Up next in 10
CORVETTE TODAY #122 - Every Corvette Owner Has A Story!
0 views
May 8, 2025
If you frequent CORVETTE TODAY, you know I always say that, "Every Corvette owner has a story". My guest on this show has 60 years worth of Corvette stories! John Elegant shares some of his best memories and Corvette stories with us, from the effect of adding his first Corvette had on him, his first Corvette purchase, to Harlan Charles and Tadge Juechter! Have a Kleenex handy-his last story will bring tears to your eyes! See what I mean when I say, "Every Corvette owner has a story" on this episode of CORVETTE TODAY!
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music] welcome to corvette today the podcast
0:06
that talks about everything corvette with your host steve garrett mc and dj at one of the largest corvette weekends
0:12
in the country corvette fun fest president of the corvette club of kansas city missouri and radio disc jockey at
0:19
the number one radio station in kansas city for over 40 years here's steve garrett
0:28
thanks for listening to corvette today the podcast that talks about everything corvette brought to you by wheelcraft
0:34
want to dress up your corvette with bright chrome or black chrome wheels visit wheelcraft.com to learn about their advanced pvd chrome finishing they
0:41
can refinish your wheels or offer a wheel exchange for most models and it comes with a five year warranty visit
0:47
wheelcraft.com today or call 833-840-5334
0:52
i'm your host steve garrett i appreciate you tuning in you can listen to corvette today on all podcast platforms you can
0:59
also listen on your smart device just say alexa or hey google play the podcast called corvette today and you're
1:05
connected also visit the corvette today website it's corvette todaypodcast.com
1:10
and while you're there make sure you visit the corvette today merchandise store you can also sign up for corvette
1:16
today emails notifications and updates at corvette today dot ck dot page and
1:22
don't forget join the corvette today facebook group we have over 3 800 members and i'd love to have you as a
1:27
member as well and don't forget about the youtube channel now for corvette today see all your favorite corvette
1:33
today podcasts now on youtube first i'd like to thank our flagship sponsors of corvette today errol laurie wheels a
1:39
true forged wheel with over 20 unique design styles to choose from for your c8 and wide body versions of the c7 c6 and
1:48
c5 corvette it's an awesome value starting at only 23.88 for a set of four
1:53
fully forged wheels and now use the new promo code ct111 that's ct111 and get
1:59
100 off your purchase visit arrowlaurie.com that's a-e-r-o-l-a-r-r-i
2:06
dot com with the new promo code ct111 for your 100 discount also
2:11
mid-enginecorvetforum.com the forum that focuses on the new mid-engine c8 corvette meet a lot of
2:18
fellow corvette enthusiasts like yourself at mid-engine corvette forum dot com also a shout out to
2:24
canadiancorvetforum.com welcoming corvette owners from around the world if you've listened or watched corvette
2:30
today over the last two and a half years you know i always say every corvette owner has a story well my guest on
2:36
today's show has over 60 years of corvette stories and we're going to hear some of them today he runs mid-engine
2:43
corvette forum.com and as a matter of fact he was my guest on corvette today number six way back in may of 2020 he is
2:51
mr john elegant john welcome back to corvette today thank you steve it's
2:56
always fun to be talking with you and always fun to be talking about corvettes
3:01
absolutely right buddy you've got so many stories you had told me a few of the stories before we started getting
3:07
this show put together why don't we start with story number one it was 35 years ago your first corvette it was a
3:14
63 split window meeting wasn't it and that still is the rock'em sock'em change
3:19
your life moment for me and for others who remember their first view of that corvette or their special corvette a
3:26
little back history is we didn't come for much we always had food on the table but my parents are brought up in the
3:32
great depression so cars were like appliances to them the only time i ever heard my parents in their whole life
3:38
raised their voices at each other was when my mom wanted to heat her we lived in new york state my dad said we're not
3:44
getting a heater we can't afford it that was a 1956 chevy with no options but in the end you know the end of this it had
3:51
a heater so with that background my mother called me one day early spring vacation in my junior year and she said
3:58
hey you can get over to work between 12 and 1 today billy i work with has a brand new corvette it was seven miles
4:05
away public transportation was lousy but i found a way walked the last three miles and got there met billy we went
4:11
off the back of the building and there was the most gorgeous breathtaking we're looking at the back of the car it looks
4:17
like a fighter jet canopy from that time as we all know and i'm smiling just talking about it
4:23
what a heart-pounding moment to see so far c2 that i ever remember seeing and
4:29
it was sebring silver red interior 340 horse factory four speed and there were
4:35
only 268 made with air conditioning it had all the above what a rare car when you put all those things together and i
4:42
was just beyond excitement as a 15 year old and then he said you want to go for
4:47
a ride that set the hook and why corvettes are a huge part of our life 90
4:53
of our close friends now drive corvettes so that got it all started that's amazing john what a great story too now
5:00
you also had an opportunity to meet corvette chief engineer dave hill didn't you 35 years later after putting our
5:08
youngest daughter to college and they worked hard for their room and board and their books and their spending money but
5:14
we paid for the tuition then my wife said to me you've waited so many years it's time for you to get your corvette
5:20
and i said yes i can't wait my wife and kids always came first still do the
5:26
first road trip we had a c5 a 98 black and we're going to the national corvette
5:32
museum going to the bowling green assembly plant our car was chosen by steve stringfellow who is the leader of
5:39
the team that created heads up display which we all know premiered in 98 20 corvette team staff there and they each
5:46
chose their favorite car we were chosen to go to the circle of honor the next morning be there at 8 o'clock we're
5:51
there early and we're fussing with our car and over walks dave hill i knew he
5:57
was what a personable friendly guy everybody knows him as the weight manager for every pound you can take off
6:04
the car we can get ten dollars more allocated from finance to pay for its development but he was also very
6:10
personable and he says tell me about this car and i how you relate to it my wife and i looked at him and we started
6:16
to say how much we liked the car and he said this is your first corvette i said yes
6:22
he said well then you're exactly the person i want to talk to tell me what's wrong with this car and i said this is
6:28
rich the chief engineer is asking me a newbie to say what i don't like about
6:34
the car yeah tell me what's wrong with this car so i can make it better i didn't really hear him and i started
6:40
bragging about she put up his hands said stop i want to know what i can do to improve this car and i said well you
6:46
notice the wheels they're frisky wheels they're not those wagon train wheels that came on the 97. he said i know i
6:54
hate those wheels but i lost the argument with the bean counters they told me if i could get up to a certain sales level and we're slightly
7:01
exceeding that through the end of this year i can get more money and get the wheels i want which we've already picked
7:06
out we all who love that generation know that in year 2000 they came out with
7:12
nice looking wheels and he said you know those wheels are ready to go the ones on our car are ready to go 200 miles an
7:18
hour for le mans i said no i didn't know that okay so you don't like the factory wheels we agree on that what else is
7:24
wrong with this car like a dummy i didn't hear him again i started to wax eloquent about something else he said
7:30
john what is wrong and he was a little firmer so i said okay i'll tell you let's go to
7:35
the trunk we open up and inside we have our detailed bag perfectly arranged in some c5 books you know typical fans at a
7:43
car show i said the carpet back here is terrible he said looks okay to me and i brought out a nine inch special card
7:51
detailing shag rug because that's what reminded me that there was so few threads per inch that if you didn't comb
7:58
it right you could see the base of the carpet the lighter colored base so i said watch this lifted up the detail bag
8:05
and you could see white blotches of the base of the carpet took out the shag rug nine inch rug custom and raked he said
8:13
hey they disappeared i said dave you asked what you can do better he said this is new to me and this is exactly
8:19
why i want to talk to people like youtube and i will fix that and the carpet was upgraded either in 99 or 2000
8:26
and i don't remember the third thing i told him but dave hill was a good guy as the corvette team has been throughout
8:32
the years next memory i have of dave is that c6 reveal with his plaid flax which
8:38
everybody put special interest in and that was fun that's great what a good
8:43
story and gosh the chief engineer for corvette coming over to you and wanting to know what's wrong with the car that's
8:49
really really cool john it was it still is i remember this like it was yesterday
8:54
that's amazing also you had a great c8 story as a first drive story with harlan charles didn't you harlan is always a
9:02
very easy person to talk with and when you go to any corvette event there's so many people want to talk to harlan
9:08
everybody knows harlan of course she looks just like every other member of the corvette team not and the fact that's how i met harlan
9:15
i'm at a bash event probably 2000 and harlan's got his hair sticking out and
9:21
so do i and his wife and i were talking in the hallway we were talking about different appearance and i said you know
9:27
you must be outstanding because my wife has an expression that an organization tolerates difference in the appearance
9:34
of its staff to the agree they're excellent and that's kind of like the first harlan and i moment that the c8 i
9:40
was invited by gm to the first drive and this is after they've already test drive
9:45
by the biggies by motor trend and car and driver and wrote track this is when they invite what i would call second
9:51
tier media and i was invited because of my mid-engine corvette forum there were 20 of us in this batch there were five
9:57
batches in las vegas spring mountain we did a day on the track and the day at red rocks and keith cornett is there
10:03
corvette blogger so keith and i walked in for dinner and there was don sherman who's always been somebody i've looked
10:09
up to and keith introduced me and there was three of us it was a table for four and harlan came up and took the fourth
10:15
chair and don as his style just peppered harlan with questions and i'm in the
10:20
company of biggies you know harlan don sherman keith cornett and i'm rarely for
10:26
me being quiet so i'm eating and finally after about a half hour keith asked a few questions harlan turns to me and
10:32
says well what do you think of the c8 and i told him what i loved about the
10:38
car we had that point of c706 he said well is there anything about it you
10:44
don't love and i said yeah it's a little tight in the cabin of course in the c7
10:49
poop you can reach behind you to a little baby cooler there's no such room as we all know in the c8 they said yeah
10:55
we have more room than our mid-engine competitors but it is an adjustment isn't it so he said you're going to
11:01
write up this story and this is already on the mid-engine form and he said okay
11:06
i have to check it out i said you want me to send you a link and then he shocked me and he said john we all know
11:11
the mid-engine corvette forum in fact don't be surprised if some of my colleagues are members but they're smart
11:17
enough never to use their real name instead choosing a forum name and they'll never use their gm email address
11:24
and i said well actually i know of two that have used their gmail address and so we laughed about that that was the
11:30
first half of that the next day was on the track i got a chance to re-meet more than an acquaintance and that's alex
11:36
mcdonald who we all know is the vehicle performance manager those who don't know about alex he's a phenomenal driver he
11:44
started out in all sorts of past things then he became a corvette test driver in
11:49
fact little known factoid he actually has a faster time on the long course at
11:55
vir in c706 than jim miro so he's one amazing driver that
12:02
afternoon where the second day we're on the autocross section we've divided up into groups and alex is standing around
12:08
and i said hey alex would you give me a drive in the autocross and he said well sure i guess i can do that so he gets
12:15
into this empty car and as we're walking over there he says to me you know i'm not very good at the autocross yeah
12:23
i've uh-huh been in a car that's gone so fast in an autocross or even half that
12:28
fast that was another magical part of the c8 first drive for me and i also saw alex again at the c806 reveal what a
12:36
wonderful other member of the team he is absolutely right well buddy let's take our first break when we come back we'll
12:42
hear some more corvette stories including some stories about tad's juctor here on corvette today
12:49
the radiator grill store offers protection for your c8's front radiators and side intakes they also carry front
12:55
strut tower covers to prevent rusting and pooling water all with do-it-yourself installation get 10 off
13:01
your total purchase with promo code ct10 see the full line of products at radiatorgrillstore.com
13:08
[Music] we all know that wheels make the car wheelcraft will help you take your
13:13
corvette to new levels wheelcraft offers the world's best pvp chrome finish available on the market available in
13:18
bright chrome and black chrome wheelcraft nails it in both appearance and durability and it comes with a five
13:23
year warranty against brake dust burns pitting peeling and colored elimination wheelcraft is also iso certified whether
13:30
you're having your wheels refinished or an exchange transaction there is no core fee no deposit and you don't pay for the
13:35
finished wheels until they are installed on your car wheelcraft insists on complete satisfaction before you pay
13:41
hear from one of our customers i picked up a brochure at the national corvette museum and took delivery of our new c8 i
13:47
called wheelcraft and in 15 minutes i ordered the new bright ice chrome wheels wheelcraft's follow-up and
13:53
follow-through is superb the wheels arrived on sunday installed on monday and cores were returned same day the
13:59
wheels are the highest quality i've ever seen and they look awesome great prices great customer service from initial
14:05
contact to installation thanks dennis from nashville in many cases wheelcraft offers finished wheels on exchange or
14:11
will apply this new finish to your wheels either way wheelcraft treats your wheels as their own visit our website at
14:17
wheelcraft.com or call us at 833-840-5334 arrive in style with wheelcraft
14:25
when you want to buy a corvette or any chevrolet for that matter get yours from hendrick chevrolet shawnee mission
14:30
located in kansas city hendrick chevrolet is the largest corvette dealership and showroom in the midwest
14:35
with a knowledgeable sales staff and corvette sales specialists on hand they'll help you build the corvette of
14:40
your dreams and they ship nationwide with corvette certified master mechanics on site and a huge parts department with
14:47
over 24 000 parts and 2 million dollars in inventory hendrick chevrolet is well equipped to take care of your every need
14:53
from sales to service to collision repair hendrick chevrolet has you covered visit chevyusa.com or call
15:00
913-384-1550 vetfinders.com is the internet's
15:05
original corvette classified ads website with classified ads starting at just 25
15:11
and every ad runs until your corvette is sold if you're in the market for a corvette betfinders.com has over 500
15:18
corvettes for sale from all around the usa and canada and covering all eight generations visit
15:24
vetfinders.com the internet's destination for buying and selling corvettes that's v-e-t-t-e
15:31
finders.com check out the first corvette only auction website at 427 stingray dot com
15:38
slash corvette today you can sign up to bid and comment on more than 40 corvettes every week that's 427
15:45
stingray.com corvette today join the community
15:51
you're listening to the corvette today podcast with steve garrett
15:56
hey thanks for listening and watching corvette today the show that talks about everything corvette brought to you by
16:02
wheelcraft want to dress up your corvette with bright chrome or black chrome wheels visit wheelcraft.com and
16:08
learn about their advanced pvd chrome finishing they can refinish your wheels or offer a wheel exchange for most
16:13
models and it comes with a 5-year warranty visit wheelcraft.com today or call them at 833-840-53
16:22
and be sure to visit the wheelcraft booth on the midway at corvettes at carlisle i'm your host steve garrett
16:28
with me today is john elegant john has got some great corvette stories 60 years in the making so john in the second
16:35
segment let's talk about the two buyers tours that you did for the c6 z06 and the c7 z06 the buyer's tours are magic
16:44
you are able to buy them through the national corvette museum they have a specialist who takes you around and you
16:50
go from workstation to workstation assembly station as your car is being built i worked at a ford assembly plant
16:58
in fact that was helped put my way through college so the plant is a special magical place i know i use that
17:04
word twice but that's how i feel the sounds the smells the motions the lights
17:10
a buyer's tour it's too bad they're not now but we understand why bowling green assembly will resume them at some point
17:17
and i just wish that it was time wise with our ca06 so the c6 era they did not
17:24
have a buyer's tour official program but they had an unofficial one if a retiree who had retired in the last five years
17:31
chose to take a single person on a buyer's tour and they could do this up to twice a year they could do that and a
17:38
person i knew being a member of corvette's limited bowling green one of the biggest corvette clubs in the
17:43
country denzel said to me would you like to go on a buyer's tour and of course you had to tell me what it was so we
17:49
spent all of one day got there at 5 45 a.m and part of the next day and he took
17:55
me to places the unless you're an employee never get to we were in the chassis assembly area and we were in the
18:01
engine dress-up area where they put on accessories on the exterior before it eventually heads to the chassis and then
18:08
the marriage it was a wonderful experience again having worked in the plant but now i'm there and i'm talking
18:15
to the people as they have time denzel and i are walking down the line watching my left side fender be put on and then
18:22
after that the next part just watching your car turn from a bare chassis to a
18:28
completed car and then when it comes off at the very last station i got the chance to drive it off over the rumble
18:34
strips just outside the 800 test bay but not in the bay a truly wonderful
18:40
experience i'm smiling talking about it even though that was quite a few years ago so that was my first buyer's tour my
18:47
second one with the c706 it was an official program by then again as i
18:52
mentioned through the national corvette museum i chose as the person to come with me because you can have one now and
18:59
that was jeremy welborn jagamajiran on both forums jeremy and i and a wonderful
19:05
person named david who had retired from the plant a couple years before and was a tourist specialist we spent again
19:12
about a total of 12 hours over two days watching my velocity yellow c706 be
19:19
built to see your car transformed from again coming down in the rafters with
19:25
only one small body panel in the color and you know it's yours especially when
19:30
he says this is yours coming down from the rafters just the aperture panel or rocker panel and then to watch it by the
19:37
end of a day and a half later and to again be able to drive it off the line truly fantastic at that second buyer's
19:44
tour i was afforded an opportunity that they will never afford to anybody ever since i just had to be in the right
19:51
place i got asked would you like to go into the test bay and it has the big rollers and they take it up on the
19:57
rollers with an assembly specialist up to 70 miles an hour and it does 800 tests in about three or four minutes
20:03
you're warned the car is going to buck right and left and even though you're warned it is unnerving as this card goes
20:09
through its 800 tests so that was another stupendous and very unusual experience all the more unusual because
20:16
the following week the car went off the rollers and crashed so needless to say
20:22
no non-employees are ever going to be allowed in that test cell again another experience you know which actually leads
20:29
to the next category of what we've agreed to talk about right my wife has a saying the worst experiences make the
20:36
best stories afterwards so i have a couple of those in my corvette life starting with driving our
20:43
c606 home from museum delivery weather was perfect we put 500 miles on it
20:49
through gorgeous kentucky back roads what a gorgeous state then had oil and filter change and started home the
20:56
weather was supposed to be perfect all the way home and then you and i have literally over a quarter of a million
21:01
road trip miles vacation miles and corvette miles and know how to keep track of the weather especially in the
21:07
middle west so we get toward kansas city not far from your home on interstate 70
21:12
and massive traffic somebody didn't talk to somebody and it was the kansas city
21:18
chiefs home game along with the interstate being narrowed down from five lanes to two you know what that's like
21:24
oh yeah it was 93 degrees i'm worried about this brand new car of ours with this 427 overheating it didn't it got a
21:32
little warm but never into the hot territory and we're sitting there and now it's getting bladder painful time
21:38
because we're stuck literally hour after hour in this mess of traffic moving 20
21:43
feet so we get through that and i'm excited we're back on our way and i said well that solves all of our problems for
21:49
the day and annie says no i'm not so sure look ahead and looking to the west
21:55
where we're going we always like all new corvette owners at least like to keep the fantasy that our new corvette is
22:01
never going to see rain and it's getting gray and then it's getting dark gray and then it's charcoal gray and the rain is
22:07
coming down like a florida monsoon and it's so bad that even though i grew up
22:12
in new england spent 30 years driving on the snow in winter the rear end is walking to the left and then sliding to
22:19
the right now i'm counter correcting and i'm hoping that nobody runs into us we're doing 35 miles an hour and the
22:24
four-wheel drive pickups are flying by us at 70. didn't have weather mode and as we know the michelins are better than
22:30
the good years were for rain we get in the motel room this in topeka a distance about 40 miles and he turns on the tv
22:38
and the weather forecaster says well if you just went from kansas city to topeka we just had 3.4 inches of rain in
22:45
the last hour that's our all-time high of inches per hour we escaped no damage and of course the car washed up as all
22:52
corvettes do and was beautiful but oh that was a nerve-wracking one-hour trip for just 40 miles and the car didn't
22:58
melt either did it no it sure didn't and also talk about
23:04
when you sold the c6 as well that's heading in the opposite direction nanny and i have been involved with five
23:10
national corvette caravans and we're on the 2014 heading east to bowling green
23:16
for those who don't know these regional caravans start all corners of the country and in the middle of the country
23:22
and eventually five thousand corvettes come to the national corvette museum in an amazing event if you like a moving
23:28
car show and lots of other corvettes you can't see the end in front of you nor behind you so we're on the caravan i
23:34
just called tommy thompson the general manager mcmulkin i'd been on his list for c706 was number two until somebody
23:42
backed out so we agreed on a price i sent him 32 pictures we're driving on the caravan all of us on that caravan
23:48
from the pacific northwest to remember two things it rained like hell and then rained some more and the second thing is
23:55
for every meal it rained pulled pork because it seemed every chevy dealership everybody who put together a meal for us
24:01
decided that we should have pulled pork so we're in day two we're in wyoming and the rain is horrible i'm following my
24:08
friend billy in his 64 rescue mod with some i don't know 9 million horsepower and he's the best driver also and he
24:14
swerves we're in a construction zone we're doing 68 miles an hour the jersey barrels are pulled in on each side so
24:21
both of the breakdown lanes are half width on right and left and billy swerves and cuts in front of a tractor-trailer truck just missing him
24:28
look like inches and then all of a sudden there's a wooden dining room chair in front of us and we smack into
24:34
it i can't swerve because now that tractor-trailer truck wasn't paying attention and was doing it more than i
24:40
was and was passing me there was no room and i was sure that it sounded like an explosion to annie and me we were sure
24:47
the front fascia was cracked this is the car we've agreed on a price we are ferrying a car across the country have
24:53
to deliver it in the same condition and the front end is destroyed it was such a sickening feeling we
25:00
finally about 20 minutes later get out of construction billy pulls over he'd seen what happened we pulled over and we
25:06
just shook our head the front fascia was okay it had paint protection film we
25:11
could see some impact scuff marks but the front fascia wasn't cracked later on fast forward we went to bowling
25:18
green then we drove a thousand miles up to nashville to deliver it we spent that evening detailing it the next morning
25:24
got up at four o'clock detail did some more took to visit with mark mccarrowich who's currently the corvette sales
25:30
manager as tommy thompson is now an owner and i was desperately afraid that the sale was not going to happen we were
25:36
able to get rid of most of the black marks and so tommy says you know i need my service manager to give it a ride
25:42
make sure the clutch is okay so it's perfect go for it so he comes back and we're talking and i said tommy i got to
25:47
point out these impact marks two on the headlight and thankfully it didn't crack and one here on the front splitter which
25:54
was like a plastic composite for the c60c he said john this car presents as a
26:00
new car you've got it now for eight years i'm not worried about that i'll just change the paint protection film on
26:06
the headlight and it's beautiful so again the worst experiences make the best stories great story buddy i tell
26:14
you what let's take our final break we've got another dealership story and we'll finally get to the taj stories
26:19
coming up next here on corvette today [Music] are you ready for a better insurance
26:25
policy without the corvette tax with agreed value protection the value of your collector vehicle will never change
26:31
plus you'll save money get a quick quote at ncminsurance.com
26:37
hey honey are you awake um i am now i can't sleep since turning 50 i keep
26:42
dreaming of a red door and a blue door somehow knowing there are only choices for retirement okay through the red door
26:49
we outlive our money we have to rely on our kids we're stuck on a fixed income it's terrifying yeah that would suck but
26:56
through the blue door our money outlives us we retire on our terms our kids stay
27:01
our kids not our caretakers we make work optional yes that's much better that's
27:07
what i want too but what do we do we call true wealth and company at
27:12
913-653-8783 they specialize in helping successful people make work optional there are fiduciary blue door personal
27:18
wealth managers hey where are you going it's 3am i can't sleep i'm going to
27:24
check out true wealth and company online at retirewithtrue.com that blue door is going to be our retirement
27:30
913-653-8783 visit us online at retiree.com true.com investment advice offer through true wealth and company llc a registered investment advisor in
27:37
the state of kansas american hydrocarbon is your one-stop shop for custom interior exterior and engine bay items
27:43
for your c4 through c8 corvette we can help you create a custom look for your corvette with carbon fiber or 10
27:49
different color patterns and styles whether it's a custom made engine cover for your new c8 mid-engine corvette or
27:55
custom-made c4 interior upgrades american hydrocarbon can help you transform your corvette into a
28:01
best-in-class show car and now we're proud to announce that we can produce and distribute officially licensed gm
28:07
products for the c8 corvette that includes the front splitter side skirts engine appearance panels and engine
28:12
fluid caps plus we now also carry the c8 speedline side skirts along with the engine appearance package and high wing
28:18
our products have been featured in vet and corvette magazines give us a call 813-476-5638
28:25
visit our updated website at americanhydrocarbon.com or email us at pat american hydrocarbon dot com let us
28:32
help you make your corvette the car you've always wanted it to be american hydrocarbon
28:38
mid-america motorworks has been the industry leader an aftermarket supplier and manufacturer of corvette replacement
28:44
parts and accessories since 1974. we have what you need for all years and generations of corvette whether you need
28:51
a door panel or seat cover for your c1 corvette or the latest shirt jacket hat or lifestyle accessory to complement
28:58
your new c8 you can get it at mid-american motorworks so if you're restoring repairing replacing or simply
29:04
researching your corvette mid-america motorworks is the place to go visit our website at
29:10
matorworks.com and shop corvettes by generation or specific year or call us monday through saturday toll free at 800
29:18
500 1500 and talk to one of our corvette experts to help you get the right part or accessory pursue your passion with
29:26
mid-america motorworks [Music]
29:31
and now back to corvette today with your host and my husband steve garrett
29:38
hey thanks once again for listening and watching corvette today the show that talks about everything corvette brought
29:44
to you by wheelcraft want to dress up your corvette with bright chrome or black chrome wheels visit wheelcraft.com
29:50
and learn about their advanced pvd chrome finishing they can refinish your wheels or offer a wheel exchange for
29:55
most models and it comes with a five year warranty visit wheelcraft.com today or call them at 833-840-5334
30:05
and be sure to visit the wheelcraft booth on the midway at corvettes at carlisle i'm your host steve garrett
30:10
with me today is john elegant the man who runs mid-engine corvette forum we're talking great corvette stories because
30:16
as you know every corvette owner has a story john talk about the story with your c5 corvette and the dealership with
30:23
dave salvatore at kerbec which is now seoka chevrolet it all started with my
30:28
local chevy dealer and he promised me an allocation for our corvette and i
30:34
naively believed him i didn't know anything about allocations this was 25 years ago so he says john you're number
30:40
one i said fine but i don't want one till 98. he said that's fine so about six months later jim dunn found that spy
30:47
shot of the c5 core the one that he sold i think was to popular mechanics and he
30:52
joked that it resulted in paying from one of my daughter's entire college education and then the following year
30:58
phil lebeau on cnbc had a video of the c5 at milford proving ground before they
31:04
added more site screening so photographers couldn't camp there so i took this to the owner of the dealership
31:10
and said hey you might want this oh fantastic i have my annual sales meeting tonight and i'm not prepared so thanks
31:17
for the video and i hand it off to him and he turned to me as i'm walking and i says i remember you're guaranteed my
31:22
number one allocation for the 98 fine fantastic so we get to that time period
31:28
to ordering them and he says show up next tuesday i'll introduce you to my gm he's going to handle you and meanwhile
31:34
i've given him 500 2 years ago which was a fair amount of money for a deposit back in the 90s so i show up he
31:40
introduces me to phil and phil says well you know i'm sorry i don't have an allocation we gave our first allocation
31:47
to so and so owns the national trucking company he buys three pickup trucks from us each year i said yeah i understand so
31:54
he said i'll get you on the second allocation fast forward another month i go to his office he's not at his desk
32:00
i'm not hearing from him and he's not answering my calls i walked to his desk and i noticed that the book is open and
32:06
not only were there blue ink tick marks for the first allocation but now there were pencil marks for a second order and
32:12
so i've been shut out a second time i stomped out got my 500 and i never bought anything from them again so on
32:19
the way home i stopped by the viper dealer they had one in the showroom used talked to the person i knew personally
32:25
and he said well i can take another 10 off and i said well let me think about that i'm really not a viper person told my wife and annie properly ripped me a
32:32
new place to sit and said you're not a viper person remember the 62 split you've been a corvette person your whole
32:39
life you're not buying a viper i said uh she said get your act together get online tonight and go find out who's got
32:45
a corvette that you can go by go look for the number one corvette dealer dave salvatore to the rescue and i looked up
32:52
the showroom and online and showed their stock and they had over 100 c5s so i called the next day and i worked for
32:58
city government i never before or since swore on a city phone but i was still
33:03
livid from the day before i got his voicemail dave this is john elegance you don't know me i've been effed over and i
33:10
said the whole word by my local chevy dealer who lied to me about allocations i want to buy a c5 i have cash on hand i
33:17
can be at your place tomorrow but i live in oregon about 20 minutes later gentle kind dave salvatore said hi john this is
33:24
dave and let me tell you i think i've heard that story 100 or is it a thousand times before and don't worry i have the
33:31
exact car you want in stock how do you know what it is he says i got 100 cars
33:37
and i got a couple of aces up my sleeve so okay dave let's give it a shot so he said color black i got five of those
33:45
transmission manual three of the five black ones seven manual we go through that we get one through eleven i wanted
33:51
12 options he said we're 11 for 11. i got the car you want john i said dave we don't know about the last one and then
33:57
he says i got the car you want so i said okay i can't afford the 600 cd changer
34:04
in the trunk he said well now we got a problem but i got a solution i got two solutions and i said what's that dave he
34:09
said first off how about if i give you that and six hundred dollars was a good chunk of change back then in 98 or 97
34:16
actually how about if i give you that option for free i said uh twist my arm he did and he said oh if this hadn't
34:22
worked i got two bill slots the week after next i can put in whatever i want through friday this week and i've never
34:28
met dave we talk on the phone because of my mid-engine corvette forum relationship with them and i've never
34:34
met dave in person but he's been special to me because he saved the day and got us our c5 that's great what a good story
34:41
because you had 12 options and he had your car that's amazing you got some good
34:47
transductor stories too i want to hear those when i first met taz he was an assistant to dave hill in fact dave
34:53
introduced him chad would stand in the corner how do i say this tactfully reserved quiet he's an engineer tag he's
35:01
developed into the great public speaker he is right now joke with people and he tells stories and he deflects
35:07
inappropriate questions about future potential products i've gotten to know we see each other at events i'm smiling
35:14
now just knowing where this one leads this is at the c8 hardtop convertible
35:20
reveal at the rocket center where all the rockets are in the background and the reveal takes place it was just
35:26
terrific to see a rapid blue hardtop convertible the top go up and go down 20
35:31
feet in front of us there were about 75 media there and about 25 gm staff josh
35:37
holder did the presentation did a fantastic one let's go back a few hours in time this is at six o'clock at night
35:43
i'm in the elevator coming down from my room for registration which didn't know until four that afternoon and there's a
35:49
lady who gets on says hold the elevator so she gets on she sees my shirt mid engine corvette forum polo and she said
35:57
are you with the corvette team i said no i'm not she said well there was a race car on the main runway at the kennedy
36:03
space center earlier today it was so loud and so fast i was in the tour bus on the taxiway i'm a tourist here and
36:10
wow that was fun then we went to the rocket garden so get off the elevator hang around for 10 minutes go to
36:16
registration i'm registering and taz walks in we say hello he talks to carol and gets registered i was just about
36:22
done so i said hey taj i just talked to a lady on the elevator was it you at the kennedy space center the hotel's about
36:29
40 miles south of 40 minutes south running up down the main runway at top speed and says not me so i just let it
36:35
go he was straight faced he pulled it off perfectly and i believed it back to the reveal now at 6 30 and they've
36:42
revealed the hardtop convertible all sudden this thunderous noise and you're again standing with these rockets tail
36:49
first of course straight up hundreds of feet right in front of you this thunderous noise it turns out to be the
36:55
c8r driven in by tommy milner that was unexpected nobody thought that was going
37:00
to be revealed along that so the event started winding down in the back all the
37:06
hors d'oeuvres and tazzy's there keith cornett corvette blogger my partner on the mid-engine corvette forum is there
37:12
and all the rest of the media they've gone they're filing their stories time in the media business first to break
37:18
your story they've all gone so it's keith and i and about 20 25 30 people on
37:24
the corvette team i'm sitting down eating and tash comes over and i said tash what about that car that was on the
37:31
runway and he straight face says not me i wasn't driving it so to this day when
37:37
i see tasha occasionally sometimes i'll say not me or he'll say not me that's funny
37:42
yeah it wasn't he was driving it wasn't me so that's one of the adventures i had with tash another one was it the z06
37:50
reveal and the energy in that room was absolutely fantastic especially at the private reveal the night before here's
37:57
the team that's worked on this car for seven years they can't even tell some of the fellow people that work with gm
38:03
because you got to keep this secret and they did a pretty good job didn't they this is an opportunity the first time
38:09
publicly the gm staff can talk and share and their enthusiasm was power they were so excited about this car they still are
38:16
so i happened at one point to be standing next to the visible carbon fiber wheel on the display table so i'm
38:21
looking at tax crews over and said you like it i said gotta have one not knowing then it's not available unless
38:27
you get a zl7 so he says why don't you pick it up anybody who knows me i'm six feet tall away 150 pounds and when
38:33
mussels were given out i was in another stadium and so i'm thinking this thing is carbon
38:40
fiber it's lightweight but it's huge it's 13 wide and 21 inch diameter so i
38:46
have to give a certain amount but then again he told us in the press release it's 41 pounds the set of four then a
38:53
forged lightweight aluminum wheel so i lift up with what i think is the right amount of force to lift it up to my
38:58
shoulders off this table the wheel in my two hands goes flying over right way over the top of my head casper's out
39:05
laughing yeah it's pretty light isn't it john to this day i wish i could get those wheels those are great wheels oh
39:12
they sure are in their carbon fiber we all know steve that you love carbon fiber yes sir mr carbon fiber
39:19
and then the last adventure or experience with taj was of a completely different nature although it does relate
39:25
to the c8 at the national corvette museum of course we remember that in the first part of april in new york city
39:32
times square rush hour there was a single-layer disguise camo c8 with mary
39:38
bar and the passenger seat driving it and that phalanx of six black suvs protecting them as they're driving
39:45
through times square and of course it's saying 7 18 19. so the question we all
39:50
wondered coming to the bash would they bring that car to the bash the event goes on starts on thursday officially
39:56
nothing friday i mean they do presentations but we haven't seen the car friday nothing saturday people start
40:03
to go home nothing finally at about 10 minutes before 12 the pa says if you're
40:09
interested in something special about a potential future product go to the new circle at exactly 12 o'clock noon so i
40:17
go out the side door i'm with my friend craig marshall host is marsha polo who's
40:22
a professional photographer with a camera with a foot long lens on it so we're standing there on the outside
40:27
circle with hundreds and hundreds of others cash is inside the circle along with one or two other gm's corvette
40:34
staff and we're motioned to come on in i didn't know it was me or whether that included my friend craig so i turned to
40:41
craig and taj nazi's head yes so we're inside and we're talking craig is lining up his shots and he has an award-winning
40:47
shot that he donated to the national corvette museum so here comes the car but before the car comes tested to me
40:53
says i'm nervous i don't want that car to be surrounded by people and for the car to be trapped i want to be able to
40:59
come through drive through and go out the other side that's the task see that gentleman over there he's a retired
41:05
wyoming state trooper he's ahead of their security and i can assure you he and his three or four staff will take
41:10
good care of your car so he's oh i feel better i didn't know that taj was still a little bit wound a little bit nervous
41:18
shall we say until the car came through and everybody was like the pictures you
41:23
see pictures of pictures with people with cameras went flawlessly as the car
41:28
starts to drive out the outside of the circle and back toward bowling green assembly plant from where it came
41:34
just breaks into a smile and said ah that went better than i feared you know the human beings the corvette team are
41:40
just like every one of us they get slightly anxious about something coming up they want to put on a great show and
41:48
good information for us i've been so fortunate to know so many of them as human beings and not just as corvette
41:54
staff that's really cool i know that you've got more stories john and we might have to do a part two could you
42:00
come back and do a part two with some more stories sure corvettes are a big smile to me and we'll do it later
42:06
fantastic thank you thank you for the opportunity before we go though tell the story about the 93 year old retired navy
42:14
electrician one of the things that many of us i will say almost all of us in the corvette hobby do is to give to others
42:22
to share our corvettes we want there to be a c9 a c12 a c14 every year i take a
42:29
young person out for a ride who's never been in a corvette i was at this point the executive moderator of a c7 forum
42:36
and i got an email from a lady who said i'm asking an unbelievable ask of you
42:42
but could you please help me out my father's dying of stage four terminal cancer and i'm in alaska he just had a
42:50
stroke and we were sure he was gonna be around for three more months but the doctor said it's now two weeks if we're
42:56
fortunate so i think i'll be back would you be willing he's always always ever since he saw his first corvette in
43:03
1958 we remember his kid's dad telling corvette stories when he came home from the navy base he had seen a corvette on
43:10
his way home would you be willing to give him a ride he's about an hour away from you and i said of course but it's
43:16
got to be soon because i'm leaving on the national corvette caravan in three days i got to detail the car so in the
43:21
next day or two i'd be happy to she says okay let me have my niece who lives in the same town and see if he's
43:27
in a nursing home call you her name and so forth thank you thank you she was just so happy so her niece calls we work
43:34
out the details she says let me put my husband on the phone he's a local police officer he'll be helpful to you and i
43:41
didn't know what that meant at that time all the details get worked out i drive down about an hour to this nursing home
43:47
my dad had died at stage four brain cancer too so i knew exactly what to expect in terms of communication ability
43:54
and looks and just like my dad he was in a wheelchair i did hear one more thing that his favorite corvette color was
44:00
yellow i had a poster framed that had the signature of the top four corvette
44:06
drivers again there's the c7 era and it was one of my prize enjoyed but sometimes the best things in life is to
44:12
give so knowing that yellow was his favorite color i brought the poster down i showed it to him and he just literally
44:19
tears came into his eyes said thank you and i said no it's for you and he said
44:24
for me i said it's for you he said that's your poster i said i want you to have it we'll get back to the poster in
44:31
a minute so i take him for a ride his niece's husband comes over to me and said my wife told you that i was a
44:37
police officer i've talked to several jurisdictions as long as you head southwest out of town on the farm roads
44:43
you got clear sailing you can go as fast as you safely want i've checked you out you got a great driving record he likes
44:49
speed so i said got it i know exactly what you mean so every corner we went to as we came out of the corner he would
44:55
say go so i hammered of course we'd peel rubber in the c706 and have just a
45:01
wonderful time and i also learned where his church was before he was unable to physically go anymore about eight miles
45:08
into the country we stopped there got pictures of him still in the car because i couldn't get him out myself it took me
45:14
and the police officer to get him in so we go back and take him back to this day
45:19
it just was wonderful that i could do something for somebody i learned during the ride that he had in 1958 seen a
45:27
yellow corvette he always wanted to get a ride in one never did and this was his
45:32
dream and he remembered that it was called panama yellow so we talked about
45:38
this one was velocity yellow and he said well that's what we just did was sped
45:43
all over the countryside that was wonderful we went on the caravan i'm in bowling green i get a call from his
45:49
daughter she's come back she flew home instead of taking the ferry down from alaska to make sure he was okay and she
45:56
basically said my dad died yesterday oh yeah she said thank you she said what
46:02
you didn't know is that when the nursing staff got him back into his room he
46:08
asked them to put the poster on the mantle and he spent the last three days of his life when there was basically
46:14
very little of him left staring at that poster and whenever the care staff came
46:19
in he would say see my corvette giving back is something we all do in the
46:24
corvette hobby and that was one of the best experiences in terms of my ability
46:29
to give to somebody else in the corporate that's wonderful john that's a great story brings a tear to my eye
46:34
that's amazing yeah buddy thank you so much for coming back on corvette today i know you've got more stories and if
46:41
you'll do a part two we'll put that together how's that sound sounds good whenever convenient to you you've got so
46:47
many important guests that i love listening to well you're an important guest too you're a vip here on corvette
46:53
today my friend thank you thanks for listening to corvette today and please be sure to
46:58
tell your family friends and other corvette enthusiasts about the corvette today podcast and thanks to our sponsors
47:04
wheel craft want to dress up your corvette with bright chrome or black chrome wheels visit wheelcraft.com to
47:09
learn about their advanced pvd chrome finishing they can refinish your wheels or offer a wheel exchange for most
47:14
models and it comes with a 5-year warranty visit wheelcraft.com today or call 833-840-5334
47:23
and be sure to visit the wheelcraft booth on the midway at corvettes and carlisle american hydrocarbon at
47:28
americanhydrocarbon.com true wealth and company at retirewithtrue.com
47:33
also aerolary wheels get 100 off your purchase with the new promo code ct111
47:39
at arrowlaurie.com met america motorworks at mamotoworks.com and hendrick chevrolet in kansas city at
47:46
chevyusa.com you've been listening to corvette today
47:52
with steve garrett if you'd like to contact steve with any thoughts on the podcast or ideas for guests on corvette
47:57
today you can email him at stevegarrettdj gmail.com
48:03
that's steve garrett dj and gmail.com garrett has two r's and two t's or
48:10
connect with steve on social media on facebook twitter or instagram using at steve garrett dj
48:16
thanks again for listening to corvette today
48:42
you
#Chevrolet
#Classic Vehicles
#Other