes, etc.  It was an unbelievable ride, and we all appreciated Phil's generousity!  Even though I only drove my car on the track for about 20 minutes, I was exhausted by the end of day.  It was incredible!  On another note, no one had any crashes (or even bad spins) for the day.  Everyone drove safely and we all went home in one piece.  Lane, however, had serious engine trouble.   He heard a noise after a lapping session, and it was later diagnosed as a significant problem with an engine component, probably rod knock.  He decided to get the oil changed with straight 50 weight in the hopes of getting home, and we all said a silent prayer to the internal combustion gods.

Friday: Friday didn't go quite as well as Thursday, but it was still a good time.  We went en masse back to Chicago, but Lane's engine gave up the ghost about 30 miles into the trip.  Thankfully, Jeff was a member of AAA (and he happened to be riding along in Lane's car), so they got the car towed to Saturn of Countryside for free.  We all met up at the Red Roof Inn, and then went off to Best Racing.  Best provided a terrific lunch for us, and we had a great time talking to them about the products they sell and just hanging out.  While the drag races were scheduled for Friday night, the weather was not cooperating.  It had been raining on and off all day, so we decided to abort the 80 minute drive to the drag strip and instead go off to see Gone in 60 Seconds.  I didn't go myself, but I was told the movie was pretty good.  Then we went out to dinner, and finally to the go-cart track.   WHAT A BLAST!  We took two trips around the track (including two pretty bad pileups) and then Alex and Carl went out with another group of drivers.  We cheered them on heartily, and they succeeded in putting on a great show!  So great, in fact, that we all got kicked out of the go-cart track.  It was SO worth it, though!  I think we all had a great time.  As it turns out, the drag strip was open that night, but Bill H was the only one to make it out there.  We heard that it was a great time.   Friday night was the great Deebs sale.  He sold a bunch of Saturn parts to happy recipients.  Everything from polished cam covers to A/C condensers to spark plug wires went out the door.  I picked up a set of stock Saturn front brake pads, making one less think to clutter up Deebs' garage.

Saturday: We stayed up so late on Friday that the "One Lap" of Chicago was put off in exchange for some much needed sleep.  We headed out at 10:00AM to wash our cars, and then drove to Saturn of Countryside to have a little car show.  Before we left the hotel, though, Wallyman entertained us with the curb-jumping abilities of his SC2, but I digress... The dealership provided us with lunch and a place to show off our cars, and Noah (in his better-than-new '94 Homecoming SL2) got to put his car on the podium at the dealership!  It was much better looking than anything else on the lot.  Unfortunately, the event came to an abrupt end.  To make a long story short, dealerships don't like it when we leave with less rubber on our tires then when we arrived.  We made a hasty exit, and hung out at the hotel for a while.  We then went out to a great dinner, and then to Gameworks.  We had a short awards ceremony, and proceeded onto the gaming floor.  We got there a little late, though, and the under-21 members got the boot at 9:00PM, so we only got to use about 80 minutes of our 2-hour tickets.  However, Gameworks has a terrific selection of games, and several of us had a BALL playing full-contact air hockey.  When we left, we went to Deebs brother's house for a great (but illegal) fireworks display, and then we quickly cleaned up the debris.  Finally, we heard the story of how John morphed into Bill Deebs, and we headed back to the hotel..."

- Bryce A (Minnesota)

The Rally was a blast for those of you who didn't make it this year.  I am glad that John and Jon and all those others that put in endless hours to make this work are dedicated like they are.  Hopefully the small impact we had on a small community of Saturn Corp guys works its way to where it needs to.  It makes that effort even that much more fun.  But again, its all for the fun :)

- David S (Michigan)

"Well, after a week of reflection here's some of my takes on the Summer Rally:

1). All in all, it was a darn good week.  Every year they get better and better and we always enjoy seeing new faces there!!

2). Gingerman was, as always, an absolute blast.  As I've exhorted many times over the past few years, even if you don't drive, just show up at a lapping session/club race to see what goes on.  It's just plain awesome to see.  A HUGE word of thanks to James and Mark Rushbrook for helping us out as instructors.  Seeing James' Galant LTZ ripping (heaving?) it's way around the course was certainly something to behold.  The Saturn team was VERY thrilled with their track time as well.
    After the day on track was finished, I asked them about what their expectations of the day had been. They weren't sure exactly what we'd be doing, and thought that they'd show up, polish/wash the cars and answer one lap questions.  When they learned that 1). they were gonna get track time and 2). they were gonna get a HUGE amount of it, they were thrilled.  As I was standing in the paddock area and Jeff Putnam or Carl came ripping (heaving?) by in the Enterprise sponsored SL2 one of the awestruck Saturn members quipped," Man, you guys are hard core..." This leads me to think we made a good impression on them.  A big word of thanks to them for attending as well.

3). The drive home/rolling video footage of our convoy with the OLOA cars was just awesome and WILL definitely make the Rally CDROM.

4). Dyno pulls: Ah, time to stir the fires of controversey again.  We were fortunate enough to dyno a Venom 400 on a 99 SC2 during the Rally.   Guess what cynics and critics... It LOST the car just around 10 HP and the same amount of torque.  Some of us told ya so.  We will DEFINITELY post the run to the CDROM.  I expect to see a lot of Venoms on the eBbay marketplace soon.  For those interested, the 2x4 taped to the gas pedal lost us only 5 HP and 6 ft. lbs. of torque, so the SPC will being soon be selling our "Raptor 400", a 4" long 2x4 painted in silver with some zip ties to secure it to the gas pedal.  Estimated cost is 199.95. =)   Awaiting the flames.....

5).  Car Show: While we did depart early due to unforseen circumstances, we DID manage to cram 12 people into the cabin of an SL2 without using the trunk.  We could have gotten another 1-2 people in there too. Talk about a slammed ride... The video footage of this will also make the Rally CDROM.

6). The Rally couldn't happen every year without the hard work and dedication of a LOT of you: Wally, Lane, Mr. Tapp, Bill Park, James Walker, Mark Rushbrook, Carl "Escort Boy", Jeff P, Noah, Bryce, the Saturn factory team and the rest of the crew.  Without all of you it just wouldn't be the same.   THANKS so very much!

7). Next year: We've already conducted high level SPC board meetings about next year's Rally and forcast it will be held from June 30th-July 5th, 2001 to allow more students to attend.  Additionally, as any of the attendees know, this will mean a MUCH better pyrotechnics display for our awards party on July 4th.  Something like 3-4000 display shells are planned.  We would definitely like some input from you guys and gals out there.  Would this setup work better/worse for you?  Please let us know so we can make the Rally fit YOUR tastes!!  Our theme for next year will be reunion, and we're hoping to see as many of the previous Rally attendees as we can!

8). Thanks to all who attended and looking to forward to seeing ya'all at the next SPC event!!"

- Deebs (club headquarters, Chicago IL)