We treated the big block and crankshaft that were going to reside in the ’65. Now we had to obtain several other components to adapt the bigger block into the engine bay. We also wanted to upgrade to power brakes and power steering, but there was something missing. You see this is no ordinary Corvette, this is a mid year Corvette! It needs side exhaust to give it that sound that gives you goose bumps every time you hear it. But where do you find all the different parts for this project? At a Corvette show of course! And what better show than Corvettes at Carlisle?
For those of you that have never heard of it, Corvettes at Carlisle is one of the biggest shows in the world! If you love Corvettes, this is the place to go. Besides the Corvettes, the Carlisle fair grounds also host shows for Chevy, Ford, Dodge, Imports and hot rods. They also have huge shows in the spring and fall that cover almost every car available. So off to Carlisle we went.
We were up by 6:30 A.M., Friday morning, we completed packing our bags and headed out to pick up the rental van. Did I mention it was a mini-van? Yes, we were going to Carlisle in a mini-van…..now that you are done laughing, let me explain. We needed to get parts…some of them are big parts. Experience has taught us this is a good compromise between cargo space and comfort. We removed the middle bench seat, so the rear passengers wouldn’t be confined to the fetal position of the 3+ hour pilgrimage. Maybe next year we'll drive the Vettes down.
After getting bagels and a drink for breakfast, we hit the road. Traffic was moving unusually well on this Friday morning. It was nice getting all those waves and smiles from the soccer moms in their mini-vans. It was also strange not seeing any Vettes heading east on interstate 78. This was our 11th year making this trek and we always noticed them before. Where were they? I guess they left earlier than we did.
We took our secret route that we scouted out several years ago. It saves us at least an hour of sitting in traffic. We arrived just in time for lunch, "Anyone for a hot smokie"? The fairgrounds were completely filled with Corvettes. Starting at the first aisle, we stop at every vendor to see if they had parts we needed. Right away we came across the side pipe covers and the side moldings. After a little negotiation we had the parts in our hands. Good thing, because this was the only pair we saw for a reasonable price!
We finished more than half of the vendors and called it a day. After checking in at the Holiday Inn in Mechanicsburg, we went out for a nice dinner. We have been coming to this hotel for years, it was the closet available one year and we liked it from then on. Last year several of the Corvette drivers started an un-official burn out contest…until the hotel manager showed up. It also has a night club/bar called Wanda’s. The best thing about Wanda’s, is that you can walk back to your room with out causing to much damage after a night of Coronas.
Saturday was another beautiful day. We have never had a rainy day in 10 years and today was going to continue that streak. After having breakfast we head to the fairgrounds and found that the price of parking had doubled to $10 from the day before. We headed in and went straight to the vendor that had the exhaust manifolds we needed. Again we got a great deal on them. We know this because every time we saw another pair we would ask how much.
There are some good deals to be found and then again there are some terrible ones. Take for instance this 1964 coupe. 365hp, air conditioning and power brakes? O.K. it may be somewhat rare, but $15,900? Was this guy for real? Our ’65 was substantially less and in a lot better shape!
Saturday ended pretty much the same as Friday…Dinner…Hotel…Coronas. We met some nice people and told them about our Thermal Process, they were very impressed. Hey it doesn’t hurt to promote your business, you never know what it may lead to.
We decided to get to the fairgrounds early and have breakfast there. There was no traffic on our secret route and we took advantage of it. You see there is this one hill that makes you feel like you are on a roller coaster. Of course to obtain this feeling you have to be moving at a reasonable rate of speed. The Speedo was reading 70 mph at the crest of the hill. Wow! It’s amazing how immature, grown men can get in a rental car…err… van…OK, minivan!
We handed the girl at the gate our tickets and wished her luck. Let me explain: a drawing is held at the end of the show and if they pick you number on the ticket, you win the giveaway car. This year it was an ‘ 86 pace car. We looked at some cars on the show field and in the for sale area. There were some really nice cars there, both bone stock and modified. We decided to leave early, so we headed toward Al Knoch interiors and picked up the new interior for our car. We packed the van…OK, OK, the minivan and off we were.
We all said this was one of our better years, we had a lot of fun and got most of the parts we needed. We also made some great memories that we will never forget. I can’t wait ‘till next year!
