This was an experience of a lifetime! How many automobile marques can you name still going strong for FIFTY Years? It seemed appropriate that our 1953CE be the car we took to this event.
Click HERE for the whole story of the Caravan, the Nashville Events and those in Bowling Green. This page will contain more CE-oriented words and pix.
Tuesday, Road Atlanta
I took the CE to Road Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon. Don Panoz threw a barbecue for the Georgia Caravanners. There were about 250 cars there. We queued up for parade laps on the 2.5 mile Road Atlanta road course:
The laps were great (they gave us three and some portions at speed). Awesome!
Wednesday, Atlanta Motor Speedway
Because I had a load of Georgia Caravan Driver's Handbooks to deliver I was unable to take the CE to AMS. Instead I drove with Bob Hardt.
Thursday, the Caravan!
Buzz & Jackie Nielsen and Bob & Vicky Hardt stayed with us last night so we all caravanned to the Georgia Caravan staging area early Thursday morning. We were already on the road when we realized we were Red, White and Blue. And all wearing our C5 Creations nose masks:
We queued up and off we went:
On the way to Bowling Green, Buzz showed us a "shortcut" bypassing Nashville. We stopped at this motel for a photo op:
When we arrived in Bowling Green we met up with Mo & Rich Waller and their #8 CE:
There was also a "homebrew" 53/C5 conversion built by "Bear" Schenk from Tallahassee, Florida. He calls it the "Z53 50th Celebration Concept Car". It wasn't finished but he brought it along:
Bear actually cut a 1953 body in half and grafted the ends onto his Z06. You have to admire the effort! Here are more views:
Whether you like his solution or not, you have to respect the effort (for sure)!
Friday, Nashville @ Titan Stadium
Since we were staying in Nashville we parked at the Opryland Hotel and took a bus to the stadium. The parking lot there was reserved for those who had Bowling Green hotel rooms and who cruised down to Nashville each day. Some great looking cars in that lot. First thing I saw was Tom Robbin's 1953CE #7 Torch Z06:
Tom won the award for the longest drive and the lowest serial number of the five CEs present at Nashville/Bowling Green.
Near the end of the day we saw an amazing sight. Seems that Dino and Lynn Salvatori had purchased an Anniversary Red 1953CE from Rollie Purifoy (in Colorado) and Rollie had arranged to deliver it to them in Nashville:
Saturday, Bowling Green
The Nashville event was two days but we pretty much did it all in one so we decided to spend Saturday in Bowling Green. We got our great parking spot again; this time next to Cindy & Dennis Manire's beautiful metallic red '63 Grand Sport replica:
And talk about a thrill! Dick Guldstrand (legendary Corvette racer and car maker) came by and admired the CE. I asked if I could take a photo of him in the CE. What a gentleman!
WHY didn't I think to ask him to sign the hood?!?!?!
Sunday, Bowling Green
When I visited with Rollie Purifoy on Friday I said I thought it would be neat to get all five of the CEs together for a picture. Worked out to be set for 8am Sunday morning at the NCM. Craig Stater (#30) had to leave on Saturday so he missed the photo-op:
There were FIVE CEs at Nashville and FOUR stayed on for Bowling Green. They were:
#7
Tom Robbin
Torch Z06
Colorado
#8
Mo & Rich Waller
White
Michigan
#11
Gael & me
White
Georgia
#30
Craig & Connie Stater
White
Iowa
#36
Dino & Lynn Salvatori
Anniversary Red!
Colorado
Craig was on the trip alone and left on Saturday before the pictures below were taken:
To add to the excitement of the day, friend Kent Cartner asked to be photographed in the CE:
But wait! There was even MORE excitement! The Speed channel show "My Classic Car" was there filming the event and Dennis Gage:
..asked if he could use my car for the closing bit. Why, SURE!
The show is supposed to air in early 2004.
Monday, Bowling Green
Today, June 30th, is the actual 50th birthday of Corvette; the very first production 1953 rolled off the assembly line in Flint, Michigan on June 30th, 1953. There were many "doin's" but I took no CE photos.
Be sure to check out the entire caravan story HERE.
