Just curious if anyone made it to Bloomington Gold this year. I haven't been able to make it since the relocation to Champaign last year. Does anyone know why the auction was cancelled? I always enjoyed that aspect of the event.

 

Been going off and on for several years now. Will not be going back. It has really fallen off and not worth the trip.

 

They had low expectations for the auction to begin with, as it was scheduled for 5PM Sat night. I'm told it was eventually cancelled due to lack of cars.

Mecum's auctions have expanded wildly and all include lots of Corvettes, so there's a decreased interest in people "holding" their cars waiting for the Bloomington auction. Plus, I think selling the venue is probably less attractive for sellers, as there was often too much competition from similar cars, plus an awful lot of self- professed experts. It's simply better to list the cars at an auction closer to people's homes.

Also Dana sold the show so there's no reason for him to make the extra effort to have an auction there.

That said, I'd love to see the show pick up a small, newer auction company and offer a Corvette only auction again. The show is just smaller these days (like everything else) and an auction group without the overhead of Mecum would be a better fit.

The show is still worth going to and quite a but easier to get around than it was in St Charles. It's just a small show these days.

 

Thanks for the response, I certainly plan to go again. I've had work obligations the past couple of years. I loved the St. Charles location at Pheasant Run. I agree with you that maybe a smaller auction could work. I will be retired when next years show is held so I should be able to make it.

 

We drove up from Nashville... it was the first time I had been to it since about 1975. Yeah, it's changed a bit since then! haha It was not as big as I expected it to be, but it was still great. The judging field had some very rare cars (including a FI 64 with less that 4K on it) but as is typical, very few C3s. Here are a few pics. The last one is a group of C3s belonging to a nice bunch of people in the the St Louis Sharks C3 club. I wish there were a C3 specific club close to my hometown.

 

***WARNING: Non C3 Content***

Here's the 64 I was talking about above. Unrestored and less that 4K on it. Pretty sweet

 

 

That's one 64 that I wouldn't mind having, except I would want one that had miles on it.

 

Thanks for sharing the photos!

 

 

A few pics that I posted over on the NCRS forum. I wasnt able to upload from my phone onto this forum, so totally forgot to post pics.

Sorry that most are of my car, I was sort of busy with the judging and didnt really have a chance to get that many pics of other cars.

I ended up missing gold by 49 points, not the outcome that I wanted. I got slammed pretty hard for my dealer applied undercoating, but would have easily had a gold without those deductions.

Gary

 

Gary, Thanks for the pictures. Makes me wish I could have gone. Your car looks great! Looks like gold to me.

 

Hi Gary,
Your car does look terrific!
I'm sorry to hear about it missing a Gold Certificate.
I still think it's quite a special Corvette!
Regards,
Alan

Quite a few familiar NCRS faces in those pictures!

 

I was born and raised in Champaign. It pains me to be stuck in PA the past couple years as I would love to go to the show there.


But unfortunately my corvette hasn't been ready to make the trip just yet.
I hope the show is still around when I eventually make it back there.

I assume there's corvette parking for ones not in the show? Kinda doubt my highly modified '69 would even be allowed in lol.

My dad, Sister, and I back when we used to go to school there.

 

I was at BG 3 years ago at Pheasant Run. I think that the attendance was much larger. Champaign was a great place overall for this event, plenty of hotels, parking, etc but I think a combination of the cancellation of Mecum and the distance from a major airport really didnt work out so great for many people to come to the show.

The vendor lot was sparse at best on the last day, most vendors had packed and left the night before. The award ceremony was also light in attendance, maybe 1/3 of the cars or less that were judged waited for the awards.

Gary

 

Wow... you got knocked for a dealer installed product? That doesn't seem right... What can you do about it? Can it be removed?

 

My wife and I enjoyed the town. There was a Blues Festival taking place that we hung out at in the evenings. Seems like a pretty vibrant city. Oh... and I got a kick out of seeing this:

 

Great pics,love that 70zr1...

 

I'd like to see and hear more about that Orange 69 ZL1.

 

The undercoating was dealer applied. The judging standard for both BG and NCRS is typical factory production. I have been I through 2 rounds of regional flight judging and I have always lost points for the undercoating, just never this badly.

At bloomington, you can lose a max of 411 points out of 7000 or so points for gold and I lost 460. I lost around 200 points for the undercoating. It would have been a massive job to remove the undercoating. My car is really for the most part unrestored, I figured that I would have to repaint many things on the chassis to get them looking good again if I removed the UC,so it was either leave it alone or remove it and restore, so I chose to leave it alone. Also, the car is originally from DC and is solid because of this dealer applied product.

I didnt get too much info on the ZL1. I guess it was judged at bloomington last year and didnt get gold because of some issues, but couldnt get any info on the car. Regardless, it was pure badass. Maybe someone else can chime in on that car. There were a few articles written about it last year. I guess its really hard when everyone believes that there are 2 ZL1 cars...now all of a sudden a third car that appears correct has surfaced.

Gary