INDIAN RIVER CORVETTE CLUB
NEWSLETTER

President • Rob Callery • Vice-President • Bill Ulisky • Secretary • Sandy Ericsson • Treasurer • Amy Harp

October 2004

OCTOBER BIRTHDAYS
6th - Diane Viehweg, 15th - John Dicken,
15th - Sandy Ericsson, 16 - Amy Harp, 17th - Bill Thrasher, 19th - Thomas Talbert, 20th - Jerry Brock, 26th - Tom Quina

On Sept 10, 2004 the Indian River Corvette Club held its 55th regular meeting. Thirteen members gathered at Bombardiers to discuss club business and swap stories about hurricane Frances which hit Vero on September 5-6. Little did we know that another storm was on the way. It was great to see everyone who could make the meeting.

The Mystery Dinner Run, on September 28, 2004, was cancelled due to hurricane Jeanne. There was a lot of debris on the roads and many were still securing their homes after storm damage. Winds from the storm exceeded 100mph.

Rob & Cathie, Tom & Hollyann, Karl & Kathy Sterner, Freddy Cernuto, and Dick & Lucy made the trip to Kissimmee for OctoberVettes on Oct 9th. It was a nice diversion from the storm woes. Pizza and three kegs of beer made for a great party on Friday night. Well over 200 cars were on display at Old Town on Saturday. The cruise started at 3:00 and the old cars followed us in and were on display until 8:30 when they paraded out also.

The Effingham, Illinois, MidAmerica Motorworks, FUNFEST show was held on September 17-19, and was bigger and better that last year!! During the three days of the show, over 10,700 Corvettes made the trip to Effingham. Owner, Mike Yeager, bought 50 additional acres for one million dollars, so the grounds have expanded to the East. There is talk of a drag strip an another track. The ''MY GARAGE'' museum was updated with a 53 and 63 on loan from GM. There was a nice crowd on Friday, with food stands so you could use the food coupons supplied free of charge by MidAmerica. Eleven new 2005 C-6 coupes on the auto transport truck were parked on the grounds.

Carlisle lived up to its reputation again this year. Lance Miller, Chip Millers son, was active in organizing this years show and will continue in the future. Greenwood-edition Corvettes and race prepared Corvettes from the past made for two great displays. There were also a dozen 2005 C-6 Corvettes on display from Kerbeck Chevrolet. Chip Millers 1957 Aztec Copper Corvette brought $135,000 in the benefit auction. Proceeds went to Amyloidosis research. An almost identical ''Bloomington Gold'' certified Aztec Copper 57 brought $87,000 in the regular auction. A very nice 67 small block convertible brought $70,000. Saturday was extremely hot until a late afternoon shower cooled things off.

This year marked the 10th anniversary of the National Corvette Museum. A large crowd was on hand to celebrate the 10th birthday of NCM and to witness the introduction of the 2005 C-6 Corvette coupe. Rob & Cathie and Dick & Lucy enjoyed the weekend events before heading home on Labor Day to assess storm damage from Frances.

Dick and Lucy toured the factory on Friday to see first hand how they build the new C-6. Some changes have been made in the line at the factory but for the most part its similar to the past C-5 arrangements. We learned that ''golf tees'' and ''binder clips''(large paper clips) play an important part in Corvette production. These two items help hold body panels as they pass through the paint room! We also learned that all C-5 Corvettes have 2 built in paint flaws. To see one of them, you must remove a door panel, but the other one is visible in the upper part of the ''door handle release' where the robot arm touched the wet paint to close the door during painting.