Month: April 2013

The National Corvette Museum’s Bash kicks off later this week and one of the special events happening over the three-day event is the raffle of this Velocity Yellow 2013 Corvette 427 Convertible tribute to Andy Pilgrim, who was inducted into the Corvette Hall of Fame last September.

Andy joined the fledgling Corvette Racing team in its inaugural year and raced the Corvette C5R with Kelly Collins, Ron Fellows and Oliver Gavin among others during that time. He is currently a factory driver for Cadillac where he is racing the CTS-V Coupe in the SCCA World Challenge GT Series.

The Andy Pilgrim Hall of Fame Corvette 427 Convertible features a one-of-a-kind graphics package honoring his induction into the Corvette Hall of Fame in 2012. The 427 Convertible Corvette is powered by the LS7 505 hp engine and comes mated to a 6-speed manual transmission. Included is the dual-mode performance exhaust, magnetic selective ride control, a ZR1-style spoiler, black 10-spoke wheels with yellow calipers and the black headlamp color override. Other features include the 1SC Equipment Package, Carbon Fiber package, a carbon fiber hood, a power black convertible top and ebony interior highlighted with yellow stiching.

Andy has also donated a Corvette Racing driving suit and one of his personal helmets to the auction.

Thanks to Bob Bubnis at the NCM, we have these photos of the 2013 Corvette 427 Convertible:

Tickets for the raffle are limited to just 1,000 with each ticket costing $250. The winner will be drawn on Friday, April 26th at 3:15 CT regardless of how many tickets are sold. Click here to order your tickets for this very special Corvette.

Source:
National Corvette Museum

Related:
Bowling Green Resident Wins a 2013 60th Anniversary Corvette 427 Convertible at the NCM
Corvette Museum to Raffle Kirk Bennion’s 2013 Night Race Blue Corvette ZR1 on Thursday
Andy Pilgrim’s Hall of Fame Tribute 2013 427 Convertible Corvette

 

Misty Davis’ dad would no doubt be proud to see what she and the Corvette community in the Carolinas are doing with his 1975 Stingray.

Claude Mathis Jr., died unexpectedly last August at age 61, leaving an unexpected legacy to his 34-year-old daughter.

She inherited his white on blue Corvette, which was in pieces while it was being restored by her father.

She asked for a few suggestions about what to do on a Corvette forum on the Web but got much more than she expected.

“I didn’t want to get rid of it because it was my dad’s baby,” she said, adding that she “really wasn’t expecting anything” from her online request.

But Carolina Classic Corvettes and its nearly 30 members responded to her request in grand fashion, taking on the restoration as a club project and offering to provide free labor.

VettePros owner Gary McQueen is a member of the club and offered to store the car at his business while the project is being done. “We’re trying to do everything at cost,” he said, “and some of the guys are donating parts for me to sell to raise money.”

Already, they have replaced the back end, removed the interior and steam-cleaned the upholstery. Still to be done are some body work on the front, new tires, paint, installation of the interior, and a few mechanical repairs.

They say good deeds come back to you, and in this case, the heartfelt project has helped the club draw in new members and other folks willing to help. Indeed, Davis’ thread on the online forum has more than 11,000 views nationwide.

Davis has been overwhelmed by the hard work put in by the club. “They didn’t even have to do that,” she said. “The car isn’t worth anything. There’s nothing special about that year; it’s not worth fixing it up.”

Sentimental Corvette lovers would disagree. They know that all Corvettes are special, especially this one that will serve as a tangible reminder of the good times she spent with her father.

When the work is done, Misty says she’s “not trying to sell it or get anything out of it. I just want it put together to have that memory … to have that piece of my father I can keep forever.”

Check out the photo gallery of the restoration at www.carolina-classic-corvettes.com.

Source:
charlotteobserver.com

Related:
Woman Trades a 99 Year Old Ford for a 2013 Corvette
This Classic 1967 Corvette is Enhanced with Modern Technology
Canadian Corvette Owner is in Absolute Heaven with his Restored 1957 Corvette

 

Last year Adam’s Polishes was named the officially licensed car care products for the Corvette and Camaro. When we heard that founder and CEO Adam Pitale would be giving a free detailing seminar on site at the Lingenfelter Collection outside Detroit, we had to add the event to our weekend agenda.

The collection opened its doors at 9:30am last Saturday and the detailing seminar was slated to begin at 10:30am, but when we arrived just before 10am, Adam was already off and running on the day’s activity. If you’ve ever been to one of the major car shows like Bloomington Gold or Corvettes at Carlisle, you’ve probably seen Adam and his team shining up owners’ cars all day long. They’re easily some of the hardest working people you’ll see in any vendors’ booth. Last weekend’s detailing clinic was no different, Adam was a perpetual motion machine all day long answering questions, demonstrating techniques, showing off his products, and even allowing attendees to use some of his products and equipment on Ken Lingenfelter’s black Nissan GTR. All day long a throng of people, often 3-4 deep, surrounded Adam while he worked. And, of course, a full slate of Adam’s products was available for purchase as well. Topics covered everything required to pimp your ride top to bottom including using a clay bar, cleaning exhaust tips and wheels, and how to use different polishing equipment.

The Lingenfelter Collection is housed in a rather nondescript 40,000 square foot warehouse northwest of Detroit and was a perfect backdrop for the Adam’s detailing seminar. It’s pretty much automotive heaven. Over 150 cars fill the building’s 3 main sections. One section is for the exotics including a Bugatti Veyron, several Ferrari’s including an Enzo, F40, a 288 GTO, and a FF, a Lambo Reventon, and a Porsche Carrera GT among several others. The muscle car room holds old Firebirds, Camaros, a Hemi Challenger, AAR Cuda, Novas, Mustangs, and pretty much 1 of every muscle car you can think of. There’s even a NHRA Funny Car in there.

In the Corvette section there’s a 1953 Supercharged Corvette, 1954 Silver styling Corvette, 1954 Duntov Mule, 2 Guldstrand GS90’s and about 10 Callaways in addition to about 30 other examples.

After you’ve checked out our photo gallery from the event below, be sure to swing by the Adam’s Polishes website and order yourself some products for detailing your ride.

Related:
GM Gives Official Nod to Adam’s Premium Car Care Products for Corvette and Camaro
Remarkable 1954 Silver Style Corvette Reborn
CorvetteBlogger.com Visits the Lingenfelter Collection
Legendary EX87 Corvette Test Mule Offered at Mecum’s Spring Classic

 

(LONG BEACH, Calif., April 20, 2013) – Corvette Racing scored two top-five finishes at Long Beach to maintain a share of the lead in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) Manufacturer Standings through the first two races of the season.

Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin, drove the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R to a fourth-place finish in the GT class in the two-hour Tequila Patron American Le Mans Series at Long Beach on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn street circuit. Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen finished fifth in the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R.

“As we saw in qualifying, the cars are just so close in performance,” Milner said. “We were in a good spot, but just a little unlucky there.”

Milner, who earned his first career ALMS race at this event last year, qualified sixth and had driven up to fourth when the team pitted with just over an hour remaining, and changed drivers. During the exchange, the team had a difficult time securing the steering wheel.

“Pretty much our race was so dictated by that pit stop where I got in and really just struggled to get the wheel on,” Gavin said. During the stop the team also experienced some trouble with one of the tires, and “the wheel got spun around and I was then trying to find the point where it had to slot on, and it wasn’t so easy to see. By the time I got it on, everybody else had finished up their pit stops and we came out pretty much at the back.”

Garcia, meanwhile, started fourth and quickly moved toward the front.

“Everything went to plan, basically,” Garcia said. “We knew how usually the first lap works here. I basically put pressure on, and the two cars in front of me both went off so I kind of made myself a little bit of a gap and made a pass on both.”

But, a series cautions slowed the No. 3 Corvette C6.R’s momentum, and brought pit strategy into play.

“All of those yellows – especially that first one, it was like flipping a coin,” Garcia said. “I think it was the right call to stay out, but then with all of these yellows coming after is where being in the lead wasn’t such an advantage anymore.”

The No. 3 Corvette C6.R was running second when the driver change was made.

“It started off pretty well,” Magnussen said. “I think the way the strategy and the pit stops worked out really hurt us. It seemed like everybody else was trying to salvage something and kind of went out of sequence and gained really well on it, and we lost on it, unfortunately. We were struggling a little bit too much right there at the end with grip.”

With less than 15 minutes remaining, Gavin passed Magnussen for fourth place.

“It was another learning lesson for us,” said Gavin, who teamed with Milner and Richard Westbrook last month to win the season-opening Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. “It was good just to score the points in the championship, to get fourth place, I’ll take that every day with how rough that race was. It was pretty nasty at times, and difficult, and traffic was hard. There was plenty of bumping and banging, and you just have to try and keep the car clean. There were a number of times where I thought, ‘Oh, this could get pretty messy here. We’re going to lose a corner off the car.’ Or, it was just sliding and sliding and you were just hoping that it was going to stop sliding before we ended up hitting the wall, and fortunately it did.”

The No. 55 BMW Z4 GTE won the race, followed by the No. 56 BMW Z4 GTE, the No. 91 SRT Viper GTS-R, and the two Corvettes.

Unofficially, Chevrolet and BMW share the Manufacturers Standings with 34 points apiece.

“Those guys battled the whole race,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet Vice President of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “I would say tires were a factor throughout the race. It was tricky out there. I commend the whole Corvette Racing team for really staying focused and driving toward the front. You know, a couple of cars in front of us were a little tight on gas. We didn’t get them today, but it was a good points day and momentum in the season continues. So, on to Monterrey.”

ALMS Long Beach Results – GT
(Place/Car No./Car/Drivers)

1. #55 BMW Z4 GTE (Auberlin/Martín)
2. #56 BMW Z4 GTE (D. Muller/Hand)
3. #91 SRT Viper GTS-R (Farnbacher/Goossens)
4. #4 Chevrolet Corvette C6.R (Gavin/Milner)
5. #3 Chevrolet Corvette C6.R (Magnussen/Garcia)
6. #48 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (Miller/Holzer)
7. #23 Ferrari F458 Italia (Sweedler/Bell)
8. #93 SRT Viper GTS-R (Bomarito/Wittmer)
9. #62 Ferrari F458 Italia (Beretta/Malucelli)
10. #17 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (Henzler/Sellers)

The ALMS season resumes with Round 3 on May 9-11 with the American Le Mans Series Monterey (Calif.) at Laguna Seca, where Gavin and Milner won last year.

Source:
CorvetteRacing.com

Related:
Corvette Racing Qualifies 4th and 6th at ALMS Long Beach
Corvette Racing Looks Forward to Long Beach Return
Corvette Racing: Links for the 2013 Tequila Patron American Le Mans Series at Long Beach

 

Check out these six great Corvettes we are featuring today from VetteFinders.com, the Internet’s original Corvette classifieds website. Each day thousands of buyers turn to our sister website to find the Corvette of their dreams as we have one of the best selections of classic, preowned and new Corvettes available anywhere.

Thinking of selling Your Corvette? Now is the time and VetteFinders.com is the place to reach more qualified Corvette Buyers. Corvette Classified Ads start at only $25 and your Corvette will run until its sells. You can post unlimited photos and you have access to make any changes at any time.

And while we’re talking about our classifieds website, check out this great unsolicited testimonial for VetteFinders.com from automotive writer and occasional contributor Rick Tavel.

Source:
VetteFinders.com

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(LONG BEACH, Calif., April 19, 2013) – Jan Magnussen, driver of the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R, qualified fourth (1:19.047 secs.) in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) GT Class at Long Beach. Tommy Milner, who won his first ALMS race at this event last year, qualified sixth (1:19.083) in the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn Long Beach Street Circuit.

“We definitely made some good improvements between practice and qualifying,” Magnussen said. “It’s always hard here because there’s such a long time between the two sessions, so you really have to think about how the track is going to develop, so I think we made some good choices. We’ll go back and look at some old data and fine-tune a little bit, but overall, I’d be happy to race this car.”

Magnussen added that the No. Corvette C6.R experienced a minor problem during practice, but it was fixed before qualifying.

“We had a small issue shifting this morning. Fixed. All gone,” Magnussen said. “I’m really looking forward to tomorrow.”

Magnussen will team with Antonio Garcia for tomorrow’s race.

Milner will again team with Oliver Gavin. The two won the 2012 ALMS drivers’ championship, and opened the 2013 season with a victory at Sebring last month.

“Obviously, it’s super, super close, as it always is in GT,” Milner said. “So, the position doesn’t sound great; sixth is not what I was hoping for, but it was only two-tenths off the pole. That’s pretty close.

“Obviously, I’d love to get a win here again, like I did last year, my first win in ALMS, but at the end of the day is the championship and finishing the race and keeping the nose of the car clean, give it to Oliver and let him work his magic like he did last year.”

Corvette Racing has 78 ALMS class victories, including four in 2012, making it the most successful team in American Le Mans Series history.

The Tequila Patron American Le Mans Series at Long Beach starts at 4:30 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday, April 20.

ALMS at Long Beach GT Qualifying (Top 10)
Pos./Car No./Drivers/Car/Time

1. 91 Goossens/Farnbacher, SRT Viper GTS-R, 1:18.845
2. 17 Henzler/Sellers, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 1:18.967
3. 93 Bomarito/Wittmer, SRT Viper GTS-R, 1:18.984
4. 3 Magnussen/Garcia, Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1, 1:19.047
5. 55 Auberlen/Martin, BMW Z4 GTE, 1:19.063
6. 4 Gavin/Milner, Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1, 1:19.083
7. 62 Beretta/Malucelli, Ferrari F458 Italia, 1:19.184
8. 56 Müller/Hand, BMW Z4 GTE, 1:19.258
9. 23 Sweedler/Bell, Ferrari F458 Italia, 1:19.533
10. 48 Miller/Holzer, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 1:27.491

Source:
Corvette Racing

Related:
Corvette Racing Looks Forward to Long Beach Return
Corvette Racing: Links for the 2013 Tequila Patron American Le Mans Series at Long Beach
Corvette Racing Opens 2013 With a Win at the 12 Hours of Sebring
Corvette Racing Wins Long Beach ALMS

 

(LONG BEACH, Calif., April 19, 2013) – Corvette Racing returns to where its championship season in 2012 earned its first of four victories: The 1.968-mile, 11-turn Long Beach Street Circuit.

Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner, co-drivers of the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R, won at Long Beach last year en route to the Team and Driver championships. It was their first victory as a team, and Milner’s first victory in the American Le Mans Series.

“Long Beach was the start of the run to the Championship for Tommy and me”, Gavin said. “As you so often have to be on street races, we were a little lucky in that the two cars in front of us on the grid had issues on the fourth corner of the race and their race was compromised from there on. We still had to battle our way from then on to the front but our car was good straight off and that was a big plus point.”

One of the keys at Long Beach, Gavin said, is the very last turn.

“The most important corner on the track is the last one and getting off that corner well is vital for lap time and opportunities to overtake other cars,” Gavin said. “If you can get into someone’s tow on the straight it’s the best chance you get to pass others going into Turn 1. Street tracks are always a bit of a lottery, but if you are able to switch on your tires fast, ride the bumps easily and go through and off the corners well, youÂ’ve got a good chance to be fast.”

Doug Fehan, Corvette Racing Program Manager, agrees that luck is important, particularly on street courses.

“There’s a formula that I like to extoll, and it’s for any race: It’s 25 percent great car, 25 percent great team and 50 percent good luck,” Fehan said. “And that gets modified just a little bit when you go to street races, and the good-luck portion plays a much greater role. Because you have a great car and a great team, but in a street race anything can happen to you – from turn one, lap one to turn 10, final lap of the race. You’ve got to have good fortune on your side. Anybody who wins at Long Beach, has good fortune on that day. That’s just the way street races work.”

Corvette Racing, which also won the 2012 ALMS Manufacturer Championship, opened the 2013 season with a victory last month. Milner made a late pass for the lead and held on for the final 15 minutes as the No. 4 GT Compuware Corvette C6.R overcame an early electrical issue and two key penalties to win the GT class 61st Annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring at Sebring International Raceway.

Fehan thinks the one-month break between the first two races will be a good thing for the two Corvette Racing teams.

“It lets the guys wind down a little bit, and you clearly get to take more time and get the car correct and ready for the next race,” Fehan said. “There’s a huge emotional build-up to that event at Sebring, and a huge emotional release when you’re victorious, so to have a little extra time to catch your breath, get yourself sorted out, and enjoy and contemplate what youÂ’ve accomplished, and then re-focus on what you have to do. So, the break is actually pretty good.”

The No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R, driven by Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen, looks to bounce back from an electrical issue at Sebring.

“The issues that we had with the 3 team at Sebring were just devastating,” Fehan said. “As it turns out, a simple little pin on one little wire, and it took those guys out of contention – and they had a car that was good enough to win. Now, if you do this game long enough, youÂ’re going to have those experiences. Everybody goes through that. They all want to perform at their optimum, they all want to make sure that they bring a car that they know can win. And they did that at Sebring. It just didn’t work out. It was one of those racing bad days. As quickly as that can happen to you, it can turn around. I think they are very energized by that, I think they know that at a street race it is anybody’s ballgame and the 3 guys are not at all down and out about it at this point. You go home, you get past it and you come back harder than ever.”

The Tequila Patron American Le Mans Series at Long Beach starts at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday, April 20. GT Qualifying is at 8:25 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, April 19th.

Source:
Team Chevy

Related:
Corvette Racing: Links for the 2013 Tequila Patron American Le Mans Series at Long Beach
Corvette Racing Opens 2013 With a Win at the 12 Hours of Sebring
Corvette Racing Wins Long Beach ALMS