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April 20-22, 2006 This was a landmark trip. I would not be returning in the same Corvette I left home in. The trusty old '97 C5 that had been with us since the beginning in 1998 had over 200,000 miles on it. The bridle would be passed to a new C6 in a special ceremony in front of the National Corvette Museum. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Monday, April 17 The trusty '97 leaves home for the last
time... Tuesday April 18 The Corvette Plant as seen from I-65 just
before Exit 28. Stats for the final trip in the ol' girl. Parked on the circle at the National Corvette
Museum while I tracked down where the new C6 was and how to retrieve it. The last time I had seen it was on April 9 when
it left my house in Maine on Dick Borchers' flatbed. The car was at Museum Exec. Director
Wendell Strode's beautiful 1869 Homestead B&B a few miles out of town. Tom Watts
kindly drove me out there. Dinner that evening at the Santa Fe with Frank
& Bettie Noerr from CA and Aida & George Walden from WA. Wednesday April 19 In a quick walk through the Museum I found this
in a back staging area: the ACTUAL Indy 500 Pace Car, the one that Lance
Armstrong will drive at the 2006 Memorial Day Race! Evening dinner at 440 Main with the Faveros,
Bishops, Kilgos and Quackenbushes. After dinner, I put in an appearance with the
"Lot Lizards" behind the Baymont. Thursday April 20 The old and the new Vettes spent the day out in
front of the Museum... ...while I set up the usual display in the
Atrium, right next to the C5/C6 Registry table. Selling 50/50 tickets. Promoting
the C6 fund drive. Had a slide show running all day. Thursday Evening: The "NCM Thanks Dave Hill" Dinner
Friday April 21 Pretty much a repeat of Thursday - cars outside, me inside at the display. Friday Evening: Corvette Racing Dinner As usual, the C6-R racing drivers Johnny
O'Connell and Ron Fellows were all the entertainment anybody could handle! This
could be a second career for these guys... After dinner it was time to go to work. In the
Convention Center parking lot, under some pretty bright lights, Paul and
I, with help from Jim Miller, installed the smaller sponsor logo and club
decals... now that it had finally stopped raining! 11:30 pm finish. Saturday April 22 This was the big day for the C6 Presentation and the C5 Auction! Up at the crack of dawn to wash both cars (it
had been raining off & on ever since I arrived in Bowling Green on Tuesday
afternoon.) Then to finish transferring everything from the old to the new. I
almost overlooked the EZPASS toll transponder hidden up behind the mirror. The final odometer reading of my ownership.
They were great miles... At about 10:00 we brought both cars up to the
front of the circle and opened up the old car so potential bidders could look it
over. It still looked incredibly good! The C6 Presentation At the designated time of 10:30, Paul Eggermann
took the mike and explained to the crowd how he conceived the idea to raise
money to buy the new C6 so that I could continue Sandy's Corvettes Conquer
Cancer mission. I thanked him and all who helped make it happen, and
thanked Sandy for pulling some strings up there to bring out the sun for the
occasion! Retired Corvette Chief Engineer Dave Hill then
read this plaque (donated by Great Lakes Trophy) and then presented me with the keys as Paul looked on. The C5 Auction The auction of the old car had a little different twist: the high bidder would split the bid and write 2 checks for equal amounts; one to the American Cancer Society and one to the National Corvette Museum. Both are tax deductible. Then I would sell them the car for $1.00. The auctioneer did his thing, and in a few
minutes the car was sold, at $11,300! I couldn't have been any happier when I
saw who got the car, and they couldn't either! Roman got to write the checks. The first one for $5650 went to Jessica Jones
from the American Cancer Society's Bowling Green office. The second, for the same amount, was presented to
Wendell Strode, Executive Director of the National Corvette Museum. As promised, I sold Roman and Marilyn the car
for $1.00. I had them sign the $1 bill and the fuel rail
cover on the C6.
But wait, it gets even better: It just doesn't get any better than this! The outcome exceeded my wildest fantasy: that the winner would simply donate the car to the Museum! Here is the car as I last saw it: in a back
storage building (with a '53) as it awaits it's display time in the Museum. (I
signed the fuel rail cover with a "Thank You" to the new owners!) NOTE: In June the car is/was on the
turntable in the front window by the entrance to the Museum! Tom Rohrer sent me
this photo:
Saturday Evening Banquet & Auction The new Corvette Chief Engineer, Tom Wallace, gave
us some thoughts on the best job in the world, if not one with a lot of chance
for advancement. No Corvette Chief Engineer has ever been promoted! (His 3
predecessors all retired from the position.) As usual, I finished selling the 50/50 tickets,
with half the total receipts going to the lucky ticket holder and half to the
American Cancer Society. Tom Wallace drew the winning ticket for the $1276
winner's half.
Sunday April 23 After packing up my display and getting it all
(yes, all) into the C6's somewhat smaller bay for the first time, I moved it
down for a photo behind
Sandy's memorial brick on the front walk under the big sign at the NCM entrance.
Here you can see the panel on the door which lists the names of the individuals
and organizations who helped make this car possible. The silver group at the bottom
of the door contributed $100 or more, and the gold group are donors of $500 and
up. There are a lot of familiar names on the door: 23 of them also contributed
to that brick, back in 2000! After final goodbyes to the wonderful folks in
the Museum, I was ready to leave for home. Harold Holeman of C5reations
came by and I teased him that I still had space on the car for his logo. He said
he would like to do that in the near future, and then offered to put his front
bumper mask and mirror covers on the car, right then and there; an offer I
couldn't refuse! It only took him about 20 minutes to install the mask and the
necessary attaching hardware! Time to hit the road back to Maine. * On the way home, I had occasion to pass through some construction areas that had those portable radar signs showing "YOUR SPEED IS ##". I noticed that, with 3 cars passing by the radar unit in close formation, I could see the readout for all 3 of us. We were obviously traveling at exactly the same speed, but the display showed 70 mph for the guy in front of me, 63 for me and 70 for the guy behind me! This was confirmed in a later construction zone. What do we have here? Is this mask on the nose some kind of a stealth radar tricker? The mask is a black spandex kind of fabric, not the typical vinyl upholstery material most bras are made of, so maybe it is a lousy surface for the radar signal to bounce off. When I got home, I called Harold to thank him, and told him what I had observed. He was astounded, and said he'd have to pay attention to that in the future, thinking it could be a heluva marketing tool! (;>)
Monday April 24 Final stats. It's strange to see the odometer
reading only 4 digits instead of 6... <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> To
wrap up this trip and bring it back to the PRIMARY MISSION, we were able to
raise The National Corvette Museum also got $5650 from the C5 sale. |
