Season Final Meeting 2023

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Our season's final meeting took place from 6th to 8th October 2023. Again this year, Jan from near Northeim invited us to his home. This time the meeting was private - so there was no public exhibition of the vehicles that would have been announced beforehand.
We met with a total of 8 K.I.T.T.s - and a K.A.R.R. replica was also there again.

Friday, 6th October 2023

On Friday we first met at Jan's home for some initial shop talk before setting off for a drive to Hardegsen Castle, where we lined up the vehicles in a nice big row, which always results in a very nice picture.

Afterwards, an excellent schnitzel dinner awaited us - just like last year. We ended the evening at Jan's home again.

Saturday/Sunday, 7th/8th October 2023

Saturday morning began with a hearty breakfast at Jan's home before we set off for Sondershausen in Thuringia, where the first programme item was on the agenda. Here we wanted to visit an adventure mine. Jan had chosen a nice country road for the trip, so that we could drive in a nice convoy with the 9 vehicles...

There was a short stopover at a car wash. Then we continued towards Thuringia...

Shortly before Sondershausen, there was an unscheduled stopover. Basti's K.I.T.T. would not accelerate and stopped. So we all stopped briefly while K.A.R.R. (with appropriate tools in the trunk) set off to help his "cheap assembly line copy". K.I.T.T. would never have dreamed of doing that 40 years ago 😉
Since we had an appointment at the adventure mine, we continued with 8 K.I.T.T.s and K.A.R.R. first. We wanted to take care of Basti's K.I.T.T. afterwards... So we reached the mine just in time.

As visitors to the mine, we were equipped with helmets and blue coats. Then we went by lift almost 700 metres below the earth's surface. Here in the dark, even individual T-shirts begin to glow 😉

Once downstairs, we continued by pickup truck through the corridors. The widely ramified "road network" is altogether about 500 km long and thus roughly corresponds to that of my hometown Erfurt.
Between various historical exhibitions, we learned a lot about the still active salt mining in the mine. There were also stops at a slide and an underground concert hall before we were able to watch a short video about the mine in the festival hall. Afterwards there was a group photo and then we went back upstairs.
The mine was very interesting and entertaining. A clear recommendation! From next year, there will also be boat trips across an underground lake. Unfortunately, there is currently construction work going on.

Back on the surface, we first stopped at a Burger King. The meals there probably took a little longer today, as half the staff were marvelling at the vehicles in the meantime 😜
In the meantime, Basti's K.I.T.T. could also be "repaired". In fact, the suspicion that it might just be out of fuel proved to be true. Unfortunately, the fuel gauges of the old vehicles are not very reliable. I also drive more or less "by feel" and always know approximately when it is time to refuel again... This was not the case with Basti this time. But of course it was all the easier to solve the problem, so that his K.I.T.T. was quickly fit again.

The day ended with a visit to the go-kart track in Heilbad Heiligenstadt. Here, some of us did a few more laps while the others waited outside by the vehicles. I used the time to stream live from the meeting on Instagram this time (watch video)

Afterwards we went back to Jan's home, where we ended the evening with delicious food from the grill and nice conversations.
On Sunday morning, we had a hearty breakfast before most of the participants started their journey home.

The meeting was once again very nice. The organisation by Jan and Julia was excellent as always! Many thanks for that - we will be happy to come again 🙂