Month: December 2011

We often like to remind our readers about things that you shouldn’t do in your Corvette and driving while intoxicated is at the top of the list. Although it wasn’t a drunk Corvette driver that hit these new Corvettes at a Miami area Chevrolet dealer, you can see the carnage that can result to innocent people and property as a result of making the decision to drive while impaired.

The Chevy dealer that took the brunt from this drunk driver is Tropical Chevrolet, located on Biscayne Blvd in Miami Shores. Although details are sketchy, we spoke with a representative of the dealership who told us that on Wednesday, December 14 at around 3 am, a drunk driver lost control of his car and crashed into several new Corvette Grand Sports that were on display along the roadside. The driver wasn’t seriously injured in the accident, but you can see that some of these Corvettes look to be a total loss.

This isn’t the first time that a driver has used the new vehicles displayed at Tropical Chevy to stop their out-of-control cars. In 2007, a speeding Corvette traveling at 125 mph along the boulevard lost control and hit several SUVs. All of the them were destroyed as well along with the Corvette.

A special thanks goes out to “Chevy Ruben” at Tropical Chevrolet for giving us permission to share these photos with you. If you are in South Florida and shopping for a new Chevrolet, give him a call at 305-778-7332 or check him out on Facebook.

Source:
Bowtie Clubb

Related:
State Trooper Crashes Into a Corvette Parked at a Maryland Chevy Dealership
[ACCIDENTS] Early C3 Corvette Flips on US-1 in Florida
Grand Sport Corvette Destroyed in Lodi DUI Crash

With Chevrolet joining the ranks of advertisers seeking independent filmmaker submissions for a Super Bowl commercial, it’s only fitting that our friends from Michael Brown Productions, creators of “The Quest” documentary, submitted two commercials for the competition. Featuring two Corvettes at opposite ends of the performance spectrum, the commercials made it through Round 1 but were eventually cut from consideration. As the two commercials were done totally with “tongue firmly planted in cheek”, Michael has released them for your viewing pleasure.

The Black Corvettes featured in the spots are owned by Michael Brown and they are a black 1954 roadster and his newest, the 2012 Corvette ZR1 Centennial Edition (wearing VIN #100 no less!). Michael and his crew trailered the Corvettes 300 miles to the Texas panhandle where both commercials were shot.

The first commerical is called “It Takes a Chevy…” and it opens on a cowboy who is clearly frustrated about something, though immediately, we’re not sure what. We soon see that he’s in a rural setting and leaning against a 2012 Centennial Edition Corvette, Chevrolet’s newest, fastest and most sophisticated Corvette ever. Why is the cowboy frustrated about that? Has it broken down? Has he had a flat? No, there’s nothing wrong with the car. To see why our cowboy is so frustrated, watch the video:

In the second commercial, Michael and his crew set up at a classic 1930s art deco gas station along the famous Route 66 highway. Though all the lights are on, the station appears deserted. Momentarily, we learn that the attendant inside has fallen asleep, but he’s awakened when a mysterious driverless 1954 Chevrolet Corvette rolls across the driveway bell. Soon, he’s amazed to see the car being gassed up and started without help from any human. In an instant, the old Corvette is transformed into Chevrolet’s newest and fastest Corvette ever, the 2012 Centennial Edition ZR1.

If these two Corvette commercials failed to make it to the final round, that should tell you that the competition is indeed serious. You can see many of the submissions on ChevroletRoute66.msn.com and you’ll be able to watch the winning commercial during Super Bowl LVI on Sunday, February 5, 2012.

Source:
Michael Brown Productions

Related:
[VIDEO] 1960 #3 Le Mans Corvette Historic Return Documentary Trailer

[VIDEO] All Corvettes are Black – The Bill Mullis Collection

One of the earliest known examples of the 1953 Corvette will be featured at the RM Auction in Phoenix, Arizona next month. Chassis #005 was the fifth Corvette ever built and one of the first three Corvettes to be sold to the public. RM is expecting the Corvette to fetch between $450,000 and $600,000 at the Arizona sale on Friday, January 20th.

As VIN #005 was one of the first Corvettes to be built, the early roadster features a variety of early production components. It was the last 1953 Corvette built without an outside rear view mirror and was one of three early Corvettes (#004,#005 and #006) to wear the basic chrome Chevy Bel Air hubcaps because the hubcaps for the new sports car were not yet available. Another interesting early production feature is stainless-steel VIN. Later Corvettes were fitted with an aluminum VIN tag.

The 1953 GM Motorama whipped up excitement for the new two-seater and 6 months later, the first Corvettes rolled off the temporary assembly line in Flint, Michigan. Chassis #005 was shipped to Diver Chevrolet in Delaware where it was purchased on July 16, 1953 by Crawford Greenewalt, a noted chemical engineer and president of DuPont. The Corvette was a present for his wife Margaretta DuPont Greenewalt.

GM engineering test driver and three-time Indianapolis 500 Champion Mauri Rose was tasked with inspecting the early Corvettes to report on build quality. Rose’s four-page memo called the #005 (along with #004 and #006) Corvette a “Work in progress” and cited numerous “Objectionable and in the writer’s opinion not commercially acceptable” deficiencies.

Interestingly, Diver Chevrolet offered the Greenewalt’s a 10% discount due to the build quality, but they refused and insisted on paying the full list price.

The Greenewalts owned the early Corvette for three years then traded it for a new 1956 Corvette in March 1956. The car went through several owners before being acquired by Ed Thiebaud who was one of the first serious collectors with an interest in the early Corvettes. He advertised the sale of the #005 Corvette in 1972 as “One of the First Real McCoys” for “serious offers over $10,000″ and the Corvette was purchased by Randy Hickman. In 1997, John and Melanie Kocsis of Athens, PA purchased the #005 Corvette and painstakingly researched and restored the sports car back to its original condition.

With the restoration completed just in time for the Corvette’s 50th anniversary celebration in 2003, the #005 Corvette was judged and received a 99.6% Top Flight certification at the Hershey, PA NCRS National Convention.

Accompanying the #005 Corvette is an impressive amount of documentation including the original sales invoice from Diver Chevrolet, a copy of the invoice for the new 1956 Corvette which shows the 1953 Corvette was used as a trade-in, and a copy of the original internal GM memo from Mauri Rose.

As one of the first three Corvettes ever to be sold, chassis #005 ranks as one of the most important early Corvettes in existence today and should have no trouble reaching the $450,000 to $600,000 estimated sale price at the January auction.

For the full auction catalog description of Chassis #005, visit RM Auctions.

Source:
RM Auctions

Related:
Russo and Steele to Auction Noland Adams 1953 Stamp Car
Corvettes at Carlisle: Meet the Original American Idol
003 Sells for 1 Million Dollars

The team at Bloomington Gold has announced that beginning in 2013 the annual Bloomington Gold Corvette show will be held in Champaign, Illinois on the campus of the University of Illinois. The new location is about 50 miles southeast of where the show was first born back in 1973.

According to show CEO David Burroughs “…input from Corvette owning customers wanted more opportunity for socializing and driving events as part of the entire Corvette show experience. It needed to become more dynamic.” The 2012 event will be the final show at the Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles just west of Chicago. It has been held there since 2002. Prior to that the show has been held in Bloomington (for 2 different periods) and in Springfield, Illinois.

Burroughs went on to say “Our customers own Corvettes because they are fun to drive. So, we needed a venue that not only served our exhibitors and customers who buy/sell and certify Corvettes, but also a venue that makes it easy and fun to navigate to/from and around the community before, during, and after the show. Therefore, we needed a small town atmosphere with big town hotels, great facilities, and quick escape routes to miles of country roads. Champaign, IL has the smaller town atmosphere and the University of Illinois Assembly Hall grounds have everything else.”

The 2013 event will begin Thursday, June 27th, 2013 with the Cubic Knowledge seminars. The show itself will take place on Friday and Saturday the 28th and 29th. The new SURVIVOR® all-make car show will wrap the weekend on Sunday, June 30th, 2013.

A quick spin through any of the Corvette discussion boards demonstrates the attendees’ desire for more driving-type events. Other high-end Corvette events like Corvettes at Carlisle already offer autocrossing and burnout contests. Checkout the new show flyer and you can see they’re looking at adding drag racing and autocrossing to the weekend agenda if there’s enough demand. We’re pretty sure they’ll get it.

Take a look at the event map and you can see that there’s going to be plenty of room to spread out.

At first thought, we were a little disappointed at this move. The grounds at Pheasant Run are a phenomenal location for a car show. You just can’t beat thousands of Corvettes spread throughout a finely manicured golf course. With that said, we do agree that more driving events were definitely needed at Bloomington. As nice as it is to look at cars sitting still, it’s even better to watch and listen to them doing what they were built for – driving. We do also miss the impromptu evening parking lot gatherings as well as just cruising around town with other Corvette owners. In addition, the new locale should breathe some fresh life into marquee events like the GoldTour. We’re glad that Bloomington Gold has once again listened to their patrons and continues to evolve their product based on feedback and demand.

Check out the full press release.

Source:
Bloomington Gold

Related:
Bloomington Gold 2011: The Rest of the Story
Mecum’s Bloomington Gold Auction Rakes in $5.8 million in Corvette Sales
Bloomington Gold Officially Inducts 2011 Great Hall Honorees

Our Christmas tradition continues with the 7th annual repost of “Twas The Night Before Christmas – Corvette Style”. The Corvette remix of this holiday classic continues to be one of our favorite posts. As always, I’d like to wish everyone who visits CorvetteBlogger a very Merry Christmas and Christmas wishes go out to the men and women serving our country in the Armed Forces both home and abroad. God Bless you all!

Twas the Night Before Christmas – Corvette Style

‘Twas the night before Christmas and out in the garage,
There wasn’t a trace of a Honda, Toyota, or Dodge.
The presents were wrapped and the lights were all lit,
So I figured I’d mess with my classic Corvette for a bit.

I popped the release and lifted the hood,
When a deep voice behind me said “looks pretty good.”
Well, as you can imagine, I turned mighty quick,
And there, by the workbench, stood good ol Saint Nick!

We stood there a bit, not too sure what to say,
Then he said “don’t suppose that you’d trade for my sleigh?
“No way, Santa” I said with a grin,
“But if you’ve got the time we can go for a spin!”

His round little mouth, all tied up like a bow,
Turned into a smile and he said “Sure! Let’s go!!”
So as not to disturb all the neighbors’ retreat,
We quietly pushed the Vette out to the street,

Then, taking our places to coast down the hill,
I turned on the key and I let the clutch spill.
The sound that erupted took him quite by surprise,
But he liked it a lot, by the look in his eyes.

With tires a’ screaming and side pipes aglow,
We headed on out to where the hot rodders go.
And Santa’s grin widened, approaching his ears,
With every shift up as I banged through the gears.

Then he yelled “can’t recall when I’ve felt so alive!”
So I backed off the gas and asked Santa if he wanted to drive.
Ol Santa was stunned when I gave him the keys,
When he walked past the headlights he shook at the knees!

The Corvette exploded with side exhaust sound!
And when Santa let out the clutch and the tires shook the ground!
Power shift into second, again into third!
I sat there just watching, at loss for a word,

Then I heard him exclaim as we blasted from sight,
“Merry Christmas to all, it’s one hell of a night!!!”

Original Post:
December 24, 2005

Image Credit:
National Corvette Owners Association