2012 VCOA National Meet

The theme of this year’s meet is “Meet Me in St. Louis”. The St. Louis area Gateway Chapter has secured some great venues and is continuing to refine the activities for the weekend. Registration is available on-line at VCOA.ORG and open to all VCOA members. We’re hoping for a record turn-out this year.

The car show will be held at a St. Louis landmark, Forest Park. It is one of the largest urban parks in the United States. At over 2 square miles, it is nearly twice the size of Central Park in New York City. In 1904, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the greatest of the World’s Fairs, drew more than 19 million visitors from around the world to this location. The park is known as the "Heart of St. Louis" and features a variety of attractions including: the Art Museum, Science Center, Zoo, Jewel Box Greenhouse, History Museum, The Muny Theatre, 7.5-mile biking, jogging and skating path, skating rink and lakes. Many of these attractions are free of charge. The car show itself will be held with the Muny Theatre as a backdrop.

The host hotel is the fabulous Chase Park Plaza (www.chaseparkplaza.com), which is a short distance from the park. The Chase Park Plaza is much more than a hotel; it is a St. Louis treasure. It offers many amenities, including: dining, cinema, fitness facilities, complimentary covered parking and bars. Right out the door is a streetscape right out of the movies, referred to as the “Central West End”. This area has many shops, dining and coffee shops for those seeking more of the rich experiences available in St. Louis. Reservations may be made by contacting The Chase directly at 1-877-587-2427 1-888-420-0768, Monday thru Friday from 8:00AM-8:00PM . Rooms are limited and participants are encouraged to reserve a room early. Be sure to ask for the special VCOA rate.

The banquet will be held in Lindell Ballroom at the Chase Park Plaza with service provided by their attentive staff. Participants will be offered a choice of plated meals. The featured models of this year’s meet will be the 760 and 850 which are celebrating their respective 30 and 20 year launch anniversaries. We are honored to have Lars-Erik Lundin as the keynote speaker at the banquet. Mr. Lundin followed Volvo’s 850 project from 1983 to launch. His duties continued on with AWD, diesel, coupe and convertible, racing etc, as head of Business Development for the area responsible for the 800 car line 1993-95. He also introduced the 850 to the US dealers in Phoenix and Scottsdale in June 1992. Now retired, Lars spends his winters in California, summers in Sweden and will be flying from Sweden to attend the meet. You won’t want to miss his presentation at the Saturday evening banquet.

The car classes have been established and available on the registration. Two new categories have been added for this year’s meet. While all other classes will be People’s Choice, the new classes will be judged.

The first is the "Performance" category. There will be separate classes for rear wheel drive (RWD) and front/all wheel (FWD/AWD) vehicles. Entries in these classes will be evaluated on build quality, creativeness, performance and handling modifications, and overall presentation.

In the second new category are the "Champions" classes. Once again this will have separate classes for RWD and FWD/AWD. Cars that have won first place at either a Regional or National VCOA meet in the past five years will compete in these classes. Others who wish to participate in this category may do so as well. This category will not be concours judging, but based on the quality of the vehicle. Participants in these classes will be advised in advance of the judging criteria.

This year’s meet will provide a splendid venue in a city that has never hosted a national meet. Make your plans now to “Meet Me in St. Louis”.

This year's event is hosted by the Gateway Chapter of St. Louis, MO.
For additional information about the event, visit the Gateway Chapter website at: Gateway Chapter Website or email at: stl_volvos at charter dot net.

Registration fee is $75/Adult, $25/Child 12 & under.