you know he's a great guy. Sure, he sold his first C5 to Tony Petrea and then had to dude up his second C5 by converting it to a Mallett 396 -- but he's still a great guy.
When I heard he'd ordered a Z06 I knew I had to be there to give him a hard time; curiously, I was not the only one with that idea....
Bob's Z06 was scheduled to be delivered at 2:30p on Monday, December 4th. I told him that I was going to be in Dallas for a wedding (true) and wouldn't be back until Tuesday (not true) so Pete Butler
and I took a little trip from Atlanta to Bowling Green Monday morning.
I learned from John Wakefield
that the plan was to meet at Jerry's Restaurant (across from the Museum) for lunch with Bob's entourage, Wendell Strode and many of the NCM gang. We elected to meet John (who was driving up from Nashville) at the KY welcome station just over the Tennessee line. We did that and got to Jerry's Restaurant at 11:15a -- just in time.
Here comes Bob and everyone; he was surprised!
Vince Perriello, Pat Thompson and Adam Boca had conspired earlier to take a picture of Bob's new white Z06 and "adjust" the color slightly:
Yes, it's PINK. One of a kind. All Corvettes are Red, just some are just a little less red than others...
Bob wasn't all that upset. At least he posed with Jake and Elwood after lunch:
..and with Jerry himself:
While there were a a bunch of us there some were more photogenic than others. This is Judy Yanko and Bobbie Jo Lee:
We left the restaurant and most of us headed for the plant for a tour while the NCM crew returned to the Museum:
That's Alan, Chaz, John, Chris, Bob, Pat and Randall (Pete was the photographer) outside the plant.
The tour was interesting as always though the line was shut down when we went through. Saw a lot of export models on the line,
Off to the Museum for Bob's delivery. This is what we saw when we came inside:
Notice that the pink Z06 was on the sign as well. By now we're all starting to think the darned thing was really going to be pink.
Adam Boca
gave us a behind-the-scenes tour of the Museum. Here's how they keep the cars that aren't on display. The folks at Stinger Lift custom manufactured it for the NCM. Extremely cool when you consider that this is in a curved section of the building:
It was finally time to get to the main business of the day. Here's the first look at Bob's Z06:
Whew! NOT pink (thank goodness!) This is really cool; see the red mid year behind Bob's Z06? Well it's a '63 Z06 as well...
Here's Adam handing off the keys to ol' Bob. Had to get it done because Adam (apparently) had to go to the rest room (hopping from foot to foot...
This is one happy guy!
We checked and, yes, there was an engine under there:
And then, inevitably, comes the paperwork:
A quick shake of the hand from Wendell...
...and then Bob is GONE!
Well, actually, he just pulled around front to compare Speedway White with John's Arctic white:
Sure enough, the new white is "warmer"...
A great day! Here's the gang:
Some of us went to Hops for dinner, some boogied on home. All had a great time.
Way to go, Bob; you da MAN!