Kevin, I purchased mine from Jim Clark Chevrolet Cadillac in Junction City, Kansas. In early 2017, my 8 year old Border Collie (Jax) was diagnosed with terminal malignant thyroid cancer, which necessitated many visits to K-State’s Veterinary Hospital. Such trips put me driving past Jim Clark Chevrolet Cadillac in Junction City anywhere from 2 to 4 times a day. I would have had to have been blind not to see the attractive silver C7 corvette parked out front. I must have driven past that corvette 30 times before I decided to inquire about it. It was an awesome car and an amazing value being that there was 500 miles on it and was subsequently priced as used. It was a silver 2015 with a beautiful 2-tone black/red 3LT interior. Spoke with Raphael and Willie Thornberg. The 3 of us spoke for a little bit but I either had to get back to K-State or get back to work so we cut our visit short but agreed that the next time we would go for a test drive.
Jax, after surgery and before chemo and radiation therapy.

About a month later, the day came for the “test drive”. I learned early in the test drive with Willie that he had been to a few different driving schools. He certainly knew his cars well and explained a lot about the technology this car possesses with the Selective Magnetic Ride Control and the car’s natural abilities. We went south of Junction City for our test drive to find a winding, quiet road, and it was on that road that I experienced (first hand in the passenger seat) some of the car's amazing capabilities, the way it gripped the road – a cold windy road at speeds and G forces that I thought were impossible. Impressed beyond words, I was sold. It wasn’t that I was sold on the looks of the car, which was of course amazing, but sold on the fact that I love over-engineered items with tons of intent. This car embodies tons of over-engineering and lots of hidden capacity. It was the car's capability that sold me, and to boot, Willie told me that he didn’t push the car even close to its limits! WOW.

Now that I was sold, I wanted the car. I wanted Corvette. So when we got back to the dealership I began comparing the Silver C7 with a brand new Torch Red (GKZ color code) 2016 C7. I liked the red exterior of the 2016 but preferred the gorgeous 2-tone black/red interior of the 2015, and I couldn’t make a decision. I left, frustrated with myself, but on the trip home I realized that problem wasn’t me. The problem was with my limited number of choices. In other words, if that dealership would have only had the silver 2015 I probably would have purchased it, but because I fell in love with the red paint of the 2016 there was a fork in the road that I couldn’t get beyond.

Over the course of a few weeks, I communicated with Raphael, trying to rule one of the 2 cars out because they were both attractive cars for their own respective attributes – 2015 more economically priced with a beautiful interior and the 2016 because it had never been parked outside and because of its gorgeous color. Yes, I was disappointed that the 2015 had been stored/parked outside and was never parked inside. It even got snowed on. Something about leaving such a car outside “ruined” the 2015 for me, and even though I had already put a sizable deposit toward the car I had decided that I no longer wanted the 2105. That left only one car – the red 2016. Did I want the 2016 with its comparatively less flashy interior? The red 2016 had some other features such as carbon fiber inserts on the hood and roof that even though they made the car more expensive those “more expensive” features made the car less desirable in my eyes. What about ordering a corvette with the features and attributes that I preferred?

To my surprise, I discovered that building a base model Corvette with a few of the upgrades that I wanted like upgraded wheels and the Selective Magnetic Ride Control put the cost of that base model nearly on par with that of its big brother – the Grand Sport. The Grand Sport was the middle child between the base model Stingray and the supercharged Supercar Z06. The Grand Sport has the more handsome wider body of the Z06 and many of its upgrades as standard features but without the supercharged motor of the Z06. It didn’t take me long to jump to the Grand Sport once I realized that a Stingray with the upgrades I wanted would have cost nearly as much as the more equipped and more capable Grand Sport.

With the Grand Sport now being the sensible choice, what did I want? From the perspective of having it behind me, and looking back on the entire process, I can do nothing more than laugh and shake my head in embarrassment because I changed my mind so many times, back and forth, from one extreme to another and then back. To any third party I must have looked like a kid in a candy shop saying, “Yes, I want this one for sure,” and then just days later saying, “Okay, this is what I want instead for sure,” which of course was not what I ended up with. It was mid April 2017 and with hundreds of revisions behind me I was finally ready but then realized that I was so far into the 2017 model year if I waited just a few more weeks I could order a 2018. That was my plan – to order a 2018 Grand Sport and hope that the options I wanted from the 2017 model year were still available in the 2018 model.

On April 24, 2017, I special ordered from Chevrolet the 2018 Grand Sport below, exactly what I wanted and how I wanted it.

April 26, 2017: a message from Willie: “The plant starts producing 2018’s the week of June 5th." I assumed that we could expect it to be built within the first month of production, which would put the Corvette here in early July. We will know more once the order is officially accepted.

April 28, 2017: I received an email from Willie stating that GM had accepted my order and had given me an order number of VHCSZV.

May 9, 2017: Got a text from Willie as I was bringing Jax home from K-State that said, “Good news today. Vette was officially accepted and placed in the build system.” With this step, we will have an estimated production date very soon. The new order number is VHHZX2.

May 12, 2017: I ordered a Photo Album of my car’s production.

May 15, 2017: Just received the following email from Willie: “Brian, great news, Tentative Production Week is June 5th! Talk about fast. It will be here in June at this rate.” My car’s production possibly begins today at the earliest and at the latest sometime this week because I got my order submitted just days after it was possible to submit 2018 orders.

June 5, 2017: Today was supposed to be Corvette’s first day of production of the 2018 models, so you can imagine my surprise when today I received an email from Lori Bieschke from the National Corvette Museum containing these pictures below. Holy crap; what a surprise. Initially I was told to expect delivery some time in July and then received an update from Willie saying probably some time in June and so naturally I thought going from July to June would just be mere semantics’ – what’s the real difference between early July and the end of June. I really didn’t think I’d actually see the car until the end of June and possibly into July when considering transport. I’m not sure how they got the car assembled and to this point so quickly but seeing these pictures leads me to think that I really may see the car delivered some time in June which is way ahead of schedule and my expectations.

Picture from Bowling Green.
Picture from Bowling Green.
Picture from Bowling Green.June 6, 2017: I received an email from Lori Bieschke from the National Corvette Museum with the VIN of my car: 1G1Y12D78J5100041.

June 9, 2017: I was speaking with NCM Insurance agency and learned some interesting things about my car… Production on the 2018 Corvette models may have begun earlier than anticipated (probably because of the pending production shutdown) and my car (as indicated by the VIN) is the 41st 2018 Corvette produced. Because of the number of Corvettes produced each day, my car’s production likely began on the very first day of production and will likely be en route by June 16th. Which means I’ll probably get to take possession of it the 3rd or 4th week of June. This is going a lot faster than I imagined.

June 9, 2017: Got an email from Willie Thornberg tonight after work with the following information: “Your baby was born June 5th, it is currently “bayed”. That means that it is parked waiting for a truck to load it up. It should be here next week!!” This is really starting to pick up speed!

June 21, 2017: Got a call from Willie this morning. He said the Corvette was loaded onto a Jack Cooper Transport truck yesterday afternoon and that it should be delivered to the dealership some time this afternoon or tomorrow morning! Willie called again to inform me the trucker is going to stop and stay the night in Kansas City tonight and will deliver the car tomorrow morning.

June 22, 2017: The Corvette stayed the night in Kansas City. My family and I left for Junction City first thing this morning hoping to arrive before the Corvette in case the transport driver got an early start. Willie told us the truck was presently in Lawrence KS dropping off a Corvette and was scheduled for a stop in Topeka KS (Ed Bozarth). My son and I thought it would be really cool to intercept (aka "stalk") the transport truck to take pictures and video of the truck en route to Jim Clark Chevrolet. On our way to Topeka to intercept the transport truck, I spotted a transport truck carrying a red Corvette and strongly suspected that was “the truck”. So we exited off the interstate and got back on to catch the truck. Sure enough, that was our Corvette. It was fun to ride along side the truck, waive at the driver (Will), and follow it to Jim Clark Chevrolet.
Here we are stalking the transport truck.
Just off the transport truck.
Here is Will, the transport driver.
Can you pick me out? I'm the one with the biggest smile!





That's my story.