My day job is editing a car and truck valuation guide. Part of that includes researching every vehicle sold in the United States, and choosing characters out of their VIN that allow that vehicle to be VIN-decipherable in a computer program.
Corvettes used to be easy. There was a code for coupe, a code for convertible, maybe a code for the Z06, and that's it. Boom--three VIN codes.
It isn't that way anymore. In the past few years, Chevrolet has broken the VIN codes out on Corvettes to an almost unreal combination of characters. You can look at the VIN of a Corvette now and see if it is a coupe or a convertible, a base car, Z06, Grand Sport, or ZR1, an automatic or six-speed transmission, and what trim level it is from LT1 to LT3. What it results in is one of the longest lists of combinations and permutations of any car on the market.
But when I'm commuting back and forth from work each day, I don't really see that many Corvettes. It makes you wonder if they actually sell enough of them t warrant so many VIN combinations.
But this weekend, I realized that they have, indeed, sold quite a few Corvettes lately. Because when you looked down the street at the Kansas City Corvette Association's annual Vettes on the Square car show in Independence, you were greeted with a veritable sea of shiny, fiberglass sports cars.
In fact, it was so many late model Corvettes (I'm kind of putting anything from about 1997 and newer in that category) that I have a slideshow down there with nearly 300 pictures, and I didn't even take a picture of a majority of them.
Of course, all years of Corvettes were welcome, and there were some great examples of all of them. For my money, the most interesting cars to look at are the older models, with the Midyear cars tripping my trigger first, and the Straight Axle generation coming in at a close second.
But at this show, it didn't matter what year you like the best, because they were all represented. And by all, I literally mean every single year. The KCAA pulled off something really cool when they set up a special display that included one of every year of Corvette ever produced, starting with a nice, white 1953 roadster, and ending with an equally nice 2011 Grand Sport. I did take a picture of every car in the display, so you might have fun comparing them from year-to-year as you go through the photos.
By the way, my favorite one in the bunch was the '67 from that display. It's black and red and awesome all over. You won't miss it when you're looking through there.
This also marks a bit of a milestone for me, because the
Vettes on the Square event last year was the first car show I covered when I switched to the new Hover Motor Company blog. So I guess this is like a one-year anniversary story.
Anyway, it was a beautiful day to check out some beautiful cars. But if you couldn't make it,
I guess the slideshow below will have to do. Click this link for a nicer version.
nice slideshow, craig. thanks for posting. agree about the black & red, but the older silver & white convertible with red interior caught my eye. not sure what year it is... '60?
ReplyDeletei wonder sometimes what the T-Bird would have looked like had ford kept it true to its original roots.
Thanx again for the great photos - really enjoy them.
ReplyDeleteI too prefer the midyear cars - they are simply timeless and classic. At the age of eight, I flatly declared that the end of western society had arrived with the introduction of the 68 model cars...
Mike-I think that silver dude was a '59, judging by the direction of the pleats in the seats. They're pretty hard to tell the difference on, though. I liked that car, but it sat awfully high for some reason.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure the T-Bird would even have continued to be produced if they hadn't made it a four-seater in '58. Guess we'll never know, although the last T-Bird might give you some indication how they would have turned out.
John-I don't know that I think the '68's brought about the end of Western society--I like the '63-'67s the best, but there are no Corvettes that I particularly dislike. I was telling my dad when we were leaving, this is one of the few car shows that I would be happy to own virtually every car there.