So….we’ll be doing the NCM delivery the first week of February. How long do people tend to stay in the Bowling Green area for the experience? We live ~3 hours from the museum and will be trailering the new Vette home. I’d prefer to trailer in daylight hours, so I’m considering staying two nights to soak it all in and not be pulling the new baby home in the dark.

What have others done?

 

"How long should the process take?" Interesting way to look at Museum Delivery. The 'process' can take as long or as short as you want. NCM can probably rush you through the process pretty quick, but why would you want to rush through a process that is designed to totally immerse you into the Corvette C8 world for as long as it takes? You paid close to $1000 for the NCM staff to make you King/Queen for a day. You have free reign at the Museum, a discount at the store, and a personal expert guide who can explain all aspects of the C8 to you. He/she is assigned to you and you alone for as long as you want that day 0745 to 5 pm. You will not find a better time or place to learn about all the goodies on your C8. So instead of worrying about driving home, learn the car, go to the Motorsports track for your 4 laps (a MUST), have lunch at the Stingray Grille, drive your car around town to get the feel of it & make sure it is all good, then spend the night at the close by, excellent Hotel Sync at $80/night. R8C is probably the best 'One Time Good Deal' for most Corvette owners, the best value for the money, don't squander it by rushing off. Plenty of time to drive home the next day. You wil.l eventually come to realize that the rushing about and not taking full advantage of Shane and his excellent staff may have been shortsighted.

Your Guide has only one goal for that day, to get the owner up to speed & comfortable in his new sportscar. Start early, take a break at the Stingray Grille, and then go back to work. Some owners have taken 7 hours to do the delivery. You and a guest also have unlimited Museum access and a guided tour.

Also, plan to eat at the NCM Stingray Grille, it is great for brunch! If you plan to do Touring laps at the track, it would be difficult to do them on the same day even with a 7:45 am delivery time. So, I recommend planning those for a second day. Also... do the 4 Touring Laps. For $150 (half price) it’s a great time, and the track they have is awesome. Wait until you try the sinkhole curve! As soon as you get your delivery day from Shane, call the track & schedule your laps. It’s easier to change your delivery day than it is to change your track lap times! They run the track laps rain or shine.

Lastly, why are you trailering your C8 home if you are only 3 hours away? Don't you trust your car, when will you? Many new owners (including myself) pick up their car & drive it thousands of miles home. Get your car, drive it around the area for a day or so to check it out, stay at the hotel, then drive it home. If you have an issue, Shane & the NCM staff will take care of ir for you.

Just go for it, this is a terrific road car!

 

Thanks for the reply. Absolutely not trying to rush, I just didn’t know that it’s an all day deal. It’s the first time we’ve done this. I assumed it was a museum tour and car overview.

I should have said ‘likely trailering home’ as we live 3 hours north and weather in February is predictably unpredictable. I don’t want to drive her home in poor conditions as she’ll be a garage queen, along with her 2000 C5 big sister. It’s not a snow mobile it’s a sports car! Plus I own a diesel truck and have an enclosed trailer rented in case the weather is inclement.

 

R8C is an adventure, NCM treats you very well, & you & your family will certainly enjoy it. Try getting on the NCM website, select the camera's and watch Corvette Blvd. That's where all the delivery action takes place. https://www.corvettemuseum.org/web-cams/

Damn, you're certainly prepared, good for you! Do what's best for you, just remember 'Weather Mode" is your friend!

 

I’m a project manager by trade. Meticulous planner, so this thread is for planning and questions. Lol

 

I’m also in Ohio and mine is built earlier than I planned. I hired a truck and enclosed trailer to haul home just in the event of bad weather to be safe. We’re doing a tour early on Friday and the museum delivery is on Saturday morning. I’ve been to the museum before with my kids but my gf has never been. I’d like to do some track laps but planning for the worst weather and anything else will be a bonus. I think 2 full days would be fine but again all depends on time constraints, weather and how much you want to see and do.

 

I did my museum delivery last month and I had a 7:45 delivery. We took a leisurely pace on everything including spending $700 in the gift shop after our private tour!! All that took about 4 hours then we had lunch at Stingray Grill (excellent) then headed over to the track across the hwy for my discounted track laps. Absolutely do that. Well worth it. We stayed at hotel Sync and would highly recommend that too. They were very nice and the room was great for the money. Do all that and stay a second night and roll out the next day.

 

I have done 4 NCM deliveries so far. I would suggest adding the extra night in advance so that you can be a tourist the entire day prior to the Big Event. Then on delivery day with an 8am arrival, you should be ready to leave for home by 1:30 to 2pm.

 

I just did R8C delivery with my daughter the week before Thanksgiving. I cannot say enough about the experience - it was the very best way for me and my daughter to get acclimated with the car and the entire Corvette universe. Our guide was amazing, and brought lots of insights and stories as he worked for 40 years building Corvettes before retiring to a job at the NCM. You really do feel like you are a king.

i also took advantage of the NcM Motorsports track across the street. I’m an experienced track driver, so I skipped the hot laps and did the C8 experience instead, which basically was three (3) twenty minute track sessions of lead - follow with a very cool instructor. I did that at 8AM, and ended up at the NCM for my delivery about 45 minutes late for my 10AM appointment. We still had plenty of time for the paperwork, the delivery, and the museum tour. The only thing we missed was the Stingray grill. We will get there next time.

We only had one day in Bowling Green, and a second would have been nice. That said, we got in the C8 after all was said and done and drive 5 hours into WV to stop for the night near Marshall University. We then got up the next day, had a great breakfast, and drove back to NJ. Total driving was around 13 hours between the two days. The C8 is one of the best grand touring cars I’ve ever driven, bar none. Better than my M3 or my 928S. If you dare to reconsider trailering, you will really enjoy the drive home. 3 hours will seem like a run to the market for milk.

Enjoy and congrats!!

 

Great advice. Do take however much time you want with the NCM delivery process - make it a very memorable day.

 

We spent 2 days there. You can do it in one day if you schedule an early delivery, but 2 days is probably better. Arrive early at the museum and get set up with your concierge for the day. The actual delivery takes a few hours. I know people say you can make it as long or short as you want, but to be honest it's hard to interrupt the process when you do not know exactly what to expect. Our guy spent a long time going over the electronics and settings, honestly I could have skipped this part, I do not retain info as it is explained to me, I like to dig through it myself. But other people love the special explanations. My wife for example likes it, but she also did not pay any attention to it while it was happening! She was too into taking pics and talking to people. So then our museum tour was rushed and we were like the last people leaving the museum that day. We went back the next day to do our touring laps - definitely do that! Then back to the museum to take our time exploring.

Had I known all this, I would have tried to get an earlier delivery window, and then spent more time with the museum and shopping. Touring laps the morning of the following day, and then head on out.

For your trip home I would drive the car. Get a Novistretch and some TrakkTape to protect the front end and enjoy the 3 hr drive. We drove home to Florida from Kentucky and it was an amazing experience.

 

I plan to do the R8C delivery sometime this year. I have been wondering how much time to plan for, i want to do it all!
That said can i schedule the track times or museum tour the day before or day after to allow more time and no rush? Staying two or three nights isnt a problem at all.
Im planning on driving my new C8 back to Kansas when I'm ready tho head home. This truly is planned tho be an adventure!

 

My son and I picked up my C8 at the NCM in August. We arrived into Bowling Green on a Thursday evening in time for dinner (Southwest flight from Dallas to Nashville landing around 3pm). There was a Tri-Five convention in Bowling Green that weekend, so we headed out to the drag strip after dinner to watch the old Chevy's. Was a cool, unplanned addition to our trip.

We had the 7:45am spot on Friday morning to pick up our car. We got picked up at the local Avis rental place a little after 7:15 and got a driving tour of the Corvette plant. Once we got to the museum, we did all the paperwork, checked out the car, took a fairly detailed personal tour of the museum, did the in-depth review of the car, and some light shopping all by 11:45am. We grabbed lunch at the Stingray Grill. Admittedly, I had so much adrenaline I couldn't focus or eat much. First Corvette and an amazing drive out meant that I barely remember the meal. We had arranged for the follow laps at the NCM track for my son at 1pm. Made those with plenty of time and it was a blast to ride with him as he flew around the track. Afterwards, we took off for a ride back to Texas via the Natchez Trace with a stop in Jackson, MS that night. That was a lot to fit into 1 day, but not sure that I would have hung around Bowling Green for another day as I really wanted to get out and drive my new C8. We made it back to Texas by 5pm on Saturday, with the car broken in and just in time for my son to head off to college the following week.

Biggest surprise in the whole thing: The drive out of the museum was emotional. I had been building and reconfiguring and waiting on my car for a year. To finally get it with such an awesome experience was phenomenal.

 

I’d try to set the Touring Laps for the 2nd day. For me it’s exciting to get your car delivered, then get to drive one. Also at the track they have a really good photographer and he can take pics of you by the track cars and also by your own car. The ones we got at the track are the best pics of the weekend.

 

Question: have the Plant Tours resumed yet, or are they still planned for later this year as a part of R8C option?

 

The Hotel SYNC across the street has garage stalls for only an additional $30/night.

 

Yes

 

This is my plan as well, the day I take delivery I'm sure we'll still be in town for a night or two. My hope is to make the most of it!

 

Just did a museum delivery on 12/30/2022. Absolutely awesome! Spent most of the day at the museum and the last part at NCM. I’ve been on a lot of tracks, but that one is one of my favorites. Do not miss that experience. Stingray grill has some killer burgers and needs to be on the list. Unfortunately the plant was shut down. Thought about shipping the car home to Phoenix but decided to drive it. Three days of driving through ever conceivable weather system, wind, rain, snow, and hail. At the end of the day the drive was awesome and I wouldn’t change a thing. Cars are meant to be driven and I was blown away by how comfortable this one is, even with competition seats. OK, I would change one thing, I wrapped the front to prevent rock chips and the rain turned that endeavor into a real disaster. Lastly, big shout out to Ron Renner who picked us up at the Nashville airport and drove us to Bowling Green. If you need a ride, he’s your guy. Anyway you do it, I guarantee you are going to have a blast.

 

Great response! I share all of the sentiments. Unfortunately, the track was not available for me when we picked ours up. The factory tour was also not available to us since it was in the middle of Covid and speculation of Z06 secrecy.

On the topic of trailering it home - I am one of the guys that drove the long route home and loved every minute of it. I wouldn’t blink about a three hour trip home! My wife and I drove from the museum to Saint Augustine, Florida. Spread it across 2 1/2 days to enjoy sites along the way. We’re possible we took back roads instead of interstates. I was traveling with another buddy who also the museum delivery with me on the same day. It was over a year ago so the C8s were not as common as they are now. We made for some pretty neat photo ops, stopping along the way everybody wanted to see our cars together.

I don’t know what the general sentiment is with everybody else who takes museum delivery, but we tipped our guide for the day since he spent so much time with us. I like the reference of king and queen for a day because that’s the way they made us feel. Was really nice service! Our guide seemed grateful to have received a gratuity, so I don’t know if it’s less common than I would’ve expected.