Highlights from Corvettes at Carlisle 2017
The Annual Corvettes at Carlisle event is the largest gathering of Corvettes on the planet. What was your favorite part of Corvettes at Carlisle 2017?
5000 Strong
If there's anything better than 5000 Corvettes in one place, it's 5000 Corvettes in a place with a temperature hovering in the mid-70s. That was the happy reality this year at the annual Corvettes at Carlisle, held August 24-27 in Pennsylvania's Cumberland Valley. There is something better than that though: winning a C7 Corvette — but only one of the estimated 55,000 Vette fans at Carlisle this year was that lucky. For a measly $15 admission( just $10 on Sunday), or $35 for the whole 4-day weekend, you could lose yourself in a sea of Chevy's finest. The city of Carlisle was treated to an especially fun Saturday night as 500 Corvettes took part in their 25th annual Corvette parade and street party. Why can't every weekend be like this?
Wheeling through the Years
It's easy to find your favorite Corvette at Carlisle, they're organized by generation; just find your group and you'll be surrounded by the ones you love. Taking this theme a step further were the His and Hers C1s pictured above. Also on site was automotive artist J.D. Orr who did live sketches all weekend, and if he did one of your car we want to see it!
Smoking Area
If you preferred the soothing sounds of V8 power in action to browsing rows of classics, Carlisle had you covered. An on-site autocross course offered the opportunity to pit your machine, and your driving skills, against other enthusiasts. A burn-out pit let you smoke 'em if you got 'em and let everyone hear your engine at full song. As you can see from the photo above, copious concrete barriers protected spectators from flying rubber and debris... but not their noses from the sweet smell of burning rubber. No word how close the tire-smoking area was the the tire manufacturer's tents.
Candy Store
Speaking of manufacturers, when it came to Corvette merchandise if your want it you could get it at Carlisle. Team Chevrolet was on hand to help you with your automotive issues, of course, or you could head to Installation Alley and have upgrades performed on your Vette while you browsed the other cars. Hopefully they didn't utilize the old mechanic's watch/help/etc. price schedule. A stroll down Manufacturer's Midway might take you past the scene you see above. Imagine all the power a built Edelbrock head/intake equipped big block could make! If you were looking for something older, rarer, and original — or maybe just a bargain — Carlisle's sizable swap meet was the place to be.
L88 Celebration
Because it's been 50 years since the last of the C2 Corvettes rolled off the line, Carlisle gave them a party, and the legendary L88s were the guest of honor. With just 20 originally produced, and only 16 known survivors, Carlisle had a great L88 turnout with eight of those originals in attendance. As we know, Chevrolet played games with horsepower ratings back in the day, and the L88 engine's figures were one of their biggest fibs; GM rated the cars at a respectable 430 horsepower, but the actual number was probably closer to a whopping 560 horsepower. One of the original cars sold in 2014, at Barrett-Jackson-Scottsdale, for $3,850,000.
Greenwood Daytona Turbo Coupe
Last year Carlisle celebrated all of the cars of John Greenwood, and lucky viewers were able to see some of his work again this year. The blue wonder above is an ultra-rare Greenwood Daytona Turbo Coupe — only five were built. All of the Daytonas built had modified automatic transmissions, three-piece BBS wheels, and extreme bodywork actually tack tested to add downforce and provide cool air to vital systems. The turbocharger itself is a draw-through setup that allowed the stock Quadrajet carburetor to be retained. The NACA ducts you see on the hood are completely functional; John Greenwood was not a man who added fake scoops to his creations.
Callaway SuperNatural LM
L88s were not the only featured cars this year, the tuner cars from Callaway were also featured. You'd be forgiven for thinking the car in this photo is a prototype Ferrari from the '60s - it is red after all - but sharp forum members know this beauty is a Callaway SuperNatural Corvette LM, a road-going version of the car Callaway took to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the early 1990s. Four racercars and five street cars were built, and both versions feature specially designed body panels made from carbon fiber. Based on the C4 Corvette, street LMs were powered by an LT-1 that cranked out 435 horsepower and 430 lb-ft of torque. Television's Motorweek got their hands on one and they got it to do 0-60 in 4.1 seconds, and a 12.3 second quarter mile, and astonishingly, also deliver fuel economy numbers of 23 mpg hwy, and 17 mpg city (obviously, not at the same time).
Cutaway Corvette
Last on our tour of Corvettes at Carlisle 2017 is a visible Vette. Ed Foss of Roanoke, Ind., commissioned Kevin Mackay's Corvette Repair in Valley Stream, N.Y. to build this cutaway 1953. Don't worry, they didn't slice up a perfectly good '53 Vette. They built it on chassis #003, which was discovered in the mid-1970s under an ill-fitting 1955 body. It took two years to finish all the work and the final result is fully operational, though not street legal; it does get driven on and off of trailers, and across the show grounds at shows. You can see more pictures of it, and more pictures of just about everything from Corvettes at Carlisle, on their official Flickr page. We can't wait to see what is new for next year, when Corvettes return to Carlisle, August 23-26, 2018.
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