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

"...I will just say that those who didn't attend missed out on the GREATEST vacation you could have! I mean, we practically do it all! Even a HUGE party at the end with fireworks!!! WOW!!! John and Jon, and the gang always set up a GREAT time and I just want to thank them once more for putting on such a fantastic show!! For those who missed, please save your money NOW and join us next year. You WILL NOT be disappointed!"

- Christena, Miamisburg OH

"The Rally was great.. best turnout I have seen, with 14+ at the dyno and 20+ at the track, plus non-Saturns...  Thanks to all that came and participated!"

- Wally, Grand Rapids MI

"Well its over :(, but it was a BLAST."

"It was nice to finally put a face with all the names from the chat, forum and mailing list.  The Saturn One Lap cars are much more impressive in person than they are in photos.  And as usual, Gingerman was a blast.  Hope to see more there next year as I plan on attending the whole thing this time."

- Jason P, Denmark WI

"This year's rally was a blast!!! They just keep getting better every year. The dyno tuning, drag racing, track time, attacking Hondas on the freeway, bench racing, meeting everyone, and just working on the cars was a great experience for everyone. It was a great way to spend a week. For those of you who didn't make it this year, you best get to it next year. Who cares if your wife/husband/employer/etc. doesn't want you to go, you will have a great time - you have to get your priorities straight :) I know I only drove a fraction of the distance to the rally that most people did but I would definitely drive 5 times farther to attend.

- Greg H, IL

"The appearance of Ken Wasmer, Chris Berube, and especially Todd Christensen was a very cool thing.  The rides in the One Lap cars were great.  It's not every day you get to go over your car with its corporate brand manager, describe why you chose it, what you've changed, what you'd improve, etc. Todd probably learned at least as much from us as we did from him, if not more.  We might have put some bugs in his ear, if we're lucky.  I know I tried. :)"

"It was one helluva long drive for me - 17-18 hours spread across two days, each way.  I'm really not sure if I can do that drive again.  But I'm already thinking ahead to next year.  Perhaps I might end up joining NMC Racing..."

- Justin H, Winchendon MA

"All I have to say is the Rally kicked ass!!  This year we managed to make it out for the entire event, and it was so worth it!  Everything from the go-karting or the Fast and the Furious (Dude I need some NOS!!  OVERNIGHT!) to the Dyno and the dragstrip and Gingerman totally rocked!  Many thanks to John and Jon for putting on a fantastic event, you guys are just plain awesome!

It was great to see everyone from last year again, and to meet new Saturn nuts, putting names to faces and faces to names.  It was also very cool to see the onelap cars in person, and meet the crew."  "To anyone who didnt come to the rally this year:  You have no idea what youre missing!!  Try it once, and you'll be hooked.  Even if you just show up for half the rally next year, and the drag racing is rained out and all you get to do is go kart, you'll be back the following year, guaranteed."

- Tommy B, Winnipeg Manitoba Canada

"Thanks again to John & Jon for a great week.  I think the wife is getting tired of me telling her about all the fun we had - "yeah, and then you saw them at the hotel..." It was great to put faces and personalities with the e-mail addresses & websites."

- Kevin K, St. Louis MO

"If you missed it, you have to go next year.  It was great!  Never mind the time away from work, how many times will you find so many people to listen to you ramble on about your car!?"

"It was great to meet everyone there.  Special thanks to John and Jon for pulling it all together, James for dragging a little cooperation out of "Mr. Personality" at the Red Roof, and Lane for pointing out how loose the nut behind the wheel of my car is at Gingerman.  Not to slight anyone who was there, everyone made it a truly memorable outing.  The Saturn guys were great to have around and I'm sure it will be a long time before Todd forgets that there really IS another part of the market that they've been ignoring.

With what's already being kicked around for next year one can only imagine what it will be, but I have NO doubt it will be even better (is that possible?!)"

- Jeff C, Warren MI

"Thanks John & Jon for an excellent week of Saturn activities! I've been to the last 3 rally's and I can say for sure that they only get better. It was nice to meet some new people and match some faces to the names we see so frequently here on the list. Anybody who was on the fence about coming to the rally.. Well I feel sorry for you as you missed a truly awesome time! Hopefully next year we will see some more familiar faces. Hope to see everyone again next year for the 5th annual Rally. Wow.. Kinda scary thinking its going to be the 5th!!"

- Jeff P, Torrington CT

"All I have to say is that the rally this year was an absolute blast and definitely the best yet."

"The dyno day was impressive in that a lot of owners dyno'ed their cars."  "BTW, the Deebsmobile was deafening.  Literally.   Get a muffler, dammit!!! :) As for the Fast and the Furious, forget it.   Unless you are into meaningless plots and over-use of NOS(TM) and colored washers, you will be disappointed.

The drag racing the third day was fun and held on an absolutely beautiful day." "My fastest time of the day was a 15.7 and most others put down some respectable numbers, most notably Jeff C. and Ian L. both driving to low 15.5 second times.

As for the Gingerman tech and driving days, it was a case of work first, play later.  All Monday was tech inspection at the track and this only was accomplished by the Herculean efforts of Tapp and the riff-raff crew of volunteers that helped out.  Many brake pads were swapped and liters of fluid flushed.  And the men rejoiced...  The driving day was just as good with three ITA cars coming up after a race at Mid-Ohio along with five or so more misc. cars making a total of 30? something cars on track."  "There were also multiple instructors on hand and I got a chance to ride along with one in his Porsche 928." "I also did get a chance to talk to the Integra type-R drivers during tech that we were playing with on the highway and they took it well.  The driver of one was wondering where this swarm of Saturns came from."

"Thanks to John and Jon for organizing and carrying out such a wonderful event and to all the people I had the pleasure of meeting and talking to.  Special thanks to the Saturn crew for showing up with the One Lap race cars and Todd Christensen for the presentation."

- Alex P, Afton MN

"Here's our recap...

1). You'll be able to catch the rough schedule/etc from previous posts, so we'll only add info that we feel is pertinent or unique at this point.

2).  The dyno day was AWESOME. Everybody decided to attend and Wally thrilled us with some cool N2O runs. There's just something so cool about the sound of one of our cars on the bottle and under full throttle.

3).  Drag Racing:  2 of our attendees made solid 15.5's w/ basic bolt ons.  It was also quite thrilling to see Tapp pilot my yellow coupe to a 14.99 at 94 mph with LOTS of first and second gear wheelspin on its second pass of the day.  Considering the car is set at -2.8 degrees of camber, is on road race tires and was just being sorted out, we are certainly tempted to head back to the track later this Summer for some better times.  We ran late leaving the track on Sunday and ended up not getting to South Haven until nearly 10:00 p.m. local time. Upon arrival there was the ever-patient Jason P waiting in the parking lot. He had been there for nearly 6 hours and was awarded our "most patient attendee of the year" for his efforts.

4). Tech Day: Thanks to the hard work of Tapp and his crew we were able to sort out a LOT of maintenance/prep. issues with attendees cars.   He's an invaluable member of the team and we wouldn't be on track without him.

Additionally, thanks to the hard work of some friends at Koni we were able to do a last minute strut insert replacement at the track and prepare the yellow car for it's Gingerman debut.

5).  The presentations by Todd, Chris and Ken were wonderful and we hope to see more of them at future Rally's.  Chris, Ken and Jon even took personal time out of their vacations just to attend and that deserves a big word of thanks.

6). The track day at Gingerman started out wonderfully. Registration and tech went smooth as silk, thanks again to the help of Tapp and his crew and to Bill H/Jane for registration.  The first run group got on track a bit late and Tapp and I strapped into the yellow car to join them for a quick warm up/shake out of the new car. We rolled onto pit road, got the signal to join the fun on track and merged into traffic in turn 2.  The car came up to temperature and we began to feel out how it handled, accelerated and just felt on the track. Things were progressing nicely for awhile, and the car was amazingly quick without even pushing it very hard.  We could have easily used 4th in places on track that had been 3rd gear only before our work.

Unfortunately, just as we began to decelerate into turn 3 a rather horrid mechanical knocking was heard coming from the powerplant. By the turn in point for turn 5 it was all over. The engine stalled, we rolled it into neutral and coasted off the racing line in case we were leaking fluids.

After a tow back to the pits the day continued in perfect order.  The One Lap cars were rarely ever parked in the paddock and continued to amaze all passengers. The beautiful sneeze of the blow off valve popping in between shifts was a happy song throughout the afternoon for us in the tech tower.

7).  We wrapped up the day and headed to the Big Boy for some dinner. Lesson for next year: a group of 25-30 Saturnites can easily overwhelm the kitchen staff of a Big Boy. Dinner seemed to take FOREVER.  Once we got back on the road we became VERY time-concious, as we had to make it back to Chicago in time for our fireworks and party.  Things were going well until we got into 80/94 where a rather nasty accident blocked traffic for miles and caused our group to become widely split up.  Since time was so tight, we were able to postpone the fireworks 30-40 minutes to allow for our traffic snafu. After finally regrouping, Greg discovered his split brake hose. Jeff P was gracious enough to stay with him and make sure they got back to the hotel okay. Looking at our watches it was 9:35 and we were still in Indiana. The fireworks were scheduled to start at 10:00 sharp, so we put the pedal to the floorboard and started hauling. A 97 Yukon with a 28' trailer and 17 Saturns in a tight convoy must have been quite a site to see as we flew down I-294 at better than 80 mph. Thanks to all of you guys for helping us make the fireworks. We parked a few block away from the party at 10:03 and after a brief jog, arrived at just the right moment.  I felt the fireworks were wonderful and am stumped as to how to top this for next year's Rally.  =)

8).  The day after the fireworks we handed out awards to a few attendees, unloaded the car and parts from the trailer and just sort of zoned out.  Mid afternoon we tore into the Deebsmobile to determine the cause of our failure.  We pulled the oil pan and were greeted by piles of silver bearing shavings. Not good. The 2001 lower block girdle came off and sure enough the number 3 connecting rod end cap bolt was backed 2/3rds of the way out. The bearings were slagged and it appears there may be significant further damage to the powerplant. Not a thrilling prognosis, however at least we have spare engines.

9).  FINAL SUMMARY THOUGHTS:  I'd like to send a huge word of thanks out to all of you who took the time to attend the Rally and hope to see you all next year. Without you it simply wouldn't be the same. Second: A special commendation to Mr. Tapp for tirelessly looking after everybody's cars during the Rally.  He has put his heart and soul into both the Rally and the Club and deserves a round of applause.  Third: It was great to see Saturn Corporate there for a 2nd consecutive year in a row and we can't wait til next year."

- Deebs & Tapp, the SPC