*but were afraid it was all true!

Finally, after years in the making, the amazing story is revealed!

The question is: who is the man, the myth, the dude, the legend, the VCO president? It’s time everyone knew. With the club membership growing and with many more of us living hundreds of miles apart across Ontario, it may get harder and harder to spend a little quality time with El Presidente. So, your editor sat down recently with His Rockingness to get the bio - soon to be major motion picture. It’s a great story.

Mr. Nabil Arafat, ESQ. All smiles at the recent Mill St. Brewery party.

SS: How long have you been with the Viper Club of Ontario?

NABIL: Since 1999 and still going strong. I’ve been the President since 2001.

SS: Listen, everyone wants you to be President for life.

NABIL: (laughs) Seriously, I don’t know about for life.

SS: I believe most of us would like to have you as President until you want to step down.

NABIL: Well, it’s definitely an honour serving this club over the years. It has been the best experience of my life. It was the cool thing to do, you know; have cool cars and cool friends and that was my ideal thing… and it started to happen!
I bought the car in 1999, I joined the VCO and then in 2000, I was the webmaster. In 2001, Dave Crane was the President and I became the Vice President.

SS: Did you volunteer or were you elected?

NABIL: Here’s the history: I volunteered to do the website at the beginning. And I guess things caught on with it. People became more aware of the club and began to apply directly on the website. Our President at the time was Johnny Carson –

SS: He was replaced by Jay Leno, no?

NABIL: no no, no…(laughs) John Carson of Ontario! He was doing everything by mail and by the time the mail got to the members, the event was over. So I said that the best way to communicate is with email and having a website: people will become more aware of it. So he said, “Go for it” and I did. It really generated a lot of interest and then I was nominated to be Vice President at a meeting by Dave Crane – as he was to be the next President. I accepted the nomination and was voted in as VP; and in 2002, I became President of the Club.

SS: How many members back then, and today?

NABIL: Back then around 25-28, today: 90!
We have actually grown to a point where it’s really not volunteer work anymore, it’s more. You have to put in time to respond to inquiries, respond to letters, complaints and so on. The good news: I hardly have any complaints. The only real complaint I ever had over the 10 years is one guy and I gave him his money back and that’s fine.

SS: He had real issues with the club?

NABIL: We have a close tie with the VCA in the States. So therefore any screw ups on their side, reflects on us. So he was one of those who fell through the cracks. His application was faxed to my office, I have the date and the paper - and I re-sent them to headquarters. Somehow it just got fumbled over and there was no record of his membership. I mean I felt sorry for the guy so I called headquarters and said, “Hey, here’s the application, here’s the record of it, here’s the letter. (I used to keep a record of all the letters I sent.) And here’s my submission and the Visa card which was charged to this guy.” So they said “We’re really sorry, it’s one of those situations. So we’ll try to make it up to him; we are going to send him a goodie bag.” And they did. A shirt, all kinds of memorabilia and so on. But the guy, I mean he was still complaining saying, “What am I going to do with this? This doesn’t fit me and I don’t like this and I don’t like that and I think I should have my money back. I said okay, by all means and sent his money back. But he was the only one ever…

Nabil, the mild-mannered intellect and scholar would never normally be caught photographed in front of a cheesy show car adorned with scantily clad crumpets. Except once. In Vegas. You know what they say...

SS: What do you like best about being President of the club?

NABIL: The fact that we created, not only a car club, but that we created long lasting friendships. And that’s the part I like best. The car was the means, but the end of the journey is the friendships we have developed with the members that you get to know. The camaraderie in this club is nowhere close to any other club in Canada or The States.
When we get together there is always a lot of laughter. When there is a gang of us, the laughs just go on forever.
When we’re away for a month and there’s no meeting everyone is saying, “Come on, let’s go, let’s have a meeting. Let’s get together!” Yes - it started with a car - we have the bond of a common interest, but this type of community is solid and has become long lasting. Most of the people that I’ve met - I’ve been friends with for almost 10 years.
If you are ever stuck in the US, all you have to do is call a VCA member anywhere and he or she will come out and make sure you get home. This is the beauty of the national club versus the regional club: they are interconnected.

The Early Years

SS: Let me switch gears now. Where were you born and raised?

NABIL: I was born in Jaffa, Palestine and when I was two years, the whole family moved over to Lebanon, back to my Mom’s hometown which is in Southern Lebanon. My grandfather was a sea captain so he brought his ship down and moved us!

SS: Did you grow up there?

NABIL: We stayed in Southern Lebanon for five years. Yeah, I remember Southern Lebanon, I used to walk to school, it was quite the distance. We moved from Southern Lebanon to Northern Lebanon. From there I finished my high school education.

SS: How many languages to you speak?

NABIL: I speak Arabic, English, French. My French isn’t very strong but I can manage it. And I’m studying Spanish now.

SS: Spanish? Now?

NABIL: We’re eventually going to retire on Marguerita Island - we want to converse with the locals. So, we started Spanish classes.

SS: When did you leave Lebanon and how old you were at the time

NABIL: 1964; I was 17. And I came over by myself. I came to go to school.

SS: Not for the climate?

NABIL: (laughs) Hey - it was just to get away from home!! I came to Toronto on September 8th of 1964. I was just a kid getting off the plane. I arrived at midnight. Where was I going to go? The only place I knew was the YMCA. So I waved a cab and the driver said, “Where are you going sir?” and I said, “YMCA” and he said, “Which one?” I said, “Where would you go?” At the time, my English was very limited. Of course, English was the second language, French was the third language, Arabic was first.
So we went to the downtown Y at around 1 o’clock in the morning. I rented a room for $2 a night. I was on a limited budget so I asked them for a job. They said they needed someone to be in the coat room looking after people’s coats so I took it and that was my evening job – yep, at the YMCA. The next morning, I went to register at Ryerson. After the first year, I transferred from Ryerson to University of Waterloo. By then, my English was better and I was able to keep up. I enrolled into some engineering courses at University of Waterloo.

SS: They have strong science department. Was it in chemical engineering?

NABIL: Yes, chemical engineering. The reason I took engineering because there was no language barrier, not at all. Shit - English Lit first year at Ryerson - Shakespeare - I still have nightmares! So at Waterloo It was all mathematics, I could do that. It’s all I knew. And then I graduated.

SS: You were in your 20s at this point?

NABIL: Yes and I graduated in my early 20s. Actually I was asked by the faculty of the university to work on a Master’s diploma. I did not finish, I did about a year and then I got an employment offer from Environment Canada and took it. I stayed with them from 1970 to 1995.

SS: 25 years with the government?

NABIL: Just about. That’s when I got involved with basic research on acid rain. I was one of the early pioneers on acid rain in the 70s. It was fascinating.

SS: I think scientists were just discovering that there was a problem.

NABIL: Yes, they realized there was a problem but the government hadn’t the resources at the time, so they created the Department of the Environment to tackle these issues. Of course, because the Great Lakes are an incredible asset to this country. But with acid rain issues and the environment you have to observe the USA as well, and make sure there is no migration of pollution from one side to the other.

SS: That’s very hard to police. No?

NABIL: So we formed the IJC – the International Joint Commission – to monitor both sides of the border. Then I worked in research. I used to conduct my own research on acid rain migration and the long range transport of pollution. We used to do research in Sudbury and Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec – back then, the two largest polluters. So the immediate remedy was to alleviate the pollution from these areas.

SS: You could smell it!

NABIL: As soon as you’d drive in, hold your nose! And all the rocks were black. That’s because of all the oxidation and the deposition of all the SO2 and NO2 and so on. It killed everything around. Of course at the time, the answer was just to transfer it somewhere else. So they built the tallest, largest stacks in North America. And then they were sending it hundreds and hundreds of miles away. Part of our mandate was to see where this pollution was going and what it’s doing to the lakes, rivers and forests.

SS: Were you finding problems everywhere?

NABIL: Absolutely. There were traces of it, deposits. We used to test plants and mosses because they’d absorb it and we could measure it. Also in lake sediment, we’d take core samples from the bottom of the lake. As far as five metres because each 1 mm represents a year. 3-4 metres, that’s hundreds of years. That goes back before settlers came to Canada. So all we did was subdivide all these cores and do analysis on them to see what kind of pollution there was back then.

SS: What year was this?

NABIL: This was back in the 80s.

SS: What was your life like? Were you married? What was your situation?

NABIL: Yes, of course, I got married. I went on to Quality Control for all the North American Labs – ISO 9000 and 9002 – and all these other measures to keep control of all labs that tested air. So the program I was the manager of for Environment Canada was called LRTAP “Long Range Transport of Atmospheric Pollution”. We used to make composite samples and spike them and give them as a blind sample to each lab to check on their work. So, I had about 40 to 50 labs and we did these studies 3 to 4 times a year and we had to see how they fit in the overall picture with their data. Was it consistent? Was it off the median? So it was kind of regulating them, making sure they were on track.

NABIL: You mentioned that you had some scientific articles published in Science Journals. Can you tell me about that?

NABIL: Most of the studies we did ended up being published in scientific journals after being refereed by an international committee to judge whether they were worthwhile to publish. So once it’s been approved, it gets published in magazines like The Analyst or The Water, Soil and Science Journals. So I have about 7 publications in different journals around the world. Also, internal reports. A lot of internal reports.

SS: Are these articles are still on file?

NABIL: If you just write my name and Google it, something will come up. Not all of it, some of it would. The funny part was, I wanted to print one out a while ago, they wanted to charge me 25 euros for it. I had paid for my own article.

SS: You were living in Toronto when you were working for Environment Canada?

NABIL: We lived in Burlington here. My family started growing and my kids started going to university. I have 7 total. Two step-kids, five of my own and four grandkids. My son is a mechanical engineer, graduated from Queens University. My daughter graduated from McMaster, Social Sciences. My other daughter, the oldest, she’s raising a family. The other two kids, I have one that’s studying in college and the other one is graduating this year from college.

SS: That’s a lot of academics in your family.

NABIL: It seems that way. They’d rather use their heads than their backs!

SS: Didn’t you tell me that your academic ability has led you to an international patent? Now that’s interesting!

NABIL: Yes I’ve received ‘Letters Patent’ for an invention of a device to transport hazardous materials. It’s a very useful technology.

Nabil’s Patent documents for a device he invented to transport hazardous materials. If you think about it real hard, his Vipers are routinely used for the same purpose.

All about the cars!

SS: Your love of cars: What was the first car you ever owned?

NABIL: I had a Morris Minor in Lebanon. I can’t remember what year. We lived on the hill, it was extremely hilly. Climbing up with that car (no synchros!) was no simple task. It was kind of a nightmare. I had to ride up double clutching just like in big trucks. So that was my beginning of my love of using my legs and hands to get the car going at a good pace. I had to learn that trick. It helped later on.

SS: After that?

NABIL: When I came to Canada I almost exchanged my tuition fees (and my future!) for a 1962 convertible Impala.

SS: Did you buy or almost buy it?

NABIL: I almost bought it after I took it out for a test drive. It was the cat’s meow. I picked it up one Friday evening at the dealer on Avenue Road. Hey - I just arrived in Canada and a week later, I’m driving an Impala convertible. I loved looking at the car so the sales guy said, “Here’s the key - take it for a ride”. I was 17 years old... was I going to say no? But I guess I did look older than I was. Anyways, I hopped into the car, drove it for an hour and I got lost - couldn’t find the dealership. Hours later I was still going around trying to figure out how to get back. Finally I saw the sales guy standing by the road waving at me so I pulled in and he said, “Come back tomorrow, it’s 9 o’clock now. I’m closing”. I guess that gave me a chance to reconsider whether I wanted school or car. I guess school won.

SS: What was the first sports car you ever owned?

NABIL: I had a Jaguar XJ6. It was a luxury car. Back in the 70s it was one of the fastest cars on the road. And gorgeous. Then I moved to a 96 Impala SS. It had the LT1 engine. I had this car till recently.

SS: I saw it. Black Darth Chevy!

NABIL: I gave it to my son. I told him to please look after this car. You know how I am, I cherish them. So he said don’t worry dad, I will. So then it’s still in the family. In 99, I got my Viper GTS.

SS: When did you first see the Viper GTS model?

NABIL: The Toronto Auto Show. I went looking for a Corvette (CROWD GOES “BBOOOoooo”). But right by the escalators, there was a gorgeous silver car sitting on a platform on an angle, with these leather seats, shining in your face as you come up the escalators. I looked at it and thought ‘wow!’ this must be European. I was falling in love with all the curves and when I saw it was a Dodge Viper, I said, “This is a Dodge? I don’t believe it.” And then I walked around and checked the price and it was $99,999. I asked Eda, “Can we afford it?” She said “Sorry, we can’t.” But I loved it. That’s the one I wanted. I had no idea what kind of power was in it. Didn’t even know it had 10 cylinders.

SS: You must have known about the original RT/10 program?

NABIL: I saw the original RT/10 before. It looked like a toy at the time. There were very few in Toronto.
So we went to look at the new Corvettes and I said “No way.” I pouted - I told Eda “Either a Viper or I’ll be in bad mood forever.” About a month or two later we talked about it and she said “Yes, go look for it.” I called the manager of our dealer and told her that I saw this car at the auto show, a silver Viper. I really like to buy that car. She said give me a week and let me see what I can find. A week goes by, two weeks, and she called and said she found the car. There is a dealer up in Guelph, and they have it. The owner kept it for himself. And now 2000 is coming up, he’s thinking of parting with it. There are a couple of 100 kms on it. Would you be interested? I said that this one would be fine so she made a deal. The owner brought it down and I went to pick it up. I had to move everything out of the garage to put the Viper in, and build a separate shed for that stuff. It was non-stop work all summer. It was my main summer project. And that’s how I got my first Viper. Now it’s my 10th year and that car is as beautiful as the day I bought it.

SS: When you bought it, was it the first time you ever drove a Viper?

NABIL: Yes. First time I ever drove a Viper, yeah.

SS: What did it feel like?

NABIL: Nobody would allow you to test drive the cars as you know. My son said it looked like you knew what you were doing when you got in. He was the one taking all the pictures.

SS: It must have been pretty exciting though.

NABIL: Absolutely. Everyone stopped to look at us. I just paid $120,000 with tax - whooaaa. Oh yeah. People stopped and waved at Eda. She said jokingly that she had never felt so important in her life till she got into this car! So that was a nice first experience with the Viper. Then at VOI, I realized there was more to this car when I got it on the track with the Skip Thomas crew.

On The New ACR

SS: Compare the 99 GTS to the 2008 ACR. Your impressions, the different feelings, the similarity?

OK. Which one is better looking? The Man or the Beast? And which one is which???

NABIL: It’s totally different. When I go back to my GTS, it’s really 1996 technology. So you can see there’s a gap of over 12 years and there is a lot of new technology.

SS: What I always liked about the Gen2 is its very visceral feel, you feel very connected to it.

NABIL: You got a good point. With the Gen2, the torque starts really early. You can just step on it and you can spin the wheels. The computer on the Gen 4 only allows the power to really come in around 2400-2800 rpm. That’s when you feel the power. So if you are going to be powering the car, you should keep it in 3rd and 4th, especially if you are maneuvering. The rpm goes to 6200, a few hundred higher than previously.

SS: Have you redlined in each gear yet?

NABIL: (Laughing) No, no. Really, I bought the ACR and had no intention of racing or anything like this. I just like the car for it’s availability. It’s a very rare car. The colour is very rare. Also, as you know, once in a awhile, I do go out on the track. This car is faster than 99% of all street legal cars on the track. It will do amazing things. Especially now that I’ve got about 3000 km on it. It’s ready to go for a test drive!!!

SS: Just in time for winter.

NABIL: Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait next summer. We’re planning to go to Calabogie again.

SS: Where do you see yourself in 5 to 10 years? Retired?

NABIL: I will definitely be retiring for the winters in Marguerita as soon as possible - so you guys are all welcome to come down. There are 5 members of our club who bought the same condominiums. I look forward to seeing our members down there. Maybe we’ll hold our general meetings there!

SS: General meeting in Martinique. And Nabil is buying the beer.

NABIL: Margaritas, of course!

SS: You’ll be back here in the summers?

Letter of congratulations from former Prime Minister Jean Chretien to Nabil for more than two decades of public service. (EDITOR’S NOTE: Sorry that the photo is a little fuzzy, but so were Chretien’s years as Prime Minister!)

In Closing...

SS: Any special thoughts for our members?

NABIL: Well, it has been quite a journey for me with this club. I have met some of my closest friends here and it means so much to me. I look forward to having more events and meeting, more friends and to grow the club even more. But we have to keep the size manageable. Who knows, at one point we may have to stop allowing more new members from joining or we’re going to run into difficulties in running the club. Then, if somebody leaves, we can accept someone new. We are all volunteers, and if it gets too big we’d need full time people.

All our members should know that we are in a good position. We have the right officers, we have the right directors and we have the controller of the club. The controller (Pat DiFiore) is a Chartered Accountant by trade, so he keeps us along the straight and narrow. He watches all the bills and makes sure the budget is balanced and he runs things smoothly. Putting that foundation in the first place created confidence and trust in the club. And that is what this club is based on, confidence and trust.

Many of our club members don’t know that Nabil is also an extraordinary artist. These paintings he created a few years ago now hang in his home in Burlington. They should be in a museum. If you’re wondering if the nude portrait is of Eda, the answer is yes. Apparently she agreed to pose nude for Nabil as long as he promised not to buy any more Vipers and, oh yeah, make sure the damn thing never goes up on the internet.

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