[KMeloney]

Hey all,

Had the opportunity to take in my first Corvettes at Carlisle this past Saturday. Wow, what an event! Tomns and tons of Vettes, and many tuners and aftermarket companies as well. If you've never been to this show, you've got to mark it on your calendar for next year. It's a "must see" event!

I made a few observations at the show that I thought I'd share here:

- We MUST have some kind of tent for Z06vette.com next year. It was really lacking. At VERY least we should all have banners to display in our cars there.

- Some people should have their cars taken away from them before they put too much "gingerbread" (aftermarket show accessories) on them. Some cars just made you stand there in awe, shaking your head at what a mess the accessories turned the car into...

- The Skunk Works C5 vert was there. 8" were chopped out of the windshield header. This machine was BAD!

- Vette people have a wonderful amount of respect for each others' cars. I didn't see a single person paw a car that wasn't meant to be. You could easily touch most of the cars there (including tuners' cars and cars with body kits and whatnot), but people just didn't. It was refreshing to see.

- Zippy is a super-nice, kind-hearted soul!

- The Caravaggio Z06 vert didn't seem all that interesting. I'm not sure what I expected exactly, but it wasn't a "thrill" to see. In Caravaggio style, though, it was done beautifully.

- After seeing the '02 Z wheels in person, you can tell an '02 wheel from an '01 wheel instantly. I found the rounded edges of the '02 wheels to be very noticeable -- and not as exciting as the '01 wheels.

- JC is shorter in person than he looks on TV... (Just kidding -- nice to have met you, JC!)

- All of the Mallett cars (and the other aftermarket tuner cars, save for Breathless who obviously uses their own system) use Donaldson filter set-ups. I found this to be very interesting (and tell of how good the unit is at flowing air, I suppose). They could have used anything on their 427's and whatnot, but the Blackwing was the intake of choice.

I'll post more if the thought strikes me! Just found these things interesting.

-Kirk

 

[[email protected]]

Thanks for the report. We went last year and had a blast!!

You are correct, There is a tremendous amount of respect shown by all involved in that show, from the patrons to the guys in charge.

I noticed too, that the Blackwing is the choice of most of the tuner cars, except, as you said, for BPP.

And, if you need a vintage part for an older Vette, I bet it's there if it exists.

RG

 

[mdickie]

Excellent input, I already am planning this for next summer...

Thanks again...

 

[BLEUBYU]

Yes, Carlisle was excellent, this year although it was kinda strange since most years they have an auction. I also noted that the crowds on Saturday were smaller than usual, perhaps as a consequence of a slow economy and lousy stock market.

I brought the new EB up there hoping to meet some of the fine folks here in person. Got to meet CraigK, JC, Zippy, but unfortunately was never able to hook up with the C4C5Specialist. Also, a GM rep was putting together a video for the BG folks ( I think to show folks working in the plant) and asked to film an interview with me and my wife concerning our recent BG delivery. Since CraigK and JC were there also, I suggested that they need to also interview them on camera. Supposedly, we are gonna get copies of the video.

I also noted that many of the tuner cars were sporting Blackwings, but I continue to believe that the two intake systems offering the most performance gains are Breathless and Halltech. Perhaps the Blackwing offers a slightly decreased chance of water ingestion, thus slightly reducing the chance of any claims against a tuner's warranty - I dunno. I do know that I have talked to a number of people running either Vortex or TRIC, done some article research on these units, and continue to believe these units are very close to one another in power gains. I had Ernie install the cold air rammer and bridge on my car while at Carlisle. There was definitely more "crispness" to the ride home.

Ideally, I should have put the car on the Dynojet at the show before the Vortex install, but the wait was too long, and Ernie was swamped with installs which necessitated leaving my car with him for several hours. I had an opportunity to dyno late in the day, but everyone (including the dyno operator) concurred that the car need time to relearn after the installation.

I did note that two 01 Z06s dynoed at 347 rear wheel corrected h/p with nothing more than cold air intakes, and exhaust mods (aftermarket exhaust/shortie headers). I will dyno "baby blue" hopefully in the near future.

 

[Rick1]

Have not been to Carlisle but it sounds a lot like Bloomington Gold. That was my first Big Corvette show and I was blown away by the # of Vettes there and the people. It seemed that one could start at one end of the show and build a Vette with parts by the time you got to the other end. Their was some of the most beautiful Corvettes there that I have ever seen.Every year and model was there to dream about. They had a 1967 big block coupe on a rotating pedistel that had only 12 miles on it. The guy said he turned down at the auction a bid of $164,000.00. Got to see the one of a kind Purple & Platum 2000 Vert that a BG plant worker won in a raffle. We were their displaying a few 2001 Vettes and got to stay Tue. thru Sun. All of the people I met were a class act and the Vettes I could go on and on about. I think that a show like this is something that everybody that loves Corvettes of any model must go to at least once.

 

[BlkZO6]

I agree that we need a ZO6 tent and section. Every other type of vette seems to have a section, and it seems reasonable. Give it a try JC!!!