I say we BYOF, that way we don't have to worry/watch our cars at a restaurant that we may or may not fit in parking wise.
Peace
Paul

 

yes we can have a picnic byob to
just kiding but parking is gonna be isue that s for shore

 

Rick, I can do 10:15, lets touch base on Sat evening. Anyone else want to come do a preliminary-mini meet?

 

10:15 is great! I'll PM you wth my cell# so we can talk. Please check the pictures I just uploaded today, shot with my new Olympus Digital SLR, WOW!!!
Thanks, Rick

 

I feel the same way about parking lots. I always park as far away from the crowd, in a safe area, too many folks don't care about your car.
Picnic sounds great, there's always a good place to stop along the route.
Rick

 

Here is the most up to date list of attendees:

blackxfire and passenger
nightrider
cross+fire+6
gibsonjunkie
alen
crossfirefun
damsrt-6 and passenger
xfire2005 and passenger
Crossfire Trail and passenger
simajanpa
Pete Accard
xfirenorth and passenger
robby363
BillH
dennisdurand and passenger

 

I assume we are still talking about Saturday, April 26th?

tha's what's on my calendar!

 

Yes, Saturday April 26th is the set date for this Newport Cruise.

 

Parking at BeaverTail really should not be a problem. Parking at Fort Wetheall might be a little tighter. It's not as open, BUT they do have the tables there, and I don't think BeaverTail does.

Peace
Paul

PS: Do we still want to concider the 27th as a rain date?

 

I have been speaking to Tony from TVT_Design regarding ECU tuning.

He is willing to come up to the Newport cruise and do ECU tuning for us while we are there.

If we can get at least 5 XFires for him to tune, he will charge us $315 apiece. If there is less than 5 he will charge $350 apiece.

I will be having mine done and someone else from Long Island is probably going to come along too and have his done too, giving us a total of 2 ECU tunes already.

Please PM me and let me know wether you will take advantage of this great deal so that I can make further arrangements for us..

I do not work for TVT nor do I have any kind of association with TVT other than what I have read here on this forum.

 

This all sounds like a great idea and all, but would it take a long time to do this to the cars? I'm sure Belcourt Mansion won't be to thrilled that we are using their parking lot as a makeshift tune-station.

If it is to be done to the 5 cars, then it should be at the end of the cruise over in Jamestown. Makes sense...yes, no, maybe? That is if we keep sort of to my suggested plan of the days events.
Which of course is not written in stone by any means.

Sorry, just my thoughts again

Peace
Paul

 

I am not quite sure where I said that we should have the tunes done in the parking lot of the mansion.

I was just asking if anyone else would be interested in having this done. I am from Long Island and don't have a clue where anything is up in Newport.

If WE decide to have this done it would be done in a place that makes sense, at a time that makes sense and not to interupt anything scheduled for the get-together.

Paul, maybe you might be the right person to suggest where and when for the tune if it happens.

 

Thats a sunday and OK with me. As for the places considered for a picnic, both should be fine, although as you say, Ft Wetherall has a uniqeness and tables, I think we'll check them out on sunday. You going to come? The more the merrier, as they say! One thing about the Beavertail location is that it's right on the point and very windy in most circumstances. Hate to be repetitive but, we'll check it out this Sunday for shure. Maybe something better may pop up. Rick

 

Just so you know, it's Pete Acciardo. I have no more responses from any of my group but may have a newbie that bought a red one COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO. Don't you just love it? Folks see us driving these beautiful machines or talk to us at car shows and go out and buy one for themselves.

 

I'm new at this. What is an ECU tune? Quicker acceleration? More horsepower? Better gas mileage? Better top end? My XFire currently has 6400 miles on it. Would it be a good candidate for this ECU tune? Would it be a very noticeable $315 tune? Does it take long to do?

Back to the Newport Cruise: The bride and I took a ride to Newport Grand today. We played some poker machines and slots and made the usual donation. We had dinner and I ask our waiter if they served breakfast there. He told me they do not. I also found out that the place opens at 0900 hours on Sundays, but the restaurant doesn't open until 1100.

Now I left there at approximately 1800 hours (6:00 PM), and they had a good crowd in attendance but only about 20% of the parking area was occupied. My estimates on parking spaces unoccupied would be roughly 3000-3500 spaces at that time, if not more. Everyone likes to park near the building or use the valet, so the more distant part of the lot is always vacant. I imagine there are a lot less cars there on Sunday mornings so we could place our XFires pretty much in any configuration for photos with no problems at all.

When you leave the Newport Grand lot and go left on to rte 138W, you would take your left at the sign that says, "Newport, Goat Island", and you would be in the downtown area in under 5 minutes. I think this may be the best place to meet because we will be able to park all our cars together without getting other vehicle between us and it's such a short ride to begin our routes of travel. There are rest rooms inside so that's another plus.

By the way, it was about a 100 round trip for me from home to Newport and back to home. I didn't see a single XFire during my journey. I did see 3 Mini Coopers which are kind of rare, but apparently not as rare as our XFires.

Bob M.

 

Ok, I can answer the ECU question, it's sort of like optomizing your performance. Tweaking it to the limits of what the car can do and it can do a lot. Cupra did mine in house, in Germany, at least that's what my old sax player said. I guess when you play music with someone for a long time you get pretty close. He knew me when I had my Healy. Nuff said there. As for the Grand, the parking lot is as you said but when you exit and take a right and a sharp right again, you are in Newport proper. Not even 5 minutes. I just met another happy owner today, a Red Coupe, said she may join us, her and hubby. Just need to get some more info to her. By the way, Engine Control unit or ECU is a computer also called the ECM or engine control module. It's very efficient as well but when you tromp on it, she gets up and goes, real quick like her panties are on fire.

 

Hello,

The ECU tune tweaks the fuel and igntion tables to provide superior performance gains as well as better gas mileage. Expect about 15 RWHP and 1-2 MPG increase. It takes 30-45 mins per car to be tuned, reset, and up to speed. I'm not familiar with the area so whoever is I would appreciate if an area could be found.

We will also offer Intake installations as well as Sprint Boosters.

Look forward to seeing everyone there!

Anthony
TVT Design

 

That is probably the best way to go if we end up meeting at Newport Grand. I've never taken a right out of the Grand because usually I'm heading back across the bridge to work my way home. Your suggestion is a good one.

Don't think I feel everything should be regimented as far as routes of travel or where we visit. They are merely suggestions which keeps this thread fresh and moving with the hope we will pickup a few more XFire owners to participate. I'm game for most anything.

Bob M

 

I may be interested and I will let you know after I research it a wee bit more. I would like to know a little more about the procedure and learn if there are any disadvantages to having it done. Has anyone had any problems with the change and if you do, what happens from there. Would it behoove a person to have the Sprint Booster installed at the same time? Would just the installation of a Sprint Booster give you a noticeable change without the ECU tune?

I recognize the fact that super tuning your vehicle gets the most performance out of it, but yet again, I'm not doing any type of racing. I just drive the car for pleasure and I don't feel like I need to be in any type of driving competition in my travels. My days of street racing and competitive driving challenges are over. I bought my XFire for pure enjoyment. Am I crazy to even consider the ECU tune and Sprint Booster?

Bob M

 

Sorry didn't mean to come across like an A$$WIPE, I just hope we do have time to get the cars done in a timely fashion, if that indeed takes place.

TVT Tony said it would take about 45 mins per car, so we are talking several hours here we would need to put aside to do the cars, if 5 are to be done at once.
To me that's really going to eat into the days events.

So I just felt the end of the ride in Jamestown would be the best time and place. Fort Wetherall being my choice for that deed due to the area.
Not that we are doing anything wrong or illegal, but Wetherall is a bit more
secluded and private.

Certainly if the "dry-run" team finds a more appropriate spot tomorrow, they are more than welcome to make suggestions too.

As I said way way in the beginning, I may not be able to stay and do all the days events, but I'm going to try like hell.

If I didn't have a previous engagement for later on that day, I would have invited everybody who was going to have the ECU upgrade done over to my house so nobody could say boo about what the Crossfire folks were doing in that there parking lot.
But I'm sure with a little forthought we can make it happen in Jamestown.

Peace
Paul