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“BETTER
THAT THAN WOMEN, DON'T YOU THINK?”
Richard S. Gabrielle
and Baby P
It was nothing
special, really. Just a question posed about handling. He wanted to improve it for his trips to Lime Rock.
Simple question really, just like those we post
and answer everyday.
Here it is, the
last we heard:
Has
anyone installed the Neuspeed 25mm or 28mm rear sway
bar? If so, why did you choose the one you installed?
Did you also install a front sway bar? If not, any
problems with the rear, ie., oversteer?
Any
problems with the install? Any mods required to the
sway bar to get it to fit properly?
Tx,
007
Sunday, August 16th,
2001.
Who knew that was
the last we would here from Rich?
I couldn't really tell you much about "Baby
P". Not
the questions we want to know, anyway, not at first. He ran APR, though, with a K&N drop in, and added
a boost gauge to make sure the boost was where he
wanted it. He
flew through the gears with a
Motorwerks Short Shifter.
We know that stock suspension
doesn't cut it, performance wise - so "Baby
P" hugged the ground with
Eibach springs and
Koni dampers, and he shod his Borbet
E's with 225-50-16's.
We'll never know how well that sway bar
would've helped.
"Baby P" was a 1999 sedan, in lustrous Black
Magic. This
last, alone, shows that Rich had
discerning taste, as we all know that Black Magic is
the choice of the true B5
aficionado. Tinted? Oh yeah - Black Magic just doesn't
look right with out it.
So on went the 35% Madico.
The final touch was a badge - 1.8T emblazoned on the
"Baby P's" rear end.
We woke up on 9/11/01, and events over took us.
We put out the call:
Was anybody who lived in New York taken?
To our relief, so short lived, we thought all
our New Yorker’s were safe.
Richard P. Gabrielle worked for Aon Corporation, as an
insurance broker, in their offices located on the 103rd
Floor of the World Trade Center, Tower 2.
He was at work on Tuesday, September 11th,
when the first plane hit.
Trying to get to the ground, Rich made it to
the 78th floor, where they and his
co-workers had to leave the stairwell and enter the
Sky Lobby. Apparently
the stairwells don't continue all the way down.
While
there, the second plane hit. Rich and others sustained injuries as a result
of the blast and couldn't continue the rest of the way
down.
Rich stayed at Ground Zero.
We didn’t think to ask, is
every one who worked in New York safe?
Rich lived in West Haven, Connecticut, after
all. Who
knew he worked in New York City?
Our anger simmered, our
collective rage increased, and we didn’t notice that
bond007goldfinger wasn’t posting anymore.
Nothing remarkable, that.
Members come and go all the time.
Some lose interest, some have to hide their
wallets if they stay, some mainly lurk, and others
come into responsibilities which preclude playing
around on the net.
And he was from Connecticut, not
New York. Nothing
to worry about, right?
The Old Gray Lady, though, kept
telling us who was taken.
On October 14, 2001, Rich’s name appeared.
One of us caught it, and soon we all knew...
-----------------------
Richard S. Gabrielle
Taking Baby for
a Drive
He called it
his "Baby P," a 1999 black Volkswagen Passat.
It was kept in a garage in West Haven, Conn., and
brought out only when the weather was fine – or when
it was time for Richard Gabrielle's racing lessons.
Mr. Gabrielle's
wife, Monica, who was not allowed to drive the Passat,
said she had little doubt that her husband's fairly
recent passion for driving a souped-up little car
around a racetrack at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville,
Conn., was the result of a midlife crisis.
Mr. Gabrielle,
a 50-year-old insurance broker at the Aon Corporation,
was an extraordinarily gentle man in most ways. Even
moths, when they got in the house, would be carefully
ushered out, uninjured. But he would also never tell
his wife how fast he went during his driving lessons,
and he recently bought a radar detector, so that he
could, as he put it, "practice" on the
highways.
"He'd tell
me, 'Better that than women, don't you think?'"
she said.
-----------------------
Here is a link to that article: Richard
S. Gabrielle
We, collectively, were touched
by the evil of the day, however remotely.
We spread the news, though sadly late, of
Rich’s passing.
I posted on Vortex; Kenny Payne and PhatB5
here. We
wanted everyone to know.
We raged or cried, as the vagaries of our
emotions took over.
But we felt his passing.
Somehow, our expressions of
grief and outrage, reached the virtual eyes and ears
of Rich’s family. I don’t know why she chose to
contact me, nor will I ever ask.
But shortly after we erupted with the belated
news of Rich’s passing, his wife, Monica, contacted
me via e-mail.
Her words stay
with me, and I chose to share:
"We
are fine. Every
day is a moment at a time.
The hysteria has passed and we
are now deeply sad.
At times it is still hard to believe what has
happened.
I was unfortunate enough to have seen the first
plane overhead not
knowing where it was headed within the next 2 minutes
and televisions at work
to stand in horror and watch everything unfold in real
time. Even
with that, it felt
surreal. It
will be a long time, if ever, that we, the "victims'
families" will be able to truly comprehend what
has happened. There will
always be reminders. September 11th will go into history books. Those
lost and we, the families, will be forever labeled.
Who among us ever thought
we'd be a part of something so very evil?
Nicole and I went to
"Ground Zero".
I just had to see it.
Standing there looking
at the rubble you felt two things.
First you notice the complete and
utter destruction.
It was unimaginable.
Almost 3 weeks after the attack
and the rubble was still huge.
The second thing you feel is the evil
that did this.
And you know, you just know ... anyone who was
left in those buildings
will never be found. There were no pockets, there were no survivors.
All just gone ... buildings and people.
However, there in the midst of the rubble, in the
midst of the evil, were the
good sifting through it looking for anything they
could recover. Out
of this MUST come
something wonderful.
The compassion and humanity that has
been shown is the good.
I truly believe that is the lesson here. We must be kind and loving to
our fellow man. We,
as people, must overcome the evil in
this world. I
truly hope that this outpouring continues long into
the future.
I know
that HE is honored and touched by your kind
words. Kindness
begets kindness."
-----------------------
His passion was the same as
ours, and through that we knew him.
His passion was the same as mine, and through
that I knew a part of him – though we never met,
never spoke directly.
But it brought the loss home, to each of us.
We did not suffer the horror and
pain of loosing a husband, wife, child, or relative.
We only endure the pain that someone we knew is
gone. One
of us – could have been me, could have been you –
was there, stuck at Ground Zero.
He
is survived by his wife, Monica, and his daughter,
Nicole.
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