Thank you for a great show (for Rick&Lenora Stein)
 

<span style="font-style: italic">To Bob and Vicky and everyone else who had a hand in the show,

Thanks for a great event and a wonderful way for the original owners of my SD455 to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary by reuniting with their long lost favorite car. This was their first vacation in eleven years and it has been thirty years since they last saw their old car. I posted the following over in the Pontiac section but in case you missed it, here it is again:
</span>



Well, we brought the car to the 2016 MCACN for Vintage Certification and a family reunion with the original owners Enrico &quot;Rick&quot; Stein and his wonderful wife Lenora Stein. They took their first vacation in eleven years to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary by reuniting with their old SD455 that they bought new and sold in 1986. To say they were excited would be the understatement of the year. The both got extremely verklempt when they first laid eyes on the car from across the room at MCACN. They stopped in their tracks with tears in their eyes. I had made up a little anniversary card for them with their &quot;then and now&quot; photos and placed it on the radiator support for them to see it when they got close to the car for the first time in 30 years since they sold it.

Here's the framed anniversary card:

https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...8-dscn4251.jpg

And the happy couple:

https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...9-dscn4261.jpg

And yes, both of them are still well over six feet tall. Here are the Steins replicating their first photos when the car was delivered back in 1973:

Note the height of the guys just behind them, for scale!

https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...0-dscn4266.jpg
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...-dscn0642c.jpg
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...dscn0642a1.jpg

I have to say that the two of them are the nicest couple of folks you'd ever want to meet. Rick and Lenora hung out with the car for all of Saturday and then Rick took over the solo guard duty on Sunday. At 80 plus years of age, Rick has more energy than four twenty year olds. He was holding court the entire weekend discussing everything he knew about all sorts of musclecar topics, not just his old SD455. (he has a photographic memory). It was fun hearing the stories like how he lived just a mile or so from Joel Rosen's shop back in the heyday of Motion Performance. He also knew Donna May Mims from his road racing days in the 1960's.

When I say he has a photographic memory I am not exaggerating. Steve Shauger (the director of the Vintage Certification program) was awesome when he presented the Steins with their own duplicate plaque with the SD455's award on it. Rick thanked Steve and then examined the plaque for only a second and blurts out: &quot;Hey, you got a typo in the VIN!&quot; We were all flabbergasted - Does anyone else out there think that when they are 80+ years old, that they will be able to remember the VIN of a car they owned 43 years earlier? Steve promptly printed him out a corrected copy and gave him a Vintage Certification Team offical shirt.

Rick and Lenora were also rather amazed at all the spectators who would come up and wish them a Happy Anniversary as they walked by. They were deeply touched. An as an added bonus, Rick was also photographed and interviewed by a number of media people including Kevin Oeste of V8-TV.


https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...4-dscn4277.jpg


As for the car, the SD455 was awarded its Legend status with total of 2893.4 out of a possible 3007.7 points. If my math is correct, that is a 96.2% score. I have not been able to see the score sheets yet so I don't know what needs to be addressed for the future but I think that is pretty respectable for a first attempt.


Hopefully the presence of Rick and Lenora counted for an extra credit point or two in the tabulations.

Re: Thank you for a great show (for Rick&Lenora Stein)
 

That is just as cool as anything I've read on this site.

Re: Thank you for a great show (for Rick&Lenora Stein)
 

.... That's the kind of stories that make this show so special [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

Re: Thank you for a great show (for Rick&Lenora Stein)
 

Be tough to beat that score (too cool!). [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/burnout.gif[/img]

Re: Thank you for a great show (for Rick&Lenora Stein)
 

I walked past when Kevin was doing the interview. I ducked down and tried to scoot through without drawing attention but couldn't help noticing how tall he was compared to Kevin.
Great story. I hope they enjoyed their trip and their visit to MCACN.

Re: Thank you for a great show (for Rick&Lenora Stein)
 

it was funny seeing them side by side since Kevin is around 6'2&quot;. He said that Rick reminded him of his late father who was a State Trooper and a grizzly bear sized man. You could see him getting a little misty eyed when he was talking about family with Rick.

The overwhelming reason I brought the car to the show this year was to get Rick and Lenora reunited with their car again. The Vintage Certification was just icing on the cake. I didn't ever get a real chance to walk around and see much of the other cars since I hung out with Rick the majority of the weekend, which was fine with me.

Re: Thank you for a great show (for Rick&Lenora Stein)
 

That is awesome.

Re: Thank you for a great show (for Rick&Lenora Stein)
 

What a amazing story. Its great to see that they are still healthy and could enjoy this very special day.
I also saw the car this weekend. I have always had a love for Super Dutys, and this one is very special.

Ken Maisano

Re: Thank you for a great show (for Rick&Lenora Stein)
 

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: RPOLS3</div><div class="ubbcode-body">That is awesome. </div></div>

This^^^^^^^^^^

It was great to finally meet you Steve!

Tim

Re: Thank you for a great show (for Rick&Lenora Stein)
 

Thanks. I think it should be mandatory for everyone to have their little name tags like a highschool reunion from now on. That way we can tell who's who at the show a lot easier since I have the worst memory when it comes to names. But I never forget a car!

Re: Thank you for a great show (for Rick&Lenora Stein)
 

Rick and Lenora just sent me a thank you note. They are the nicest couple of newlyweds (give or take a half century) that you could ever want to meet.

Here is some of what they said:

<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">We, Lenora and I, were flabbergasted at all the attention we received. Our stay far exceeded anything that I expected when we left for Chicago. We thought of ourselves as just a couple of &quot;guys&quot; going to a car show where one particular car and its owner were of special interest to us. Instead, we were treated like royalty by all concerned including judges, video makers, magazine photographers and of course yourself.</span></span>


The remainder of the note was congratulating my parents on raising such a nice boy. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img] (It turns out that Lenora actually knows my father as he helped treat her decades ago when she had cancer - how is that for a small world!)

Re: Thank you for a great show (for Rick&Lenora Stein)
 

Steve
It was great to have met them both and thanks for arranging this.

Paul

Re: Thank you for a great show (for Rick&Lenora Stein)
 

I enjoyed seeing this car, the story about the TA hood on the Formula 455SD is interesting, especially since the original owner wanted the Formula hood on the car.

Re: Thank you for a great show (for Rick&Lenora Stein)
 

Yes, Enrico was not amused when the car showed up and two things occurred:

1) No twin scoop Formula hood - this was one of the reasons he ordered a Formula instead of a Trans Am in the first place. He though the shaker was a gimmick and knew the Formula hood actually worked.

2) He ordered them not to &quot;test drive&quot; the car during dealer prep. The car arrived with 5 miles on it. He watched it get unloaded. When he came back a couple hours later to sign the papers, it had 15 miles on it. (note the handwritten &quot;1&quot; next to the typed 5). He was this close to telling them &quot;to stick the car where the sun never shines&quot; (his exact words). But instead he decided to take the car anyway.

https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...-odometer1.jpg

Re: Thank you for a great show (for Rick&Lenora Stein)
 

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: njsteve</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Yes, Enrico was not amused when the car showed up and two things occurred:

1) No twin scoop Formula hood - this was one of the reasons he ordered a Formula instead of a Trans Am in the first place. He though the shaker was a gimmick and knew the Formula hood actually worked.

2) He ordered them not to &quot;test drive&quot; the car during dealer prep. The car arrived with 5 miles on it. He watched it get unloaded. When he came back a couple hours later to sign the papers, it had 15 miles on it. (note the handwritten &quot;1&quot; next to the typed 5). He was this close to telling them &quot;to stick the car where the sun never shines&quot; (his exact words). But instead he decided to take the car anyway.
Wow it's almost like he knew how special this car was/is! Just a great story

https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...-odometer1.jpg



</div></div>

Re: Thank you for a great show (for Rick&Lenora Stein)
 

This once again exemplifies what the MCACN show is all about. Yes...the cars bring us together once a year under one roof, but it is the <span style="font-style: italic">people </span>that make what we do all worthwhile.

I mean seriously, we can go to a car show nearly any day of the week but is there any show that brings out the stories, memories and history that happens at MCACN?

Hat's off to Steve for making this happen and also to Rick and Lenora for joining in and contributing so much to the show. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img] [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/worship.gif[/img]

Bashton

Re: Thank you for a great show (for Rick&Lenora Stein)
 

Cool story &amp; car.Wow is he tall.
Why is there no photos of Rick &amp; his wife sitting in this car @ MCACN?
His knees have to hit the dashboard.

Re: Thank you for a great show (for Rick&Lenora Stein)
 

They both refused to get in due to back and knee problems. The car is way too close to the ground nowadays for them to bend that much (that's what both Rick and Lenora said). Rick said back in the day he fit fine and had no problem driving the car with his height. I'm 5/9&quot; and I have to put the seat all the way back! He must have had his knee out the window when driving. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]