#VnRChat – The Agenda for September's Chat

One of the items on Sunday's agenda… Photo by Randy Stern

Who is ready for Sunday's #VnRChat?

Every month, I host a Twitter Chat called #VnRChat. It is essentially a social media-driven interactive space to discuss topics of interest, share news stories, announce motorsports results and share insights on vehicles that were reviewed by V&R. The result has been a loyal core of followers sharing their take on various topics ranging from road trips, the Chinese automotive industry and the automobile in pop culture – amongst a few points of discourse so far.

The chat session will take place on Sunday, September 16 at 8:00PM Eastern Time (7:00PM Central Time). If you wish to participate, you may want to use a good site or software that enables you to follow the hashtag (#VnRChat) to get into the conversation. One such tool is the website TweetChat where it automatically puts the hashtag at the end of your tweet. You must have a Twitter account and handle to participate.

On the Friday before the chat session, I will present a primer of topics that will be discussed on Sunday evening. That way, you can log on and be ready to go with your take on these topics.

For September's #VnRChat, we will be discussing the following…

NEWS: The big item to really discuss is the merger announcement of America’s sports car racing series, American Le Mans Series and the Rolex Grand Am Series, in 2014. It has sparked a lot of discussion regarding what was lost and gained by this merger. Even actor/race car driver/owner Patrick Dempsey tweeted about some of the impacts of the merger based on a recent race after the announcement.

Other news may be gleaned by headlines leading up to Sunday.

MOTORSPORTS: The IZOD IndyCar series will come to a close Sunday with the MAVTV American Real 500 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. Will Power has a slim lead over Ryan Hunter-Reay in the driver’s standings. This race could crown the series champion.

Speaking of the ALMS, Virginia International Raceway will host the second-to-last round of the series with the Tequila Patron VIR 240. Some might say that this could lead the way to the series conclusion at Road Atlanta with the Petit Le Mans. Others may think a few classes have their champions locked up at VIR instead. It promises to be a great race nonetheless.

The Chase is on as NASCAR's Sprint Cup Race heads to Joliet, Illinois on Sunday with the GEICO 400. We might discuss that as well.

REVIEWED VEHICLE SEGMENT: The 2012 Ram 1500 Tradesman and 2013 Ford Taurus will be discussed, as I will field questions about either vehicle.

MAIN TOPIC – "ANTICIPATION": To celebrate the traditional model year switchover, we will explore some of the vehicles set for their fall debut in the next month or so. Amongst the vehicles that would be discussed are the Cadillac ATS, SRT Viper, Ram 1500, Nissan Sentra, Honda Accord, Ford Fusion, Lincoln MKX, Chevrolet Spark and so forth.

We may go into memories of when the new cars came out every September.

To round out the evening, there will be a couple of announcements that will be made. You may want to stick around for those.

That is our agenda for September's #VnRChat. See you Sunday!