Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Nine-year-old surprises dad with coverage of the Mid-Summer Corvette Show at Zona Rosa

You know I love Corvettes.  And this weekend the Corvette Club of Kansas City hosted the Mid-Summer Corvette Show near my house at the Zona Rosa shopping center.  Any other weekend, I’d be there in a heartbeat.  But I went to the Leadsled Spectacular in Salina this weekend, so I missed the Corvette show.  Still, this story has a happy ending after all.  To my complete surprise, my wife and son went to this great event without me.  And as a bonus, my nine-year-old son BHo took more than 170 pictures of all the cars there.  He was excited to share them with me when I got home, and I am equally as excited to share them with you.  The kid did a great job!

So what looked good there?  Well, how about this ’64 coupe?  White Corvettes with red interiors are timeless, and this one had optional backup lights and red line tires that complimented the interior.  ‘64s have long been considered the most affordable of the Midyears because they aren’t the first of the series like the ‘63s, and they still have drum brakes all around unlike the ‘65s.  But the value of all of them has gotten so high that none of them are inexpensive anymore.  I don’t care what year is the most popular; this one looks great to me.

This weekend NASCAR raced at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but that track is known more for open-wheel racing at the Indy 500.  In 1995, these dark purple and white Corvette convertibles set the pace.  Chevy only built 527 of them for public consumption, so you aren’t going to see one every day.  This one looks mostly stock, but the wheels are actually off of a later-generation Corvette.  Given that they don’t race at Indy too often throughout the year, I thought this was a good time to see this rare special edition.

BHo’s grandpa has a ’61 Corvette, so this silver and white beauty stands out.  I’ve seen this car before, and it's slicker than snot on a glass doorknob.  Unlike my dad’s car, this one has two carburetors, which bumps the horsepower up to 245.  This is one of those cars that is almost impossible to find a flaw with.  I doubt it was anywhere near this nice when it left the factory in 1961.  It’s so nice that I’d be afraid to drive it.  I mean, what if someone breathed on it?

I realize there were more stellar Corvettes at this show, but I want to touch on this gold ’85 for a moment.  I was 11-years-old when the “all-new” Corvette came out in 1984, and I really can’t describe how exciting it was.  That digital dash was like something out of Star Wars!  It had 16-inch tires, and they could only be mounted on the wheels in one direction!  The headlights didn’t just pop up, they spun around!  I must have read the catalog 5,000 times.  For me, it was the single greatest car I had ever seen in my life.  And even though better cars have come along, I’ve never felt that much excitement about any car ever again.  So whatever the image of these cars has become for some people, to me they’ll always bring up good memories.

I hope that you take the time to look at BHo’s slideshow below.  It was pretty great that they went out and got these pictures for me.  I definitely enjoyed them, and I know you will too.  Click this link for a nicer version of the slideshow.

3 comments:

  1. He DID do a good job! Couple of 'art' shots even...Good on Hover the Younger! Thanx for sharing.

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