The legendary CERV-1 created by Zora Arkus Duntov is selected for the Bloomington Gold Great Hall honoring the most influential cars and people in Corvette history.
Matick Chevrolet Well Represented at Corvette Corral at Grand Prix
These seventeen Corvettes with Matick Logos paraded to the Detroit Grand Prix, and then lined up together in the Corvette Corral. Frankly, it was pretty impressive!
The most cars I saw in the Corvette Corral at one time was 65, but I’m sure that with the comings and goings throughout the day, there were surely more than a hundred cars that came. The Camaro Corral was also pretty well attended, but not like the Corvettes.
George Matick Chevrolet Celebrates Sponsoring #46 Corvette at Belle Isle Detroit Grand Prix
Day 2 of the Detroit Grand Prix began for me at my home dealership. We started early with a Panera Bread breakfast tailgate in the showroom, with brief speeches from our General Sales Manager Paul Zimmermann, Team MBR Owner Mike Baughman, Racecar Driver Jeff Nowicki, and George Matick Chevrolet Owner Karl Zimmermann.
Then, a couple dozen of us, including a good number of Matick Corvette owners, paraded off the property onto Schoolcraft Road with an escort by the Redford Police Department. They made sure we had safe entrance onto I-96 as we headed to downtown Detroit to drive by GM World Headquarters and on to Belle Isle, where we parked the seventeen Corvettes in the Corvette Corral.
These photos highlight the dealership activities.
Have a Pizza and Enjoy the View of this 1954 Corvette in Great Falls, Montana
How many 1954 Corvettes can say that they’ve lived their entire life in the same city?
Well, if you go to Howard’s Pizza at the Classic 50s location in Great Falls, Montana, you can see what might be the only one that can make that boast.
It seems that a Great Falls family bought the car new (or maybe a year old) in that city way back in 1955, and the Corvette has been there ever since.
Through the years, Howard’s Pizza owner Tom Heisler – who has a set of 1950s Bel-Airs on display at his restaurant – always was asking the owner if he was interested in selling the Corvette, to which he always replied a firm no!
“I’d ask him if he was ready to sell that car and he’d say ‘No, that’s part of the family. That ain’t going nowhere,’ “Heisler recalled. “I think he had it in his brother’s garage, and his brother sold the house so they had to move the car. One day he called me up and wanted to know if I wanted to buy that car. “He said ‘I know you’ll keep it in Great Falls and take care of it.’ ”
Heisler jumped at the chance and now has the rare car – it’s one of only 3,640 ’54 models ever made – on display inside his pizza parlor for his customers to enjoy. He says people frequently want to pop the hood and then ask him if it is for sale. Though he could probably get anywhere from $65,000 to $140,000, based on sales of other such cars, he is inclined to leave it right where it is for now.
He says the Corvette is totally original and has not been restored, though it could use some rechroming of the chrome and some new upholstery, but the Blue Flame engine still runs great.
He does admit to making one change to the car. He removed the gas cap, which is unique to the ’54 model and might one day turn up missing if he left it on the car.
“They only built it the one year for the Corvette,” Heisler said of the gas cap. “People lift that gas cover there, and I don’t know if they’re looking for the gas cap. Some of them might have that information that it’s worth that kind of money and it would’ve probably disappeared a long time ago (if I left it).”
Source:
Great Falls Tribune
Photo Credit: Patrick Douglas
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Annual Whistler House benefit to feature classic car show
In conjunction with its annual Spring Interlude, Whistler House Museum of Art will present a “The Art of the Wheel,” a classic car show featuring autos from 1914 to 2013.
One of a Kind 1954 Corvette Woody Roadster Pickup
Every Corvette has its story! Any time I visit any kind of an event that draws Corvettes, I discover another amazing story. Yesterday at the Detroit Grand Prix, I met George Prentice, retired from the General Motors Design Staff, and as hard a hardcore Corvette fan as they come! George had parked his Corvette in the Corvette Corral, and I passed it as I arrived.
At that point in the morning, it was the only Corvette here that was not a C6. It was also the only Corvette here that was covered with a tarp. I was to soon find out why. When the rain gave us a brief reprieve, I went over to look at his car more closely.
It was then that I saw the significant design change. You’re looking at this picture, and saying, how could I have missed this modification? I had only seen the front, upon arrival. Years ago, George had the idea to remove the decklid and create an insert fabricated from mahogany, that would transform his car from roadster to woody roadster pickup. As a designer, he had the vision, the plan, and the friends to make it all happen. The transformation was completed in February 1994, and it showed in Detroit’s Autorama shortly thereafter.
The insert weighs less than 100 lbs, and is bolted to the spare tire cover. The wood is covered with polyurethane, and is waxed periodically. This car is no trailer queen, as George has averaged 750 miles per year over the 42 years he has owned it. In addition, the first owner drove some 59,000 miles on it. Total mileage is about 91,000 now. CorvetteBlog salutes the ingenuity and vision of George Prentice, a Corvette enthusiast’s enthusiast!
Book Review: ‘Engines of Change’
ENGINES OF CHANGE: A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN DREAM IN FIFTEEN CARS By Paul Ingrassia Simon & Schuster, $30 395 pages “A handful of cars in American history defined large swaths of American culture,” writesPaul Ingrassia , Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and former Detroit bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal , and “helped to shape their era, … (more)
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NCRS Judging Meet
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