
If you missed out on the 2005 XKs Unlimited Open House X-perience, you missed a great time.
We wish to thank all who attended the 2005 XKs Unlimited Open House X-perience.
As in the past 17 years, the weekend began with a casual evening's stroll through the scenic downtown district of San Luis Obispo. Thursday night means it's time for the weekly Farmer's Market where you'll find great food, street vendors and lots of local produce. This is always a nice night out.
Friday, at the shop, XKs Unlimited began the 20% sale period for items in stock. Many customers chose to avoid the potential crush of the Saturday crowd by shopping early.
This year, as most, we awoke to a sunny, clear Saturday morning. As we finished the set-up of tables and chairs and made ready to receive our guests, we knew the day would be a good one.
Over the past few years, more and more of our local neighbors have gathered to join in the Saturday "People's Choice Car Show." This is open to all British makes and ads to the flavor of the day. As the day moves on, lunch is served. For many years XKs Unlimited has called upon the master "Bar-B-Q-ers" at the acclaimed Mo's Smokehouse Bar-B-Q. The pull-apart pork or chicken sandwiches are a cherished tradition.
Saturday evening continues with the costume dinner party. In past years we have had a theme for those interested in "dressing" for dinner; 2005's theme was "A Night at The Movies." As the "stars" gathered on the red carpet, the festivities began. With more than 100 in attendance, there were surprisingly few duplicate costumes. This year XKs Unlimited offered a Grand Prize for the best overall participation and finishing order in three events. XKs will award two airline tickets to London for best combined score in the costume contest, fun-run rallye and concours.
Of the guests entering the costume contest, Oliver Hardy garnered the most votes, congratulations to Les Durgan, from Los Angeles. Unfortunately, Les was not able to attend any of the Sunday events, leaving the competition for the London tickets wide open. Victoria Brooks came in second place for her portrayal of Carmen Mirranda, and she and husband Bill did participate in Sunday's event (more on that later). The evening continued on until the food was all consumed and the DJ could play no more music. A good time was had by all.
Sunday began bright and early, if a little chilly, with 12 teams entered in the rallye. This year the course toured through some of the highs and lows of San Luis Obispo and took about an hour and 28 minutes to run. The winners of the event were David and Kelly Christiansen, from Fallbrook, Calif. In the continuing saga of who might win the tickets to London, the Christiansens chose not to dress for the costume party and did not enter the concours, so their run for the airline tickets would have to rest solely on one event. The rallye had its share of DNFs, but the buzz was that year's route was good and challenging. The wining time was only one minute, twenty seconds off the "master" time. We will be sending David and Kelly their gift certificate.
After all the scoring was done, we found few guests participated in all three areas of competition. Those who did, and scored well, will be rewarded.
On the strength of her second place score in the costume contest, and their 9.989 high score in the concours, Victoria and Bill Brooks have been declared the winners of the Grand Prize airline tickets. Congratulations, Victoria and Bill!
It is our sincere wish that all who attended the 2005 XKs Unlimited Open House X-perience had a great time. For 2006, XKs Unlimited will take a year off; rather than hold our Open House, we will lend our full support to the JCNA Western States event. We will hold our Open House again in 2007.
The Western States 2006 will be July 11-14 in Bend, Oregon. We hope to see you there next summer. Watch the XKS.COM for details and links.
Click here to see all the photos from the XKs 2005 Open House...