On the weekend of May 19-21, 2000, The IsuzuWeb returned to the Carlisle Custom Compact Power Jam in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and the IsuzuWeb dominated the show for Isuzu and Storm owners.
Cool and overcast with intermitent drizzle was the weather for the Power Jam on this, the last year the custom import portion of the show would be held along side the classic import and replicar show. This would be the final year they would mix the younger, rowdier future of hotrodding with the more mature and refined restoration group whose complaints of loud stereos and boisterous youth was forcing the split of the two shows. This would be the last year that the Isuzu crowd would enjoy taking advantage of the classic import vendors who were about the only around with Isuzu and Storm memorabilia and an ample supply of hard to find Isuzu and Storm shop manuals. 2001 would find the Custom Compact Power Jam with its own weekend, and we fully anticipated another NOPI style show.
But first we made the most of the last combination show, and we certainly extracted as much fun and enjoyment from that show as was possible.

IsuzuWeb members attending the show were John Addison with his 1987 Isuzu Impulse RS, Scott Aguilar with his 1991 Lotus Elan SE, Ron and Linda Annas with their son's 1989 Isuzu Impulse Turbo, Bill Luton with his 1991 Isuzu Stylus XS, Brian Novak with his 1991 Geo Storm, Bryan M. Parkhurst with his 1991 Geo Storm, Bessie and her brother Robert Rego with her 1990 Isuzu Impulse XS, Darren Ristich with his 1992 Geo Storm, Jeffrey Robinson with his 1991 Isuzu Impulse XS, Anthony Washington and his 1988 Isuzu I-Mark, and Keith Zimmerman with his 1991 Isuzu Impulse. Several members had registered with the IsuzuWeb but were unable to bring their cars with them, but still attended to be part of the big annual gathering of the IsuzuWeb. Among them were John Vigil who travelled all the way from New Mexico, Nick Kourasis and his family from New Jersey, and Robert Rego, mentioned before, who rode with his Sister from Canada.

Friday afternoon found most of the group meeting at the IsuzuWeb tent after checking in at the show office, to set up tables and chairs and hang the IsuzuWeb banners so our tent was as conspicuous as possible.

After talk and a little time to check out each others cars, we all headed to dinner at Hoss' Steak House and as many of us remembered the fun of go-carting from the previous year, it was decided to expand that activity to both Friday and Saturday evennings, and we commenced go-cart practice. Go-carting will be discussed at greater length later in this story.

On Saturday morning, we all gathered again at the IsuzuWeb tent on the show grounds and began cleaning up the cars for the show. The drizzle was intermitent, so much of the cleaning was curtailed and discussion as well as checking out each other's cars was the primary topic of the day.

Special tahnks go to Brian Novak and also Bryan Parkhurst for organizing the pot luck bar-b-que for both Saturday and Sunday afternoons and for bringing the grille and meat.

Viewing toward the East, from fore ground to back ground, Jeffery Robinson's grey 1991 Isuzu Impulse XS, Bessie Rego's white 1990 Isuzu Impulse XS, an annonamous silver 1989 Isuzu Impulse Turbo, Bill Luton's black 1991 Isuzu Stylus XS, John Addison's white 1987 Isuzu Impulse RS, Ron and Linda Annas' white 1989 Isuzu Impulse Turbo, Keith Zimmerman's white 1991 Isuzu Impulse XS, and the yellow and white striped IsuzuWeb tent in the background.

Viewing from the West, Keith Zimmerman's white 1991 Isuzu Impulse XS, Ron and Linda Annas' white 1989 Isuzu Impulse Turbo, John Addison's white 1987 Isuzu Impulse RS, Bill Luton's black 1991 Isuzu Stylus XS, an annonamous silver 1989 Isuzu Impulse Turbo, and Bessie Rego's white 1990 Isuzu Impulse XS.

A closer view of Keith Zimmerman's white 1991 Isuzu Impulse XS, Ron and Linda Annas' white 1989 Isuzu Impulse Turbo, and John Addison's white 1987 Isuzu Impulse RS.

A closer view of an annonamous silver 1989 Isuzu Impulse Turbo, Bessie Rego's white 1990 Isuzu Impulse XS, and Jeffery Robinson's grey 1991 Isuzu Impulse XS.

Viewing from the West, Darren Ristich's silver 1992 Geo Storm, Bryan Parkhurst's orange and yellow 1991 Geo Storm, and Brian Novak's green 1991 Geo Storm.

As mentioned earlier in this story, by popular demand, go-carting at the Carlisle Fun Center was expanded to both Friday and Saturday nights. The indoor, polished concrete, sprint car oval track was again the favorite of the group because everyone seems to like the idea of saying "hello" to their fellow IsuzuWeb member by laying a bumper or fender into them and spinning them so they are looking at the direction they just came from. "Trading paint" was the order of the day and no one passed up a chance to bump a friend.

Go-cart competition was dominated by Brian Novak, John Vigil, Bryan Parkhurst, and Scott Aguilar. Scott and John schooled us all by example in the finer points of driving. The scoring system was not working on Saturday night so we have no official champion driver for the event, which bothered no one who joined us, as everyone was far too busy grinning widely from ear to ear.

Scott Aguilar in the red Rickey's cart leaves a wake of chaos and mayhem in his wake as he leads the lap.

I believe this is Keith Zimmerman in the blue number 2 cart cutting a wide line and about to be crowded by Brian Novak in the black cart.

Sunday is always a more relaxed day at Carlisle, as the judging has already been done on Saturday afternoon, and awards and pictures are the only things scheduled.

We assembled the cars back onto the show field and shot several pictures before posing the cars for a group photo.

From left to right, Bryan Parkhurst's orange and yellow 1991 Geo Storm, Brian Novak's green 1991 Geo Storm, Scott Aguilar's blue 1991 Lotus Elan SE, and Bessie Rego's white 1990 Isuzu Impulse XS.

FFFore ground to back ground, Bessie Rego's white 1990 Isuzu Impulse XS, Scott Aguilar's blue 1991 Lotus Elan SE, Brian Novak's green 1991 Geo Storm, Bryan Parkhurst's orange and yellow 1991 Geo Storm, Keith Zimmerman's white 1991 Isuzu Impulse XS, and Bill Luton's black 1991 Isuzu Stylus XS.

IsuzuWeb members standing in front of the row of cars.

From right to left, across the back row: Keith Zimmerman, Bryan Parkhurst, Bessie Rego, Brian Rego, Bill Luton, John Vigil, and Mrs. Kourasis. Across the front row: Nick Kourasis, Brian Novak, Scott Aguilar, and the youngest Kourasis seated in the stroller.

The IsuzuWeb did extremely well when the awards were announced, our members receiving six of twelve trophies we were eligable to receive. This represents more awards than any other single car club received at the show.

On the left, Ron and Linda Annas were awarded second place in the Asian Stock All Years class for their son's 1989 Isuzu Impulse Turbo. This was quite a treat for the Annas family, as they had entered their son's car mostly to get pictures of the car at the snow to mail to their son, in military basic training overseas.

On the right, John E. Addison was awarded third place in the Asian Stock All Years class for his 1987 Isuzu Impulse RS. John's Impulse remains probably the best example of a RWD RS in the country. Spotless.

Darren Ristich was awarded third place in the Asian Isuzu Impulse/Storm Mild class for his 1992 Geo Storm. Darren's Storm is a very good example of what can be done with very clean modifications and following a consistent theme in modification decisions.

Bill Luton was awarded first place in the Asian Isuzu Stylus/I-Mark class for his 1991 Isuzu Stylus XS.

Anthony Washington was awarded second place in the Asian Isuzu Stylus/I-Mark class for his Isuzu I-Mark. Anthony left the show early and we were unable to get a picture of his I-Mark.

Scott Aguilar was awarded first place in the Other Exotic All class for his 1991 Lotus Elan M100 SE. Notice John Vigil looks on as one of our Canadian friends does a double take looking at the Elan. This was typical the entire weekend, as just about every FWD performance enthusiast at the show came over to look at the Isuzu powered exotic and ask Scott hundreds of questions about the car. Some of the more colorful crowd watching could be seen whenever Scott openned the hood of his Elan and the crowd would walk back and forth between the Elan and one of the Isuzu or Storm cars, so they could see the engines are the same.

Mrs. Kourasis and the younger Kourasis attend to the youngest Kourasis who appears to have a very healthy pair of lungs. The Kourasis Family receive our honorary family spirit award, attending the show even though Nick's I-Mark was not ready to go to the show, through from teh look of the tail pipe of the family Audi, Nick isn't going to let any car owned by the family stay in stock form very long.

Bryan Parkhurst's 1991 Storm was certainly deserving of an award for paint, bright, bright paint. It was hard to miss the orange to yellow fade of this car, a real head turner.

Brian Novak might not have preferred this view, but one of the most subtle touches of his green 1991 Storm is the unique and surprising symbiosis of a rear spoiler from a sixties muscle car Ford Mustang on his rear deck lid. It has the height and span of a conventional touring style spoiler with the curved form that matches the Storm body extremely well. Brian's car also features very subtle paint work on the hood and front fenders which just was not easily seen under the overcast skys at Carlisle.

Jeffery Robinson brought his grey 1991 Isuzu Impulse XS out for the show even though he was halfway through fabricating a unique front bumper fascia on it. He was in the process of grafting the lower portion of an original equipment Dodge Neon front bumper onto his Impulse. It definately sets Jeffery's Impulse apart from the rest of the crowd, and even in an unfinished condition, it still made for some very lively discussion among the club members.

Every year, the Carlisle show gets better and better for the IsuzuWeb and our members go home from the show recharged and renewed, inspired by new ideas they have seen in their fellow members cars and by their discussions and conversations with their fellow enthusiasts. A lot of work goes into this show by everyone who attends, but the return on that time and effort invested is easily ten fold which can be seen in the eyes of every member attending the show. If you haven't attended Carlisle with the IsuzuWeb, make sure you don't miss next year, and if you have already, please join us again.