Where is your most favorite place you've driven your Corvette?
I actually have three:
-Adam Wartell
NCM Lifetime Member #1222
Founder: C3 Vette Registry
C4 Vette Registry, C6 Vette Registry
My first Vette, now owned by JB79:
It would have to be Watkins Glen and the race track. Been there twice with Alternate C3 group Gatherings. Good group, Good fun.
Driving across Nevada in the early 70s when there was no speed limit.
As far as favourite places go, then a drive the down the Gorges du Tarn and over the Millau Viaduct was pretty fab, but a tour we did with the Corvette Club France in September '21, through the Alps and over Europe's highest paved pass (in the snow!) was pretty special.😄
We've also been lucky to have driven the full Le Mans course, on race day, with no pace car at least twice and a couple more times with a pace car of sorts, plus the permanent Bugatti Circuit a couple of times. Living only "down the road" we drive the Mulsanne Straight every time we got to the DIY store!👍
Texas Motor Speedway, got up to about 110 mph in the banking.
Our monthly autocross with the Lone Star Corvette Club.
The drive from Hot Springs Arkansas to Eureka Springs.
The Hwy 70 drive down the Feather River canyon from Quicy CA to Lake Oroville.
Tale of the Dragon for sure! Have driven it 6 times, 3 of them during the Corvette Expo Friday cruise. Absolutely awesome road. 318 curves in 11 miles. One of the times, had the wife behind me in our 85 Monte Carlo SS. She done good!! Stayed right with me. 129 Slayer Photography got us together on one of the curves.
I know this is going to sound lame after the exotic locales posted above... but for me, after a 5 year body-off restoration, the first time I got up to 70 on I77 last summer was pretty wild.
All I could think of was how many fasteners I torqued over the last couple years... and wondering whether I missed any!
I know this is going to sound lame after the exotic locales posted above... but for me, after a 5 year body-off restoration, the first time I got up to 70 on I77 last summer was pretty wild.
All I could think of was how many fasteners I torqued over the last couple years... and wondering whether I missed any!
This is not lame!
-Adam Wartell
NCM Lifetime Member #1222
Founder: C3 Vette Registry
C4 Vette Registry, C6 Vette Registry
My first Vette, now owned by JB79:
We live just below the Blue Ridge Parkway, so that is always a nice ride. It is not a speed contest with the 45 MPH speed limit, but a very scenic ride.
The most memorable trek in "The Toy" was going on the 50th Anniversary Corvette Caravan to the NCM. It was the first time I had the car on the road since the post-purchase drive from Pittsburgh back to Minnesota and I was more than a little nervous! The highlight of the 2nd day on the road was a stop at "The Brickyard" where around 850 Corvettes from North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana gathered in the infield. What a sight...!!! After a parade lap (at just 35 mph) around the track it was an all out sprint to Bowling Green!
After the rush of being a part of the mass caravan on the way to Bowling Green I was a caravan of 1 on the return trip to Minnesota. From BG I headed to St. Louis and then followed "Ol' Man River" north to home. What a memory...!!!
We live just below the Blue Ridge Parkway, so that is always a nice ride. It is not a speed contest with the 45 MPH speed limit, but a very scenic ride.
Blue Ridge Parkway is beautiful. We have family up in Boone, NC. I'd love to take the vette up there to visit one day, and if I were to find myself on the Parkway... well, stuff happens, as they say.
The autocross in the late 70s at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri that had a quarter mile straight set up on it. This was an unexpected pleasure since most of the autocross courses back in Kansas City were set up for smaller sports cars which made them a lot tighter.
Discovered there that concrete wears out tires a lot faster than asphalt. 😟
1973 L-82 4 spd
I drove mine to...... ready for it?...... down my road.... and back!!!! After it sitting for over a year becasue it wouldnt start, it was an amazing ride. No bumper, no lights, no license plate, just the t tops off, wind in my receding hair, and a smile from ear to ear on my face.
Best drive was to the front end alignment shop 15 miles away. I had just got it running again after 2 years of restoration work, engine, wiring, vacuum lines suspension etc, and it was scary.
Getting it up to 50mph for the first time was white knuckles. Tires made some noise along the way..... a tape measure rough in was not very good. And shims from original setup.
On the way back she was fine, still nervous about something falling off or the like. 😁
Bruce
72 Coupe L48 4sp
Custom Blue/Silver/Pearl
(Click for a larger pic)