5,000 Owners Motor to Annual Pilgrimmage : It’s Nuts and Bolts for ‘Vette’ Set

This is Corvette country.

The world’s supply of the Chevrolet sports car is produced here in a million-square-foot General Motors factory that employs 1,350 men and women. It turns out 16 cars an hour and just completed the entire 1987 model run of 30,632 Corvettes.

Last week, in their seventh annual pilgrimage, nearly 5,000 “Vette” owners drove to Bowling Green from all over the nation to participate in the National Corvette Homecoming.

They came in models as old as 1953 roadsters with 150 horsepower six-cylinder engines--the first Corvettes ever made--to brand-new 1987 models.

A ‘Once-a-Year Treat’ for Owners

There was plenty of activity at Bowling Green’s Beech Bend park, where the get-together sponsored by 300 Corvette clubs was held. Corvette drag races. Corvette auctions. Buying, selling, swapping of Corvette parts and cars.

“It’s just being here in the town where the car is born, looking at all these different Vettes, meeting with other Vette owners, talking about Vettes. It’s a once-a-year treat for Corvette nuts like myself,” confided Jim Stevens, 47, a design engineer from Circleville, Ohio, who drove his 1977 model to the homecoming with his wife Jean.

Gail Gibbs, 29, of Springfield, Ill., an electrician for the state of Illinois, bought her 1969 Corvette from a private owner at the homecoming two years ago for $10,500.

“The homecoming is a good time to buy a Vette,” Gibbs said. Many owners come here to sell their cars to other Corvette owners. Some enthusiasts buy a different model every year at the homecoming.

Others, like red-bearded Randall Hullett, 40, of Auburn, Ky., restore wrecked Corvettes. This year Hullett brought a totally wrecked 1972 convertible by trailer. The remains were in a pile with a sign: “$2,500 or make offer.” Hullett explained: “I restore wrecked Vettes. Me and another boy bought this one three years ago. It’s been sitting in a garage gathering dust. We decided to try to sell the remains at the homecoming.”

Gene Purkey, 41, and his wife, Nancy, 39, IBM employees who live in Gaithersburg, Md., operate a Corvette spinoff business. “We’re the only people authorized by GM to embroider representations of Corvettes on wearing apparel,” Purkey said. They embroider Corvettes on T-shirts, sweat shirts, polo shirts and coats. Their company grossed $40,000 last year.

First Produced in Flint, Mich.

Beech Park was filled with parts stands--Vette owners prefer original parts over replacement parts. “The parts alone are worth at least twice the cost of the car,” observed Tom Hill, 30, a GM industrial engineer for Corvette, who added:

“Corvette owners are like a cult. There’s a mystique about it. Get two Corvette owners together and there’s conversation about the different models, about trivia.”

Corvettes were first produced in Flint, Mich., in 1953. In that first year, 300 roadsters came off the line with a sticker tag of $3,498. From 1954 through May, 1981, Corvettes were manufactured at GM’s St. Louis plant. Then all production was shifted to Bowling Green.

There are five magazines devoted solely to Corvettes--Corvette News published quarterly by GM (three-year subscriptions free to every new Corvette owner), and four independently published monthlies, Vette Views, Corvette Fever, Keepin’ Track of Vettes and Blue Bars. Many owners subscribe to all five.

‘America’s Only Sports Car’

Jane Bowlin, 36, editor of the Vette Gazette, house organ for the Corvette plant, said 5% of the car’s sales last year were in Canada, with 25 Corvettes sold in Japan, 20 in Europe, three in Saudi Arabia and 10 in other countries. “Our celebrity owners include Cheryl Tiegs, Don Johnson of ‘Miami Vice,’ Sammy Davis Jr., Eddie Murphy and Johnny Carson.”

Jim Falkowski, 30, a Davie, Fla., dry cleaner, trucked his glistening red and white 1967 Corvette convertible to the homecoming and parked it in the midst of nearly 100 other ’67 Corvettes. It was the 20th reunion for ‘67s. Falkowski proudly stood next to his car with his wife, Gay.

“Vettes are America’s only true sports car. It’s hard to put into words what we feel about these automobiles,” said Gay Falkowski.