13th Annual KCCA Camp Quality Corvette Show was nothing but lucky

The Wal-Mart on I-29 and Barry Road was having a sidewalk sale on Saturday, and I was able to score a new Norelco electric shaver for less than half of what it cost normally.  That’s lucky; as in “Lucky 13.”  And you know what else was benefitting from lucky number 13?  The KCCA Corvette Show in the back corner of the Wal-Mart parking lot.  They were celebrating their 13th anniversary of this event, which is an annual fundraiser for Camp Quality.

Even if I hadn’t bagged a box of state-of-the-art, triple headed technology, any chance I get to look at Corvettes seems pretty lucky to me.   And everything at this show was better than some old horseshoe.  Take this black ’57 here.  This car obviously had a lavish restoration, with paint and chrome that was way better than it came from the factory.  I don’t know that the Cragar S/S mags really added anything to it, but that’s a matter of personal preference.   Wheels or not, this car was outstanding.

And then there was this Sebring Silver ’63 coupe.  From its correct Corvette wheel covers to the pristine 327 under the hood, this was a great example of the inaugural Midyear Corvette style.  Just think—this spectacular Corvette and my homely old truck were both brand new at the same time in history, and they both sold off of some Chevy dealer’s lot.  Not only was this Corvette in a whole 'nuther league when it was new, but time has caused them to distance themselves even further.

No, those are not aftermarket hood stripes on this nice 2004 Z06.  This is a factory-built Commemorative Edition, and it was actually a pretty special car when it was new.  These Le Mans Blue beauties were meant to celebrate the Corvette's 2001 and 2002 GTS class championships at Le Mans.  Those stripes are actually applied to a light, carbon fiber hood that was specially produced by the MacLean-Fogg Company.  They also had special emblems on the outside, and embroidered logos on the Shale interior. They made very few of these, but there were two of them at this show.

The 2004 Commemorative Edition used the Regular Production Option (RPO) code Z16.  That code was also used on another special Corvette that came out back in 1996—the Grand Sport.    They only built a total of 1,000 Grand Sport coupes and convertibles in 1996.  They were all Admiral Blue with a white stripe, and you could either get them with a black or red interior.  These are by far my favorite iteration of the entire C4 line, especially with the red interior like this one.  They were powered by the LT4 engine, which was good for 330-hp—a real monster in 1996 terms.

There wasn’t a huge turnout at this show, but several of the later-model special editions were represented.  You can see them in the slideshow below, or click this link for a better version.