Another beautiful day in Motor City! China blue sky, couple of inches of old snow on the ground, temps in the high teens. And since Ed lives here and is doing all the driving -- excellent driving conditions!
Today we toured the Walter P. Chrysler Museum. I know, I know, it may seem disloyal of all us Corvette types to do that but I'm guessing more than one or two of us have a bit of Mopar running in our blood. I know Bob Hardt does (he and Vicky have a PT Cruiser...)
Here we are in front of the Museum. Left to right are Bob, Chad, Ed and Ed's son Greg; Bob's cold. I'm hard to see in this one..
This is cool. Just inside the museum is a tower that has four cars on it (Viper RT-10 prototype at the top). That's cool enough, but the whole tower and all the cars rotates soundlessly clockwise at about 2rpm:
Lots of exhibits about Walter P. Chrysler and how he used to be a train mechanic dreaming of having a car named after him. These static exhibits have a pushbutton that adds sound to what you're seeing; neat feature.
Lots of neat old cars to look at. The first two views are of the very first car to wear Chrysler's name (in 1924):
Unusual to find in the Chrysler Museum for sure, but here is the LS7 engine destined for the 2006 Z06 Corvette!
Really?!? NO, not really. It IS the 400 HP engine from the Sherman tank. It's made of five (count 'em) FIVE straight-six Chrysler engines arrayed around a common drive shaft. Very creative...
Speaking of engines, here's the first Dodge Hemi:
Lots more cars to see.
Just about then most of the rest of the Registry troops arrived:
In addition to the main show floor there's a basement garage with thirty more cars, mostly Mopar muscle cars.
Here, for example is the Team Oreca Viper that beat us to win the 2001 Rolex 24:
Those paying close attention to the drivers' names:
..will notice that one of them was just announced as a driver for the C5R Race team in car #4 (Olivier Beretta)!
Outside again, readying ourselves for our visit to Advanced Automotive Technologies (the folks who build the 1953 Commemorative Edition Corvette (like mine)).
This time, through the wizardry of PaintShopPro I managed to get into the picture:
This is only my third visit to Detroit; my first was to drop off my donor C5 to the Pasteiners at AAT to have it remade into my 1953 Commemorative Edition. Dunno why I didn't think to call ahead and ask if was OK to drop in -- but I didn't; heck, I didn't even have their address and phone number with me.
Don't want to bore those who've seen the whole story on the great job these folks do building these unique cars; you can read all about it on www.50thcommemorative.com.
Today they were working on two cars (plus something really special) and showed us the inventory of 25-30 C5s waiting their turn for conversion.
Here are the two Steve Pasteiners (father and son) who own Advanced Automotive Technolgies:
Here's a silver car under construction:
Did I mention something "special"? The Pasteiners don't just build the 1953 Commemorative Edition. This is a 1954 Corvette (real '54 body and frame) -- but with a C4 suspension -- and a LS1 engine! This one will be finished in a week or so and should be awesome!
It's going to be black with a red interior.
The custom fuel rail cover will be finished in silver and chrome..
Here's tne next 53CE out the door. C5 fans may recognize this plate as this car (before conversion) has often been seen at the NCM and on the 50th caravan. It's Bill & Karen Coberly's #57.
Finally, here are several views of the next cars to become 1953 Commemorative Corvettes:
From Advanced Automotive Technologies we finished our ride into Detroit to pick up our tickets for tomorrow morning. We expected to be treated to a semi-private showing tomorrow early so it was important to turn in the e-tickets for "real" tickets. Surprisingly easily done -- that's the day.
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