December 2008 LXOM: Go Mango

[TehKing]

Well, well well... let me start by thanking everyone that has voted for me over these long LONG loooooooong months. Every one of my supporters can now get back to enjoying their own lives and not worry about making me LXOM.

Who'd da thunk it...the son of a poor Scottish Haggis Rancher, gets kidnapped by Viking pirates and sold into slavery in Canada, makes it as LXOM for December 2008.

Just looking at the previous winners, I feel out of place.

I won't even start to try to name any of those that continually nominated and voted for me. There were so many well wishes sent to me during the 6 month effort. Thank you one and all.

A little history on myself:

I left Scotland back in 1973 and headed to Nova Scotia to build oil rigs for the North Sea. In '79 I headed to Ontario and sold cars for....guess who...Chrysler. Then in 1986, while I was laid off from work, I get a call from a friend, whose car had broken down, asking me if I'd drive him to Canada's Wonderland (Disney Land North) as AMC were handing out applications for their new plant in Bramalea. We drove up to Wonderland, along with the other 10's of thousands. I got hired and my friend didn’t get one interview. Shows how stupid they were even back then, eh?

Then years later, when Chrysler decided to go ahead and build the LX model line, I was chosen to be one of the few that would be sent to work in Auburn Hills (AH) for a 2 year stint. This was an amazing time. I worked on the interior fits of the 300 and Magnum, trying to get the vendors to tighten up gaps, smooth out overlaps and 1,000's of other issues I had. I fell in love with the "mafia look" 300, and its low-profile windows.

Just after the launch of those two cars I started spending more time back in Brampton. A month or so later I got a call from an engineer in AH asking if I was heading back there soon. He also wanted to know if I had bought my 300 yet. I wasn't interested in heading back to AH at that time until Vic told me they were about to start on the Chargers and then he said, "Rab, don't buy the anything until you see the Charger".

I headed there the next week and he was right, it HAD to be a Charger for me. Then......arggg I see the Daytona and my mind was made up, it HAD to be a Go Mango Daytona. Lindsey, TB#11 and I set up a website to show off our cars and she then told me about LXForums.com and boy was I glad she did. Lindsey would tell me, and anyone that would listen that I was the best ambassador for these cars as I spent every day telling how great these cars were, and I still do.
My time at LXForums.com has been a wonderful experience, having been lucky enough to meet the likes of Kevin (Stage 3 R/T) in Hawaii, along with a few others.

On our return trip from Hawaii in 2007, we stopped off in LA for 2 nights and I fell in love all over again, what a place. Back home, I asked my wife if she'd like to drive to LA in the summer..."NO!!!!!!!!!!" was her immediate answer. I don't know why I said it but, I just threw in "Well I was thinking of doing Route 66 to LA" and as I finished the sentence she says " OH YES!". I had no idea how she had wanted to drive Rte 66 for many years. We had a Magnum from BAP join us on the journey.

We had many many great stops en route, but one highlight was meeting so many great LX'ers at Beach Burger in Huntington Beach, again, too many awesome people to try to remember them all. Tom must be mentioned as he worked thru the forums to keep me informed about the meeting. Jina's Embroidery....what more can I say?? I wanted to buy a SoCal shirt and when I arrived at Beach Burger, there was Jina with a SoCal golf shirt as a GIFT to me, with my name on it, in Go ManGo lettering. SoCal ROCK'S!

This past summer we decided on an Eastern Seaboard road trip, which included the now famous Mt Washington M&G@6000feet. What a wonderful M&G that was, thanks Bill, Dave, Gary and Tom and everyone else involved.

After which my wife and I drove down to Savannah, all along the coastline.

September 2008 will be a month I'll never forget. A Brampton PT Cruiser enthusiast, got me involved in the local Cruisinforacure event, (GET TESTED!) to raise money to fight prostate cancer. Later in the month I headed back to New England and drove in their fund raising event too. What a blast...100MPH (plus) along the interstate.

I'd be remiss if I didn't thank those that made this honour possible, the Ontario Region members, which include the LOWR and Durham LX Diehards, thank you all.

My contributions to LXForums? Not much in my mind, I have ran a few Car Shows, a few M&G's, but the one thing that makes me rare (not unique) is: I BUILT these sweeeeet rides for you all to enjoy!

I think I've bored everyone enough, but I must repeat my sincerest thank you to everyone here, especially the Adims that do a tireless job only to be harassed by the likes of me. Keep up the good work.

My first car… an illegally bored Mini, 120MPH, almost 50MPG and about a quart of oil every 100 miles or so.

My first car in Canada:

Finally, my pride and joy:

In closing……THANK YOU LXForums.com!!!!!!!!

[bipto]

Woohoo! Congrats Rab!

EDIT: Great write-up & pics, but whose that guy in the pointed collar..?

EDIT #2: And Happy Birthday in ten minutes...

[Junior]

OK, now I can say it:

Great writeup, my friend! Long time coming, and I'm glad that day is here! Enjoy it, bud.

Hope to press palms with you someday soon!

[Carfinish]

Congrats Rab!!! and thanks for building the rides

[HULK]

Nice write-up Rab. Very cool! Congrats once again!



-Pat

[FlyByU]

Congtrats Rab, long time coming.

[ZeGuru]

congratulations!

[Mighty Noid]

Rab...

What a sweet write up!!!

Also it was our honor to have you at Beach Burger that night...

Plus it will be great to see you and the wife again at Spring Festival 09!!!!

[iRock]

No Rab, thank you. You have passed the pleasure you get from these cars to us and I am very grateful. Enjoy your time to shine. I salute you! Congrats

[thewagon]

First off, congratulations on the LXOM nod! It was great meeting you at Beach Burger in SoCal and I hope many future meets.

Loved the writeup and I hope you continue to make many many more LX's.

[Tmagnum]

Well my friend congrats on a well deserved and long overdue acknowledgement!

We are grateful you made the long trip out to California for our little Beach Burger Meet-n-Greet and theres always a spot for you if your ever out again, like Spring Festival of LX's in March for instance.

Contrats Mr. December LXOM

And Happy Birthday

And if I don't get a chance later this month Merry Christmas to you and the Family!

Enjoy Rab!!!

[ChargerChick]

Congrats Rab! I will never be able to thank you for all your help during the wait for my Plum Crazy. I'm truly looking forward to the day I get to give you a great big hug!!!

Oh, and Happy Birthday too!

[05MagnumRT]

Congrats Rab, and thanks for all your effort in our LX's!!

[Jaak]

Congrats Rab!

Thank you for making my car better than it would have been if you hadn't spent so much time on the quality of the interior.

Thank you for the opportunity twice, to do a plant tour and see these fabulous vehicles built (including, we strongly suspect, Hemiwagn's Magnum SRT8 at the end of the line on the first tour in August of 2005. I haven't stopped drooling about that car since that day.)

Thank you for the car meets, as it's one thing to meet the great people here online, but way better to meet them in person.

Thank you for swiping a Challenger and bringing it to a meet so we could all see it for real.

If there's one thing that truly defines an LXOM, it's passion for the LX platform in all it's flavours and sharing that passion with anyone that will listen. You've got it! Congrats, it's well deserved!

[MegTheMog]

That was a nifty writeup...I must say I was quite riveted
Thanks for making my car, It's a relativley early edition and it is still my baby.
Congrats again, guy