Mike Furman@Criswell

~Feb 23rd-27th I will be a guest of Chevrolet attending the Daytona 500 for the very first time. I've attended the 24 hrs of Lemans and Sebring care of Chevrolet and Mobil 1 and now I am really looking forward to The Daytona 500 as it is regarded as the most important and prestigious race on the NASCAR calendar, carrying by far the largest purse. The winner of the Daytona 500 is presented with the Harley J. Earl Trophy in Victory Lane...and we all know what Harley Earl meant to GM back in his day. Todays throwback pictures will be a nod to Malcolm Konner, his son Gary Konner forwarded me some rare family pictures from back in the day. More on that later.

~Mike G. From Fleetwood, PA factory ordered his 4th Corvette, 2017 Z06 Cpe in Sterling Blue with Kalahari interior and 7spd manual trans, Navigation and 2LZ pkg. This is one cool color combo.







~Runager T. Of Braintree, Mass. has been following me on the Forums. He found this Torch Red with Adrenaline Red interior 2017 Grand Sport in my inventory. He called me up and we made the deal in minutes. So this past week he flew down and drove home in his very first Corvette.






~My customer Andrew S. Of Rockville, MD Holds the speed record for an Electric Corvette. This past week he took delivery of a new Blade Silver 2017 Grand Sport with Z07, Comp seats and 7spd manual. His company, Genovation Cars, inc will transform this Corvette to Electric and try and beat his 205MPH World Record!






~Mike S. Of Houston, Texas flew in and drove home his 3rd Corvette that he has owned. Mike factory ordered this Corvette Dec 28th for his 50th Birthday present. Arctic White with Kalahari 2017 Stingray Z51 Cpe.







~Andrew C. Of Alexandria, VA factory ordered his very first Corvette from me and he chose a 2017 Z06 Cpe in Watkins Glen Gray with Adrenaline Red interior with 7spd manual trans, Navigation and Black wheels with Red Stripe.







~Tim B. Of Severn, MD follows me on the Forums and 2 years ago he bought a used Nissan Frontier from me. Saturday he called me for an appt. on a new Stingray to replace his 2008 Corvette. We walked the lot seeking Long Beach Red....but chose a new Black Rose metallic that just pops in the sunlight.
2LT Pkg, Auto trans, magnetic ride, performance exhaust and chrome wheels.







~Keith P. Of Middletown, NY factory ordered a new Admiral Blue Grand Sport with 7spd manual trans and black wheels. I gave him a sight unseen trade value on his orange 15 Z51 Cpe and Saturday he drove down 250 miles to get his new 2017 Corvette GS with microfiber seat inserts, transparent top and much more.








~Dan S. Of Townsend, Delaware factory ordered a new 2017 Grand Sport with Z07 Pkg and 7spd manual trans in Watkins Glen Gray and Adrenaline Red interior. I did a sight unseen trade appraisal on his 17k Mile 2013 GS and Friday was the first day we met. I came in on my day off as Dan wanted to share the delivery experience with his son.






~I also did a Bakers Dozen off site deliveries this past week and will share pics of those in two weeks when my regular Sunday post continues.

~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
Criswell Chevrolet
Gaithersburg, MD
301-212-4420
mfurman@criswellauto.com
CorvetteFurman.com
"I sell and ship Nationwide"
(Feb 23rd-27th I will be a guest of Chevrolet at the Daytona 500)

1bdvet

Thanks Mike, you sure know how to make smiles and love to see the past.
It's nice to look back and see what was missed with Corvette, and see the car is still going strong today.

bigblock427

Another week of some nice looking new Vettes and their owners.

I enjoyed reading and seeing the pictures of Mr. Konner, his dealership, and the related history.

Enjoy Daytona.

Fat Mike

Another great week of pics Mike - thanks!

Do you know how the display Corvette chassis were used after their useful life? That is, after they were no longer displayed.

How cool would that be to have a special edition Corvette model named after your store?

Borntorun04/17

Thanks for the pictures. I look forward to them each week.

JK 23112

Awesome pics!

Thanks again for a great start on a Sunday morning.

cor28vettes

Awesome & Amazing = Konner Chevrolet

For nearly 100 years

Rock2014

Great article Mike. Enjoyed the pictures. Have a great time at Daytona! Send pics!

Bigredwing

Thanks Mike, great visual Corvette history lesson. I always liked the Challenge cars too.

rkj427

Thank you again Mike, and a special "Thank You" to Gary for providing the really awesome photos!

I remember the C4 Special Editions, as they were mentioned here in the C4 area too.

Congrats. to all the new owners who took delivery, really do like the Sterling Blue and Black Rose C7's, and looking forward to hear/read more about the electrification and speed record attempt.

Congrats. on your upcoming trip to Daytona, make sure to take in as much as you can and enjoy yourself!

pjitty

In August of 2014, I ordered a 2015 Corvette from Konner. After a few months of waiting, I was told, they could not get the car until mid 2015. Don't get me wrong, I'm not here to slam anyone but would like to know, what happened to them. Just curious...

WBT

I love your old time Corvette pictures you post every week. You seem to have a wonderful history with the Vette. You seem to know everything about the car. That being said, when do you think the C8 will be for sale?

Mike Furman@Criswell

That is not the original Family dealership.

Mike Furman@Criswell

My guess for the mid engine is it will be a 2019 model year vehicle...as far as the official C7 to C8 body change...my guess would be 2020/21.

Mike Furman

Black 03 Z06

Another incredible week of the present and historical side of the Corvette and the people involved with them.

Great stuff.

Steve Garrett

Mike, I didn't know you were a wrestler!

Mike Furman@Criswell

I wrestled on a full scholarship and graduated from Univ. of Maryland.






Mike Furman

Rich Mickol

You out did yourself today with this post. Must be something to see those photos knowing that you were a part of the Konner history.

Thanks again Mike for the tour down memory lane.

Corvette ED

Back in the 1982 I went to Konner's with a good friend of mine and he bought a new 1981 Red Corvette out of that upstairs showroom. When the new 1984 Corvette came out we went back and his brother bought a two tone silver 1984 Corvette. I got to drive it home. What a ride across Route 80 back to Pennsylvania. That ride made me order a new 84 Corvette.

The photo of the Yellow 1993 Convertible with the White Top and White interior. I remember going to the Corvette show and seeing that car in the showroom. Not many built in that color combo? I wish GM offered White interior in the C7!!!

AORoads

My special thanks to Gary Konner, too, for sharing those fotos with you, and then you with us. Those really are a part of the history of Corvettes. You will enjoy Daytona and the 500. It is really different from LeMans and other races, but it's surely a part of Americana. It was a long time ago when I was last there for a race! Have a great time!