Mike Furman@Criswell

~Throwback picture time with a nod to the Malcolm Konner. Malcolm Konner Chevrolet was the premier Corvette dealership from the 50's thru the early 90's which is when the dealership was Sold. A big Thank You to Gary Konner for providing many of these pictures and great info.

Malcolm Konner inc. (DeSoto, Plymouth & GMC Truck) opened in 1935 at the age of 21 in Caldwell NJ. In 1955 the Chevrolet dealer in town went out of business so it was purchased and became Malcolm Konner Chevrolet and soon after began selling British sports cars (Triumph, MG & Jaguar) in a separate showroom at the other end of town along with Corvettes. Eventually the dropped the British cars and the showroom was exclusive to Corvette.

There is plenty of history to go around when you think about the Chevrolet Corvette, I was fortunate to work for the Konner Auto Group all thru out the 80's and Gary Konner sent me a ton of photo's this past week from his archives. Gary Konner although only 5 years older then I was one of my two early mentors in the Car Business. Gary's Father of course was the legendary Auto dealer Malcolm Konner.
These pictures depict a different era, in 1959 Malcolm Konner rounded up a group of his Corvette customers and chartered a plane to fly to St Louis and get a tour of the Corvette plant.
They also got to pick up their new Corvettes at the Plant and road rallye back to New Jersey. Gary even sent me a home movie of their escapades driving a couple dozen new 1959 Corvettes on the highways of the USA back home... with the tops down of course! Talk about seeing the USA in a new Chevrolet! Pat Boone was one of the Konner customers and he is seen in a few of the pictures. My memory of Mr Konner is nothing short of being a true Gentleman and a class act on every level. Gary's Mother Florence Konner was always extremely nice to me as well. To me they were Chevrolet Corvette family royalty and always will be. For decades the Konner's would have a yearly Corvette show the first week of June. Zora Duntov was a regular every year and even stayed at the Konner home.
In 1986 Chevrolet built 50 "Malcolm Konner Commemorative Editions" Corvettes. They were built in special arrangement honoring Malcolm Konner. Each Corvette had a special two tone paint scheme, Silver beige over black coded "SPEC'. Window stickers reflect 4001ZA as the RPO code and it was a $500 charge. All were Cpe's, 20 with manual transmission and 30 with Auto transmissions. 20 had RPO Z51 suspensions, divided equally between the two transmissions. All had Graphite leather interior. One became the First Callaway twin turbo engine conversion. Konner Corvettes were not built in sequence as serial numbers ranged from 8043-8343. All 50 were caravanned back to Konner Chevrolet in Paramus by the new owners and by truck carrier.
The Meadowlands Grand Prix ( Cart Race ) had a support Corvette Challenge race that was marketed as the Corvette Challenge Race for the Malcolm Konner Cup.
The crashed & burned #33 was as you can see on the front hood was a Malcolm Konner sponsored car.
The picture in front of the Miller Racing Malcolm Konner tractor trailer were the 3 drivers that ran the entire season for us. In red left to right was Mark Wolocatiuk (car #8), Robin Dallenback (car #58) & Doc Bundy (car #80)

"FYI, we were the series official supplier for the GM Goodwrench parts & I made the initial order for all the 1988 Challenge cars so the series could happen. Later the cars were distributed to various dealers." Gary Konner

Enjoy these rare some never seen pictures.



























































Pat Boone, family friend and customer of Mr Konner.









from my collection...



























































































































Zora and Gary's son Malcolm

































~That was a trip down memory lane for me. A huge Thank you to Gary Konner for sharing his family pictures and being such a great influence on me. "Mentor" is defined as an experienced and trusted adviser...your friendship and kindness was always appreciated and still is my friend.




Mike Furman
Corvettefurman.com
301-212-4420 desk direct
mfurman@criswellauto.com
"This July 26th will be the start of my 40th year selling Corvettes!"

treh1

Always interesting to see old photos from yesteryear. Thank you for sharing a little bit of Corvette history and congrats on 40 years!

hedgehead

How very 50's. And I like the early shot of Carlos Santana.

Bluestripe67

Mike, that was a geat photo trip through some real Corvette history. You have the '67 ready for Carlisle? Dennis

Nowhere Man

Very cool

cor28vettes

Awesome part of Corvette history. I've been over inch of Carlisle throughout the 80's. Wish I had taken a few minutes to talk shop at the red #8 Corvette Challenge car. But at that time I had my last SWC. Had no idea of this extensive history.

Konner Chev was #1 in the world back in the day and OP, with proper mentoring at Konner's is #1 once again, in Corvette sales by one individual. Love this old stuff. Tell em what you have accomplished over the last year. Just in sales alone. He's the go to guy.

Mike Furman@Criswell

Thank you.

Mike Furman

68hemi

A good friend of mine, Kim Madsen (now deceased) grew up around that dealership and his father was their service manager in the 60s-70s. Kim later has a Corvette resto shop in the Phoenix, AZ area. He bought a 1960 big brake Corvette later in life from the family of Steve Alfinbine (sp) that was sold new from this dealership

Qblue92

Great stuff. Thanx for sharing.

dmaxx3500

very cool,,now if they only did a tour of st.louis in 1969 and got some color pics then

Mike Furman@Criswell

Well the home movie I have from 1959 of the Corvette rally back to NJ is in color.

Mike

65Bob-bo

Very good! Thanks for sharing. I enjoy photos of the classics.

Mike Furman@Criswell

Welcome!

Mike

3JsVette

Great memories! That Corvette Show was always something to look forward to.
There were always special Corvettes and very special guests from Zora to Reeves Calloway to Dr. Ruth. Thanks for putting this thread together.

Mike Furman@Criswell

You're welcome. Glad you enjoyed the pics and story.

Mike Furman
CorvetteFurman.com
301 212 4420

Tampa Jerry

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Every Corvette fan in the northeast knew about Malcolm Konner Chevrolet. It seemed he always had a ton of Vettes on hand at any given time. Lastly, could you imagine today if a dealer sent his staff out to pick up and deliver a half dozen Corvettes. I don't think so. Thanks again for the great pictures. Jerry

dcamick

Great Stuff!! Thanks for sharing!!!!

Amick Family Corvettes since 1966.. Awesome memories!!!!

All our Corvette's purchased at Yenko Chevrolet in Canonsburg, Pa. Hell, even the Amick's of Western Pa have heard of Konner.

62corvette

3 wide wheel 59's in those pics. One with black walls, one with wide whites, one with less wide whites! Interesting. And there were only 214 wide wheel cars made in 59. Great pics --thanks for taking the time to post those.

rayvaflav

Eddie Murphy in knee socks !

Ray

rfn026

Wow - I've never seen any of those before.

If you haven't done so already you should make some hi-res digital files and send them to the NCM in Bowling Green. They would really love them.

Richard Newton
The R9G Corvette