Month: April 2012

Charlie Mallon’s infatuation with Chevrolet – and Corvettes – started 40 years ago, and now his love for the Bowtie brand may just land him in the Guinness Book of World Records.

The Pennsylvania auto dealership consultant has been collecting Chevrolet items of all kinds since he was 14 years old. Now 54, he has so many items in his collection – Chevrolet signs, racing flags, coffee table books, soda cans, hats, belts, shirts, playing cards, drinking glasses, posters, tractor trailers, a biplane, and thousands of miniature cars – that he recently decided to see if he really has amassed more Chevy stuff than anyone else in the world.

Last Wednesday night he laid out 2,181 different Chevrolet items in the gym at Downingtown West High School in Pennsylvania in an attempt to establish a benchmark in what would be a newly created Guinness World Records category for “Largest Collection of Chevrolet Memorabilia.” Most of his collection centers on the Corvette, his favorite Chevy product since he was a youngster.

“I appreciate all cars, but there’s something special about the Corvette,” Mallon said. “It’s the look. It’s the sound. It’s the mystique. Everything about the Corvette makes it the American sports car.”

Mallon displayed thousands of miniature cars, but he’s not just into replicas. He also drives a 2005 Corvette coupe and earlier owned a 1965 Corvette. “Corvettes have always turned my head,” Mallon said.

Of course, it’s not easy to earn a Guinness record. To qualify, he had several witnesses, including a certified public accountant, verify the number of items in his collection and he’ll submit a formal application to Guinness for review. It may take weeks for him to find out if he is a record-setter, but says even if he isn’t, he just appreciates the chance to “validate my insanity to my wife,” he said.

“I guess it’s just a personal challenge,” Mallon said. “It always blows people away when they walk into my basement and see all the items. I’ve been collecting so long that I wondered if I had the most.”

Sources:
DrivingNortheast.com
Photo Credit: Tom Kelly/DailyLocal.com

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Gavin and Milner Score GT Victory on Streets of Long Beach; Magnussen and Garcia Finish Fourth in Battered Corvette

LONG BEACH, Calif., April 14, 2012 – Corvette Racing drivers Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin won a hard-fought battle in the streets of Long Beach today, claiming a GT class victory in the second round of the American Le Mans Series. The pair completed 84 laps on the 1.968-mile temporary circuit in the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R, finishing 4.26 seconds ahead of the runner-up No. 56 BMW. Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen brought their No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R home in fourth place after a first-lap accident left their car battered and bruised.

The win was the first for the Milner/Gavin driver combination, and Milner’s first career ALMS victory. “Finally a win!” exclaimed the 26-year-old racer. “I’ve been racing in the ALMS since 2006, and I’ve had podium finishes and great races. I felt confident that we had a car today that would be competitive and comfortable to drive. We were racing hard, but I kept a gap around me and it worked out well this time. Today the Corvette Racing team had the best combination, and I’m very happy to be part of that.”

Milner started the No. 4 Corvette third on the GT grid after qualifying was canceled due to rain. He avoided a first-lap chain reaction accident that damaged the sister Corvette C6.R, and then set off in pursuit of the class-leading No. 56 BMW. Milner passed for the lead at 24 minutes into the two-hour race, and then surrendered the point to the No. 01 Ferrari before the first and only pit stop. Gavin drove the second stint, moving from third to first with 45 minutes remaining after passing Scott Sharp’s Ferrari and Dirk Mueller’s BMW.

“Tommy did a brilliant job of staying out of trouble at the start, and that was the key to our race,” Gavin said. “If he’d been caught up in all of that, we’d have been struggling. Tommy did all the hard work at the start and he handed the car over to me in perfect condition. The car was spectacular straight off the truck thanks to the work of the Corvette Racing engineering team and crew.

“I managed to get past the Ferrari pretty quickly and caught up to the BMW. Dirk was making it a little difficult, but I got on the inside and squeezed through. After that it was all about looking after the tires. Michelin did a fantastic job and we’re very pleased with the tire performance. I’m delighted to be in the car with Tommy for his first ALMS win.”

Garcia started the No. 3 Corvette C6.R from second on the grid, but had yet to drive a lap at Long Beach on a dry track. When a pair of prototypes tangled on the first lap, the closely following pack of GT cars accordioned. Garcia made contact with the car ahead of him, and was in turn hit by the car behind him. The chain reaction accident left the Corvette with a damaged front fascia, a missing hood, a broken rear wing, and a cracked diffuser. In spite of the altered aerodynamics, Garcia ran second for 12 laps before ceding the position to Milner.

“Everything was a little wild, especially with me not knowing the track very well,” Garcia said. “I don’t know how much losing the hood hurt us, but I was struggling with understeer. The Corvette is a very strong car – that’s a good thing.”

Garcia handed off the battered car to Magnussen under a full-course caution shortly before the halfway point. After challenging the No. 56 BMW for second, Magnussen was passed by the No. 01 Ferrari in the closing minutes.

“The car was a handful, but we hung on to the end,” Magnussen said. “When I got in the car I was as fast as anybody, but I got caught up in a lot traffic. The aero downforce was gone after the first-lap incident – I made the tires last for a long time, but I was fighting hard with the BMW and in the end I didn’t have anything left. If the car hadn’t been damaged, we’d have been in with a good chance for a win.”

The victory was Corvette Racing’s first in the GT category in Long Beach, and its fourth since the team moved from the GT1 class in 2009.

“We felt very good about our baseline setup going into this event,” said Doug Louth, Corvette Racing engineering director. “We didn’t make any significant changes all weekend. The car engineers, Chuck Houghton and Kyle Millay, made major gains with our street course package at Baltimore last year, and today’s result was a continuation of that success.

“Track conditions were a challenge early in the race with only one day of running,” Louth noted. “The Long Beach circuit historically changes over the course of the weekend and tire performance and wear improve. After the track came in, we were good to go – our Michelin tires did the trick. All four drivers were exceptional today – especially Antonio, who had never turned a lap here in the dry until the first lap of the race.”

“Today’s race underscores just how good the engineering team and crew are at Corvette Racing,” said Doug Fehan, Corvette Racing program manager. “We had absolutely zero track time in the dry, yet both cars moved immediately to the front. That is a testament to the quality of this team.”

Corvette Racing’s next race is the six-hour American Le Mans Monterey at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on Saturday, May 12.

American Le Mans Series at Long Beach GT Results (Top 10)
Pos./Car No./Drivers/Car/Laps

1. 4 Gavin/Milner, Corvette C6.R, 84
2. 56 Mueller/Hand, BMW E92 M3, 84
3. 01 Sharp/van Overbeek, Ferrari 458 Italia, 84
4. 3 Magnussen/Garcia, Corvette C6.R, 84
5. 007 Fernandez/Turner, Aston Martin Vantage 83
6. 17 Henzler/Sellers, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 83
7. 45 Bergmeister/Long, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 83
8. 48 Miller/Maassen, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 83
9. 44 Neiman/Holzer, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 81
10. 02 Brown/Cosmo, Ferrari F458 Italia, 80

Source:
Corvette Racing
Photo Credit: ALMS

Related:
Corvette Racing’s C6.Rs to Start Second and Third on Streets of Long Beach
Corvette Racing: Links for ALMS at Long Beach
Corvette Racing at Long Beach: Racin’ in the Streets
[VIDEO] Corvette Racing Tech Transfer: 60 Years of Corvette
Corvette Racing Finishes Second and Third in ALMS GT in Sebring

 

Article Contributed by the Corvette Forum

TX2k12 was, apparently, the most fun you could have in a car this side of the mason-dixon line. While the focus of most of the action was on drag racing and other shenanigans, the road course was busy too.

This video puts you behind the wheel of a C6 Z06 as it tears after a GT-R around Motorsports Ranch in Texas, complete with telemetry. It’s a little like watching a video game that happens to be running in reality. Check it out.

Discuss this video with others on the Corvette Forum

Source:
Corvette Forum

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It’s not every day that you see more than 100 shiny Corvettes in one place.

It’s even more unusual when those Corvettes are gathered on Flagstaff Hill in Wollongong, the third largest city in the state of New South Wales, Australia!

But that was the case last weekend when dozens of Corvettes were lined up for the 24th annual National Corvette Convention, showcasing nearly 60 years worth of the cars over a two-day period, according to a story by Shannon Tonkin reporting in the Illawarra Mercury, the only daily newspaper in Wollongong.

“To get them together – so many cars like this – it doesn’t happen often,” New South Wales Corvette Club President Gary Nelson said.

The cars are worth between $8 million and $10 million, Nelson estimated.

“It’s a wild guess, but when you look at the cost of the cars and all the money that’s gone into restoring some of the earlier ones, the bill definitely adds up,” he said.

The hours of preparation also add up quickly, according to Nelson. “Some guys have had their cars in garages preparing them for weeks,” he said. “Some of these cars would have four or five coats of polish on them – at two hours per coat.”

Of course, such attention to detail is vital since judges meticulously pored over the cars both inside and outside, and even “under the bonnet,” as they say down under.

But no matter where they gather, Corvette owners around the world just plain enjoy talking to each other, with social events taking up Friday and Saturday events in Wollongong.

The drivers even made time for a leisurely drive up Macquarie Pass, along the Hume Highway to Bulli Tops and the Seacliff Bridge. Macquarie Pass is very steep and contains a large number of hairpin turns, resulting in buses and trucks needing to reverse on some of the bends. The pass is quite notorious for accidents due to its nature, and drivers and riders are required to be cautious.

Good thing they were in Corvettes made for such devious conditions, huh?

Source:
Illawarra Mercury
Photo Credit: Sylvia Liber

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Grid Set by Championship Points as Rain Washes Out Qualifying for Second Round of ALMS

LONG BEACH, Calif., April 13, 2012 – The streets of Long Beach were awash today as qualifying for Saturday’s two-hour American Le Mans Series at Long Beach was canceled due to rain and standing water on the temporary circuit. With the starting grid consequently determined by championship points, the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R driven by Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia will start second in the GT category, and the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R of Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner will start third.

Today’s early-morning practice session was shortened by red flags and intermittent downpours, limiting the Corvettes to less than two-dozen laps in two hours. Eight hours later, qualifying began under sunny skies, but the rain returned shortly after the start of the 15-minute session for the GT entries. Race officials red-flagged the session and subsequently abandoned qualifying. In accordance with IMSA regulations, the grid was then set on championship points.

Gavin turned a time at 1:32.641 in two flying laps, the fourth quickest time in the rain-shortened session. “It was looking good on the first couple of laps,” he said. “Our tires were taking a little time to come in with the cold track, but we had a good car and I was catching the cars ahead of me quickly. Then it really started raining as I came down the front straight. At that point I could see the mist on the circuit, cars were struggling to stop and were going down the escape roads. I knew the session would be red-flagged and thought we’d have to start wherever we were, P4 at the time. Subsequently the officials abandoned the session and we’ll start on points instead.

“It’s a shame we didn’t get a full run in the dry here, but I feel that the car is going to be good,” Gavin continued. “I feel optimistic about the race tomorrow. I know the Corvette Racing crew is doing an excellent job setting up the car, and I’ll take our Corvette over any other car in the field straight off the truck.”

Magnussen was fifth quickest in two timed laps with a 1:32.872, but the No. 3 Corvette C6.R will start second based on its runner-up finish in the season-opening Sebring 12-hour race. The forecast for the race is dry.

“Today’s qualifying just adds to the uncertainty for tomorrow’s race,” Magnussen said. “Qualifying is not a good guide because the track was damp, it was sprinkling from the start. So we’ve really had one timed lap, on slicks, when it was wet. We’ll go into the race like we haven’t been here at all.”

Magnussen posted back-to-back runner-up finishes in Long Beach in the last two years, and the Dane is optimistic that he can improve in tomorrow’s race.

“Usually we have a good setup and the Corvettes are strong here,” he said. “Hopefully we can get through the beginning of the race, settle into a good pace, and be at the front at the end so we can fight for a win.”

ESPN2 will broadcast the American Le Mans Series at Long Beach live at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, April 14. The 2-hour race will be carried simultaneously on ESPN3.com.

American Le Mans Series at Long Beach GT Qualifying (Top 10)
Grid set by championship points after qualifying canceled due to rain
Pos./Car No./Drivers/Car

1. 56 Mueller/Hand, BMW E92 M3
2. 3 Magnussen/Garcia, Corvette C6.R
3. 4 Gavin/Milner, Corvette C6.R
4. 55 Mueller/Auberlen, BMW E92 M3
5. 48 Miller/Maassen, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR
6. 44 Neiman/Holzer, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR
7. 02 Brown/Cosmo, Ferrari F458 Italia
8. 17 Henzler/Sellers, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR
9. 01 Sharp/van Overbeek, Ferrari 458 Italia
10. 45 Bergmeister/Long, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR

Related:
Corvette Racing: Links for ALMS at Long Beach
Corvette Racing at Long Beach: Racin’ in the Streets
[VIDEO] Corvette Racing Tech Transfer: 60 Years of Corvette
Corvette Racing Finishes Second and Third in ALMS GT in Sebring

 

An Arizona couple will no doubt remember Easter 2012 for a long time.

They woke up Sunday morning to the sounds of their doorbell being rung repeatedly to warn them of a fire at their San Tan Valley home.

Gary and Vikki Marozas made it out of the house safe and sound, but unfortunately on their way downstairs they discovered two of their prized vehicles were in flames.

Destroyed in the blaze were a red C4 Corvette and a limited-edition 1992 Hummer H1 (one of only two made) that had been given to Mr. Marozas.

“This is a horrible, horrible thing,” Mrs. Marozas told Carina Sonn, a reporter for AZFamily.com. “I’m just sick. My husband is absolutely beside himself over the fact that somebody ignited our cars.”

It’s sad enough to see two nice vehicles destroyed, but the hurt grows even larger since it is believed that the fire was set by an arsonist.

“We want to know who did this to us,” Mrs. Marozas said. “There are no adversaries; we’re friends of everybody in the neighborhood. This is a horrible act of vandalism.”

The couple is offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the arrest of the arsonist.

Anyone with information about the blaze is asked to call the Pinal County Sheriff’s Department at 1-800-420-8689 or 520-866-5111.

Check out AZFamily.com for additional photos.

Source:
AZFamily.com

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If you’re in the neighborhood this weekend, make sure you drop by Zip Corvette Part’s 35th Anniversary Celebration. The party will be held on Saturday at their headquarters in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Check out all the details at Zip-Corvette.com.