Which new VPI Turntable?

Macdadtexas, thank you for your recommendation. I will look into it. I happen to be in the south of France once in awhile but my system unfortunately is not :)
Stringreen, I agree that VTA tower is not an absolute neccessity but I find the Classic + my current cartridge rather sensitive to VTA that I kept fidgeting with it quite often and sometimes wish that I have an easily repeatable fine adjustment like a VTA tower. However, my local dealer inform me that while it is a simple $800 upgrade at the factory with initial order, it is not a simple upgrade once I already have the turntable as it is not an add on to the existing arm. So I don't think it is worth the extra cost and hazzle now but just want to mention it to whoever that might want VTA tower and is about to order a new Classic. However, I will get the Valhalla wire to replace the standard wire and that can be done by local dealer easily enough.

so if one were to order the non-modified 10.5i arm with the Classic (i.e., with the VTA on the fly and the Valhala wiring), that's an $800 upcharge or is it $800 for the VTA tower and another upcharge for the Valhala wiring?

Cmalak, I am not sure if Valhalla upgrade is part of the VTA tower upgrade or not. Officially, VPI has not mentioned anything about Valhalla wire for the Classic at all. My local dealer has replaced old 12.5 arm with the new Valhalla wire in the past so they are going to order Valhalla wire for 12.5 arm for me. That way they will have some extra wire to rewire the connection box for me as well. I was told that it is somewhere around $300-400 for 12.5 Valhalla phono wire.

If I want VTA tower, my local dealer suggest that they will have to order new Classic with factory installed 10.5 arm/VTA tower, then they will accept trade in for my old arm for the new arm and sell the new Classic table with old arm at a discount. I will have to cover the upgrade cost plus whatever price difference is between new arm and my used arm. Considering that a fully loaded 10.5i arm itself cost as much as the Classic/10.5i arm, VPI is not making much money on the 10.5i arm for the Classic I supposed (or they make lots of profit on the regular 10.5 arm!).

Anyhow, I wonder if any other VPI dealer can confirm if what my VPI dealer told me is correct?

PS does anyone know the effective mass of the optional (?standard now) stainless steel wand on the 10.5i ?
VPI does not seem to have information available in its manual nor website. Vinylengine site reported JMW 10.5i effective mass at 10.5g with stainless tube surrounding aluminium tube. Is this the correct weight?

According to mike at VPI the stainless steel armwand has an effective mass of 12.3g.