July 2007 LXOM: ChargerGirl

**DMAG** · 07-01-2007, 05:55 PM

written by Chargergirl

Wow, LXOM! I want to start off by saying thanks to the kind and enthusiastic forum members who went out of their way to get me nominated and who voted for me when they had four other options. It means A LOT! You didn’t have to, but you did.

Two years ago, there’s no way I would have imagined I’d have a Charger SRT or that I’d have so many wonderful friends in a car community like LXForums.

LXForums reminds me of diabetic camp when I was a kid, it was one place I could go and be myself and everyone understood what I was talking about. Here at LXForums, you don’t have to explain why you carry things like racing helmets and detailing spray in your trunk.

Now about me. I was born in Tuscaloosa, AL, to a homemaker/seamstress and a librarian. My dad brought me home from the hospital in a light blue late 50s Windsor Deluxe that my mom still talks about. Whenever I couldn’t sleep at night, they would drive me around the block in it a few times and I would be out like a light.

After my folks split up and my father passed away, my mom was driving back and forth between Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina non-stop, so I saw a lot of freeways before I even started school. We ended up settling north of Nashville, TN where Mom met and married again, had my little brother and eventually moved over the border into Kentucky. During this time I remember watching a lot of shows about cars or that had signature cars. Dukes of Hazzard and Knight Rider were two of my favorites. I remember always being jealous that my brother got the matchbox cars and I got the “stupid girly stuff”. To this day I have a hard time working my way around a curling iron.

In the past 12 years since high school, I’ve tried three different schools, had three jobs, two husbands (second’s a keeper), moved from Kentucky to Memphis to Northern California, logged no telling how many miles, and bought, traded or sold five cars, each better than the one before. My first Mopar was a black ’99 Durango with a 5.2L, named Betty. After the Durango I picked up a Silver ’00 Dakota (V6) named Duke, which was just as awesome as Betty. I sold them both to my mom when I got the SRT and I still miss them. They were the first vehicles I really did enjoy driving. Betty survived three years of hellacious traffic and weather (snow, sleet, rain, tornadoes) in Memphis and I still grin when I think about how Duke would smoke the tires if you didn’t pause between the brake and the accelerator.

11/2/05, I had a fender bender with a seemingly suicidal 88 year old man in a Mercedes station wagon. I guess he figured he could make it across five lanes of oncoming traffic. Unfortunately, I was traffic. Luckily I reacted in time and only caused relatively minor damage to each of our cars. It meant the Durango was in the shop for a week and a half, so I thought what the heck, I want to check out the new Charger.

Admittedly, I had been skeptical when I first got the email earlier in the year from Dodge about the “New Dodge Charger”, but when I first saw that promotional photo of a black SRT drifting, I was definitely interested. So, 11/8, I go with my boyfriend at the time (now my hubby) to test drive a Charger. They didn’t have any SRTs, so I ended up driving an RT instead. I was very surprised at the power and handling, but at this point I was in a state of mind that I HAD to have the SRT and nothing else would do. If the RT was this awesome, and there was something better, I had to have it. The sales manager said there was a black SRT on a truck with no set destination, so I put down a deposit. They said it’d be TWO weeks before it’d arrive, so I went home to wait it out anxiously. One week later on the 15th they call me up at work to tell me it had just arrived. This was 10 am and I wasn’t going to get down there until 7 pm. Argh!!! I was so giddy and hyper, my boss actually sent me home early.

At the dealer they had her all cleaned up for me and I got to test drive her. I will never forget that first time when I floored it out and the hit the brakes and sat there cussing for a good five-ten minutes. I’d NEVER driven anything like this before and I LIKED it! So we got back to the dealer, filled out the paper work and eventually drove her home. Marc followed me in his Lexus and a couple of times I almost lost him. I didn’t realize that the speedometer had numbers for every 20 miles and not every 10. Whoops! Over the next week, I start browsing online for more info on the car. This is how I found LXforums. In February I went to my first cruise (JellyBelly Cruise with Wildstyle) and for the first time met other LXers in person, including MagnumDude, XXL Hemi, and NYT. I was hooked!

Then the news came out about the big Spring Fling event in Irvine in March. I HAD to go. At this point, Marc thought this was a phase I think.

Down in Irvine I met what would be my fellow NorCallX club members, HEMMISSEY, Elton, jlewis300, MRG, and daddy’sbabybentley. Elton, jlewis, daddy’s, and I all drove back together on Sunday and had WAY too much fun on the Grapevine and I-5.

I went to my first Mods Face Off in May and ran my car on the dragstrip. Sure, I did 14s, but man was it fun!

Soon after was 17 mile drive, where I realized I HAD to have Zoomers.

I went to more carshows and events through out the summer and all this culminated in my leading four other SRTs to Barstow for the SEMA caravan in October.

In one week, Marc and I met Ralph Gilles, got married, and took what seemed like a 1000 pics of all the cool stuff at SEMA.

The rest is pretty much history, five track events, 1000s of pictures, nearly 100 videos and many threads, posts, M&Gs and new friends since, I get LXOM. Somewhere along the way I decided that as much fun as I was having at these events, I had to make sure other people knew about it too. That’s why I post so much and go to so many events and promote as many as I can. As fun as it having and driving my LX, its nothing when compared the joy of being around other like-minded folks and checking out what they’ve done with their cars, listening to their stories and cruising with them.

Some of my fondest memories are of my first M&G in Sacramento in May of last year, and taking the corkscrew at Laguna Seca 12 times back in December or going out to Phoenix to check out the Pavillions and the Rumble in the Desert. I’ve seen and done some things, I’d never have imagined just a short time ago and I’m so glad. I’m going to continue to try and share these experiences and to encourage everyone to get out and see for themselves how great this community is.

So once again, thank you and I look forward to more meet and greets and meeting more LXers and being around the ones I already know.

-Tamara

**Darthvader** · 07-01-2007, 06:02 PM

Congrates. Well deserved win and the outstanding write up we have all been waiting for....perfect job Tamara....you ROCK.

**ChargerGirl** · 07-01-2007, 06:13 PM

Thank you, Frank!

I also want to thank the members of GALXC for welcoming me to their fine club, as well as the Chat Room Mafia for keeping me in stitches on a nightly basis, to CoolVanilla for putting together those great Mod Face Offs where I learned so much, to Hammer Motorsports, Zoomers, and 402 Motoring for the fine products for my car, to all the great folks in SoCalLX and SoCal who I've had the occasion to spend some time with, to the members of what is now Arizona LX, y'all are a great bunch!, to the Pacific Northwest LXers, I haven't been up to visit yet, but I'm happy to have shared two great convoy experiences with you!, to Ozzie for dragging me to my first Track Event, to 1BAD4DR and all my other adopted SRT brothers, to all of my fellow NorCalLXers for all the support and commaraderie (sp?) and most of all, my loving and patient husband Marc who's followed me along on this crazy ride. Thank you!!!!

**Jaak** · 07-01-2007, 06:16 PM

Congrats Tamara! A great write up and fun read! OK, scary in one part, but it's the journey that makes this all so fun... Keep doing what you do!

**RobAGD** · 07-01-2007, 06:17 PM

Congrats T

It's been a fun election month

Enjoy and I can't wait for Shindig !

-R

**ChargerChick** · 07-01-2007, 06:18 PM

Congrats Tamara! Great write up and great pics!

**GA-Mike** · 07-01-2007, 06:20 PM

Congrats from the GALXC

**gossame1** · 07-01-2007, 06:20 PM

Congratulations on LXOM this month, Tamara!

Sincerely yours,

Brian T. Carotenuto

**fnkychkn** · 07-01-2007, 06:36 PM

definitely rat time!

great write-up and a most well deserved honour.
enjoy your reign, Tamara. you've earned it.

**hawkxp** · 07-01-2007, 06:40 PM

Alright!!! Finally.. someone I voted for winning

**TWIST3D BLACK MAG** · 07-01-2007, 06:41 PM

On behalf of the GALXC..........Congrats !!!!!!

**CoolVanilla** · 07-01-2007, 06:43 PM

Grats T!!! So glad you found our little bend in the internet tubes. We're all better for your company, and NorCalLX is what it is because of you (and all the other guys too

)

Gratz again!