Month: July 2012

A Look Back and a Look Ahead at the Midpoint of 2012 ALMS Season

LEXINGTON, Ohio, July 31, 2012 – With five races completed and five to go, Corvette Racing will be halfway home at its home track. Saturday’s Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course signals the start of the second half of the 2012 American Le Mans Series. At the season’s midpoint, Corvette Racing and Chevrolet stand atop the driver, team, and manufacturer championship standings. The fierce competition that has been the hallmark of the GT category is about to become more intense with the return of one of Corvette’s longstanding rivals to ALMS competition.

In the first five races, Corvette Racing scored back-to-back wins with Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R in Long Beach and Laguna Seca. Third-place finishes in Sebring and Lime Rock put the pair in the championship lead after the first four rounds. Then a setback in Mosport, combined with the No. 3 Compuware Corvette’s fourth runner-up finish in five starts, saw Corvette aces Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen take the lead in the championship chase by seven points over their teammates.

“When you look at Corvette Racing’s record for the first half of the season, the results demonstrate the experience and knowledge the team has gained since the debut of the GT-spec Corvette C6.R at Mid-Ohio in 2009,” said Corvette Racing program manager Doug Fehan. “With the level of competition we face at every ALMS event, to have two victories, eight podium finishes, a one-two finish, and a pole is a very successful first half by any measure.

“Everyone on the team fully understands that it’s not going to get any easier for the rest of the year,” Fehan continued. “We’re working continuously to improve every aspect of our performance. There is still a great deal of development to be done with the wide-body Corvette C6.R that we introduced this year. I expect that Corvette fans are going to see a great show for the rest of the season.”

When Corvette Racing first entered international endurance racing in 1999, its chief competitor was Viper. That rivalry will be renewed at Mid-Ohio with Chrysler’s return to ALMS competition.

“History has come full circle, and now it’s once again Corvette versus Viper in ALMS – this time with world-class competitors such as Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, and Lotus in the mix,” Fehan noted. “Chrysler’s return makes a huge statement about the strength of the American Le Mans Series.”

Corvette Racing has recorded three straight runner-up finishes in the GT class at Mid-Ohio – Magnussen and Johnny O’Connell in 2009, Gavin and Olivier Beretta in 2010, and Gavin/Magnussen in 2011. Last year’s race ended with a red flag when a monsoon inundated the track; among the drivers who spun off in the deluge was Milner, who was running second when the torrential rain arrived.

“I’ve raced at Mid-Ohio since 2004, in open-wheel cars and GTs, so there’s not much I don’t know about the track,” Milner said. “It’s a place where you can make passes happen, and it usually produces an exciting race. The Corvettes were certainly competitive there last year, and with the improvements that have been made, I expect them to be even better this year.”

“Mid-Ohio has been a good track for us in terms of pace and speed the last couple of years,” Gavin explained. “Last year if the rain had turned up 45 minutes later, we likely would have won. Mid-Ohio is Corvette Racing’s home race with lots of friends and family. The circuit seems to suit our car, and with the steps forward taken for this season, we hope to be as competitive as we’ve been the last couple of years. Every team is making steps every race, so nobody at Corvette Racing is taking anything for granted.”

Garcia has raced previously at Mid-Ohio in the Grand-Am series, so Corvette Racing’s new full-season driver will be up to speed quickly on the 2.25-mile, 13-turn road course.

“Mid-Ohio is one of the tracks I know, so I will just need to reconfigure my mind a little from a Daytona Prototype to a Corvette C6.R,” Garcia laughed. “This will take a few laps at most – first some driver tuning, and then some car tuning!

“Mid-Ohio is like two different circuits,” the Spaniard said. “The first part has long straights and fast corners, then the second half is very tight with a narrow racing line. It is definitely a track where you have to deal with traffic. From what I’ve learned so far this season, Mid-Ohio will suit the Corvette C6.R.”

The two-hour, 45-minute Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge, the sixth round of the 2012 American Le Mans Series, will start at 1:05 p.m. ET on Saturday, August 4, and will be broadcast on ABC at 2 p.m. ET.

Source:
CorvetteRacing.com

Related:
Corvette Racing Second in ALMS Grand Prix of Mosport
[VIDEO] Corvette Racing’s Jordan Taylor Shares a Lap of Le Mans at Night
[SPOILER] Corvette Racing at ALMS Mid-Ohio

 

As production of the C6 Corvette winds down, so are many of the delivery options for buyers of the 2013 Corvette. We already knew that the Corvette Assembly Plant in Bowling Green would be suspending public tours of the facility on September 14th. Now we got word that the Buyers Tour and the custom Photo Book options have closed as well.

Buyers that ordered their new Corvette after Sunday, July 29th will not be able to purchase the photo book or participate in the buyers tours. The volume of orders is such that any Corvettes ordered after that date will be assembled after the plant has closed to the public on September 14th.

The VIP Tours are still open but will end on September 13th. If you are planning on participating in the VIP Tour, you should make your plans to do so immediately. The VIP Tours last for 3-5 hours and includes the GM Bowling Green Corvette Assembly Plant as well as the National Corvette Museum. Tours of the Assembly Plant are more in-depth and include portions not included in the regular tours.

If you’re interested in the VIP Tours and watching the assembly of the final Corvettes from the C6 era, contact Gary Cockriel or Lori Bieschke @ 1-800-205-4248 or visit CorvetteMuseum.com

The good news is that these delivery programs will open back up after the launch of the C7 Corvette in 2013.

We did reach out to the Corvette Museum to inquire if there will be an end date to the Corvette Engine Build Experience that allows buyers to build their own LS7 or LS9 engines for their Z06 and ZR1 Corvettes. Because that program is held at the Performance Build Center in Wixom, Michigan and not at the factory, buyers will be able to order and participate in the program until just before the assembly of the C6 Corvette has concluded.

Source:
National Corvette Museum

Related:
Corvette Assembly Plant Announces Suspension of Tours
[VIDEO] Corvette Assembly Plant Reveals Future Plans
[VIDEO] What’s New For 2013 Corvette Seminar at the 2012 NCM Bash

 

Flint, Michigan’s Back to the Bricks festival started as a one-day throwback to the cruises of the 1950s and a smaller alternative to the congestion of the Woodward Dream Cruise in Detroit.

Now the Flint event has grown so much that it drew more than 400,000 to last year’s festival.

Flint has special meaning for Corvette enthusiasts since the city is the birthplace of America’s sports car, with the first 300 1953 models being built at a factory off Van Slyke Avenue there. In fact, the first one rolled off the assembly line on June 19, 1953.

With the Corvette ready to celebrate its 60th anniversary with the 2013 model, Flint-area Corvette owners have been busy the past few months trying to lure other Corvette owners from as far away as Memphis to “come back home” and attend the free, family-friendly event in Michigan this year.

“We decided this year to reach out to other car clubs in other cities,” said Anthony Bowling, president of the Flint-area Trend Settas Corvette Club, “and educate them and invite them to bring the Corvette back home. It’s only fitting that we have the reunion here in Flint.”

The Corvette has overcome numerous brushes with extinction, but today it’s enjoying more respect than ever. Organizers hope the 2012 Back to the Bricks festival will see the biggest local Corvette reunion ever, with more than 1,000 cars attending.

“What we’re bringing to the Corvette world is something different for everyone to see,” said Bowling, whose club is one of four-area Corvette clubs leading the events. “You will see things on things just wow you.”

Back to the Bricks begins Aug. 14 with a free showing of Footloose at the U.S. 23 Drive-In Theater and runs through Aug. 18 with the big festival on the bricks of downtown Flint.

The Corvette events actually are slated to start Aug. 17 at the AmericInn Motel in Grand Blanc Town, where the Corvette clubs will host an open house and party from 1 to 6 p.m. At 7 p.m., they will head over to Brick Street Bar & Grill in Grand Blanc Township for food, drinks, and a meet-and-greet, hosted by the National Corvette Museum, which is “very selective about where they go,” Bowling said.

On Aug. 18, the Corvettes will be parked between First Avenue and Fifth Avenue along Saginaw Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard.

Trend Settas, The Flint Corvette Club, Team Corvette and the Rainbow Corvette Club will all represent, but Bowling is expecting even more clubs from all over the country to show up.

“We’re going to have a record number of Corvettes this year,” he predicts.

The chairman of the Back to the Bricks committee, Al Hatch, admittedly is a little biased when he says he’s glad to have the Corvettes driving into town every year. After all, he has two of the Chevrolets himself – a 1966 and a 2002!

“Well, I happen to love them, yeah,” he admits. “It just adds a whole new dimension (to Back to the Bricks). It’s like a car show within a car show, which it is, but it’s an opportunity for the viewing public to see several hundred Corvettes in one sitting.”

For more info on the Corvette Reunion, visit www.CorvetteReunionatBacktotheBricks.com

Source:
Mlive.com
Photo Credit: Rebecca Makowski

Related:
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[PICS] The Corvettes of the Woodward Dream Cruise

 

With the seventh generation of the Chevrolet Corvette just months away, it’s a good time to take a look at just what makes a Corvette look like a Corvette.

For example, it’s been 60 years since the XP-122 Motorama concept car took the public by storm in 1952, leading to the 1953 debut model, but you can instantly tell it’s a Corvette just as much as the latest 2013 427 Collector Edition convertible.

Tom Peters, GM performance vehicle design director, says each generation of Corvette shares some common elements which create a consistent Corvette theme that is expressive, distinctly American, artful, and passionate.

How those design cues are stitched together, Peters says, is what creates the distinctive look of Corvette.

“It’s similar to an iconic band, such like the Rolling Stones. For decades, the Stones have been using the same instruments,” Peters said. “By changing their composition, the band has produced very different emotions and personalities. Despite the changing personalities of their songs, the sound is instantly recognizable as the Rolling Stones. The same is true with Corvette. The new 427 Convertible doesn’t share a single design cue with the 1953 model. Yet, even from 100 yards, both cars are unmistakably Corvettes.”

Peters offered up some design cues that have made each generation unique but still look like a Corvette – similar proportions, waterfall effect, dual cockpit architecture, body side cove, and the tail. Here is how he describes each of these features:

• Proportion: Each Corvette has similar proportions – from the long “dash to axle” element, to the short tail and small greenhouse.
• Waterfall effect: A powerful, signature cue common among all Corvette generations is the way a part of the exterior bodywork cascades into the passenger compartment between the seat backs, introduced on the first-generation Corvette convertibles. Since then, the waterfall effect has been reinterpreted to make a seamless transition from the exterior to the interior of Corvette.
• Dual cockpit architecture: Another iconic Corvette design cue that was inspired by jet fighters is the dual, wraparound cockpit. Introduced when Americans were obsessed with space flight, the wraparound cockpit instantly conveyed purposeful performance. Today, the Corvette’s interior still conveys the car’s sporting intentions, with easy access and visibility of the critical controls.
• The bodyside cove: While a spear-like chrome feature highlighted the side of the 1953-55 Corvettes, for 1956, a concave cove was sculpted into the bodywork behind the front wheels. Although its form and function have been reinterpreted over the years, a cove or vent has been a signature cue in the Corvette’s bodyside ever since.

We have a feeling once we see the C7 Corvette in person, it’ll still be instantly recognizable as a Corvette, just like the previous six generations.

Source:
General Motors

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A Corvette dream has turned into a nightmare for an owner of a 1966 Corvette when he found out that his 427 big block had a forged vehicle identification number.

Robert C. Ernst of North Tonawanda, NY found out about the problem after his Corvette was disqualified from a National Corvette Restorers Society judging event in Ontario last summer.

That revelation has led to criminal charges filed against the man who sold him the Corvette with the allegedly false VIN.

The 65 year old Ernst is no stranger to Corvettes. He says he has restored six vintage Corvettes previously, selling each for a profit.

He bought this Corvette from Ronald Ellis of Wilson, NY for $49,700 after seeing the unrestored car at a Riverside collision shop in 2008. “All Corvettes are kind of significant, but being an older one, the ’63 through ’67 [models] are considered special. This had a 427 [cubic-inch] engine,” Ernst told Thomas Prohaska of the Buffalo News. Ernst says he then spent an additional $75,000 to completely restore the Corvette to its original condition. “It’s some of my retirement money,” he said.

On June 9, 2011, Ernst took the Corvette the NCRS show in London, Ontario.

“There are five teams of judges that go over the areas of the car. I was in the second area when the judge asked me if they could take a picture of the VIN tag,” Ernst said. A few minutes later, the judge returned and told Ernst the Corvette was disqualified because the VIN was counterfeit. The judge told Ernst that the number was right for the car, but the lettering font and die marks on the tag were different than the ones GM used originally in 1966.

Ernst said, “They looked at this thing with a jeweler’s loupe,” a specialized magnifying glass.

After returning from the NCRS event, Ernst told his story to an investigator for the District Attorney’s Office.

“Somewhere along the line, the car might have been stolen and recovered,” Ernst said. “It had this weird sticker on it, ‘GA7558.’?”

The investigation showed the Corvette was originally sold in 1966 by a Chevy dealer in Georgia. It was stolen was eventually recovered by police sometime between 1966-1969. Because the original VIN was missing when it was recovered, Georgia’s Department of Motor Vehicles rebranded it with the GA7558 sticker. That of course, pretty much ruined the Corvette for future collectors.

The history of the Corvette also turned up seven previous owners in Niagara County.

Ernst believes that Georgia sticker was on the car when Ellis purchased the Corvette from a previous owner. He believes that Ellis used the existing VIN on the transmission as the basis for forging the new tag. “Apparently, the transmission never left the car,” Ernst said.

The District Attorney’s office charged Ellis with nine felonies – second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, forgery of a VIN, illegal possession of a VIN and five counts of offering a false instrument for filing.

Ellis has pleaded not guilty and the case is pending before the North Tonawanda City Court. Herbert Greenman is an attorney representing Ellis and says that his client had nothing to do with the replacement VIN tag.

“My client’s a terrific guy. He’s got a good job and a good family. He’s never had anything to do with the law,” Greenman said and added “What was happening with the VIN took place long before my client had the car. What Mr. Ernst believes to be a Georgia VIN, my client had nothing to do with.”

Source:
Buffalo News

Related:
Classic Corvette Dealer Investigated Over Double VINs
Bloomington Gold Announces New Standards for Engine Stamps
Decoding a Corvette’s V8 Casting Numbers and Engine Stamps
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