Month: June 2012

A key feature at any major car show is the opportunity to buy or sell a car. In addition to the GoldMine Corvettes for sale, Bloomington Gold also plays host each year to a Mecum auction comprised solely, of course, of Corvettes. Click past the jump to see the top 11 Corvette sales at the 2012 Mecum Bloomington Gold auction.

This year’s auction was smaller than years past. The usual two day event was trimmed to 1 day to create a more intimate experience for buyers, seller, and observers. It’s likely that Mecum’s monster Indianapolis auction in May and their concurrent St. Paul auction stole some of Bloomington’s thunder this year. Even with the lower car count, the auction tent was packed all day, especially during the early lots and again when the star cars rolled up later in the day.

As we’ve seen before this year there’s still plenty of demand for top notch, documented cars as 3 of our 4 preview cars drew the highest bids of the day. This was evidenced by the 1969 L88 coupe that quickly bid to $385,000 before the bid was closed. A little while later a 4,300 mile 1953 roadster bid to a $200,000 no sale.

The top seller was a green 1967 roadster which found a new home at $115,000 followed by a an award winning 1962 convertible at $105,000.

Average cars still brought average money or even less in some cases like the black 1995 coupe that sold for $5,500.

You can take a look at all of the results from the 2012 Bloomington Gold Corvette auction and meanwhile, here’s a list of the top 11 Corvette sales last weekend in St. Charles. You can also browse through some photos of the event in our gallery below.

Source:
Mecum Auctions

Related:
[PICS] 2012 Bloomington Gold: The Great Hall
[PICS] The 2012 Bloomington Gold Corvette Show
Corvette Vanity License Plates from Corvettes at Carlisle

 

A motorcade of Corvettes recently made its way slowly down the interstate from Illinois to Tennessee.

The hours racked up behind the wheel of the cars, however, were nothing compared to the emotions of their drivers and the joy of the children once they reached St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.

The Corvette owners were participating in the first-ever St. Jude Corvette Drive in early May and wound up raising $50,000 for the hospital.

A police escort accompanied the cars to St. Jude on a Thursday, and the next day, 17 of the 34-plus Corvettes were chosen to parade to the hospital, where the drivers parked in a circle outside, then went inside to tour the facility. They came away very impressed with the work being done there.

Afterwards, the young patients at the hospital were encouraged to head outside and climb inside the beautiful sports cars, blow the horns, and ask a lot of questions.

“Those kids had a blast. The rags that were first being used on the cars were also being used to wipe up the tears of the drivers after the kids showed up!” said Angie Wiebler, events manager for St. Jude.

Participant Amber Koppen noted the great attitude at St. Jude. “There was an overall sense of joy, no matter who you came upon at St. Jude,” she said. “The aura of the people there, works or the patients who were getting treatment, everyone had a positive outlook and positive vibe.”

The ride was sponsored by Uftring Chevrolet in Washington, Illinois, and members of Mid-West Corvette Club in Milan, Illinois also participated.

Driver Dennis Waddell of Rock Island, Illinois said he hopes to see even more Corvettes involved in the fundraiser next year. He participated in his crystal red 2011 Grand Sport Coupe, bringing Bill Firth with him. Firth’s grandson battled and beat cancer as a youngster, part of his reason to be involved in the Corvette Drive.

Proceeds totaled some $50,000 for St. Jude. Each Corvette owner was asked to raise at least $1,500 for the event.

Source:

Quad City Times

Related:
Saint Bernard’s Classic Corvette Giveaway
C4 Pink Corvette Restoration Aims for Raising Breast Cancer Awareness
In Honor of Evan Thomason: 10th Annual Corvette Forum Fundraiser for St. Jude

 

I normally don’t talk too much about my own Corvette, but this is just too cool for us to pass up. Yesterday, we posted that USA Today wants your Corvette Photos. Taking the plunge, I sent them this photo of our 1966 Corvette convertible parked at Davis Islands in Tampa.

This morning, USA Today has posted a story on their website called Happy Birthday, Chevrolet Corvette and our black Sting Ray is the 3rd image in the accompanying photo gallery.

Not only is tomorrow Drive Your Corvette to Work Day, but June 29th is also the anniversary of our Corvette’s purchase by my father.

Back in 1966, Phillip Cornett took possession of the black and silver 1966 Corvette from Rohrer Chevrolet in Camden, NJ after trading in a new Ford Mustang and agreeing to make payments of $70.28 for 36 months through GMAC financing.

I’ve written about the significance of June 29th in my life before.

USA Today promises to serve up more photos of Corvettes so send them a picture of your Corvette and maybe it will be featured as well.

Source:
USA Today

Related:
USA Today Wants a Picture of Your Corvette
Drive Your Corvette To Work Day is Friday, June 29th!
41 Years Ago Today A Young Man Buys A 1966 Corvette…

 

When it comes to custom license plates, Corvette owners are tops when it comes to unique characters, phrases, or sayings. We spent took some time this weekend wandering the grounds of the Pheasant Run Resort see what the all the Corvette owners had come up with. Click past the jump to see some of our favorite license plates from the 2012 Bloomington Gold show.

During our journey we saw plates from all over the U.S. Cars came in from all corners of the country including California, New York, Texas, and Florida. As usual, the plates were as unique as the owners themselves. Some of our favorites included, “HAPY ME”, “VETGAZM”, and “A GM ICON”.

Here’s our gallery of vanity plates from Bloomington. Have a cool plate on your Corvette? Tell us about it in the Comments below.

Related:
[PICS] 2012 Bloomington Gold: The Great Hall
[PICS] The 2012 Bloomington Gold Corvette Show
Corvette Vanity License Plates from Corvettes at Carlisle