Corvette alive and well in Europe

[Kurt G.]

Not that this is technical, but I thought it might be interesting. On Tuesday, August 25 my spouse and I arrived in Frankfurt, Germany for a couple of weeks of visiting her family. 5 km south of Frankfurt Mainz airport, on the A5 Autobahn we were passed by a peice of home, a 2009 black ZR-1. Speed limit on that part of the A5 was 120 kph. My brother in law was pacing traffic at 150 kph. The American masterpeice went by us in the left (fastest) lane and blew our doors off. We could watch him for about 2 minutes as he disappeared ahead. The Beamers and AMG's could only wave bye-bye. I admit I was surprised to see a ZR-1 in Germany. Anyone have any idea who might be the owner?

[Oliver B.]

Re: Corvette alive and well in Europe

Nope - I have heard about a few being delivered over here, but never seen one (by now)...

[Jephrey S.]

Re: Corvette alive and well in Europe

There are at lot more Corvettes over here than I expected. Here is a link to the club in my area. I am not a member, but have been to a meeting. Some of these guys have more money in their engines than I have in my whole car.

http://www.bwcorvettes.com/

I had a chance to buy a black C6 Z06 from a guy that was moving home but I never got past looking at it before it sold. There is a base C6 and a C5 here at work, plus a 76 driver any my 70 LT1 just in 1 parking lot. On my way back from lunch (getting gas-go figure) today I passed a soldier with a black C6 coupe from somewhere else on the (small) base.

If you are talking about the 8 lane stretch of A5 just south of Frankfurt, that is (was/will be again) unrestricted without the construction. The last time I ran that route about 6 weeks ago they still had the speed limits in place. If you get a chance, depending on where you are, try A7 between A3 and A6. There is not much traffic and lots of unrestricted sections. Watch out for the curves though, they look gentle but at 250+ kph they are like hairpins. And, no matter how fast you are, you had better keep one eye on the rearview there!

Another very good thing to do is find an overpass that crosses an unrestricted zone somewhere. It doesn't look like that big of a deal when you are in the car, but sitting still the speed (and sound) is downright scary. It helps to keep you in perspective when 120 mph seems boring while driving. I don't think anyone should be allowed to exceed 130 kph (80 mph) without spending 30 minutes on one of those overpasses first. This morning I rolled The Beast again, and was videotaped at 130 mph (and pulling) by a guy standing on an overpass over A6. He wasn't wearing a uniform, and by the slack jaw position I think (hope) that it was a tourist doing just that.

[Oliver B.]

Re: Corvette alive and well in Europe

The biggest club here in Germany (I guess) still is CCHamburg with some more than 140 registered members throughout Northern Germany... (The very most of them drivers/owners.)

And we have a VERY STRONG corvetteforum.de running...

So, we are doing our share to keep up the wave!
(Unfortunately there's just very few "numbers-crunchers", originality-fanatatic NCRS-people amongst them... We have the Dutch and the UK-Chapters taking care of that here in Europe.)

[Kurt G.]

[Jack H.]

Re: Corvette alive and well in Europe

This shouldn't be a surprize (Corvette alive and well in Europe)... GM has been actively marketing the marque for quite some time. Even with the import duties and currency exchange, these cars a MORE than competitive with local equivalent(s) like Porshe, Aston-Martin, and the gang of Italians.

Each year that Corvette ran in the GT2 class at the 24 Heurs du Mans endurance race, Corvette owners from all across Europe flocked to support and cheer. The local track side 'corral' (sponsored by GM France) would typically have 200-300 Corvettes in residence on race days...

Bottom line, I'm surprized that you're surprized! I guess you don't get across the pond that much to see/know what's going on... That's one of the reasons, NCRS has healthy/active chapter level presense in both the UK and Holland.

[Kurt G.]

Re: Corvette alive and well in Europe

I'm not saying I was surprised to see vettes in Europe, but, to see a new ZR-1 45 minutes after landing in Frankfurt was, to say the least really cool. The best part of it all, so far I haven't seen a single Italian running around, only a couple of M3's, one AMG. Compared to last time two years ago when I was in central Deutschland last, this has been a good time with the Vettes. Like Jack said, with the GT2 team blowing everyone elses doors of in LeMan, there will be more next year when I'm back to visit the family.

[Jack H.]

Re: Corvette alive and well in Europe

Huh??? Didn't you say:

"I admit I was surprised to see a ZR-1 in Germany."

Maybe I need to go back to English 101...

[Kurt G.]

Re: Corvette alive and well in Europe

I guess I need to spell it out for Jack. I was surprised to see the ZR-1 in Germany. I was not surprised to see Corvettes in Germany, or any other part of Europe. I know the car has a great following over here, however, considering the limited first year production and the limited availabliity to dealer in the US, let alone Europe, the ZR-1 is a rare site even in the US. Add to the above, the fact that I saw the car within 45 minutes of hitting the dirt in Germany, yep, I was surprised. Had it been a C-6 of any other type, even a Z-06 I probably would not have posted. Sorry Jack. Next time I'll spell it out better.

[Wolf S.]

Re: Corvette alive and well in Europe

corvettes are alive and well in france too.
many late c3s, lots of more modern machinery, a few c1s and c2s.

[David S.]

Re: Corvette alive and well in Europe

Back in early July I too was in Frankfurt visiting before going to Amsterdam and Paris. Anyhow, after leaving the Main River (pronounced Mine River) we crossed a busy street heading back toward the financial district. Sure enough what was stopped at a red light...



Certainly cool to see Corvettes outside of the U.S.A.
-Dave

[Kurt G.]

Re: Corvette alive and well in Europe

It just goes to show, you can't keep a good thing down. No matter where you go our favorite mode of transporation is appreciated by everyone.

[David H.]

Re: Corvette alive and well in Europe

It just goes to show, you can't keep a good thing down. No matter where you go our favorite mode of transporation is appreciated by everyone.

Kurt,

Greetings! Glad to see you are enjoying yourself. I'm at Carlisle - some rain Friday/Saturday but all-in-all a great time. I got a couple of rubber parts for your ignition shielding (a gift so your wife won't come gunning for me!) and some GM Product Description Flyers for your 1972.

Some REALLY nice cars both NCRS and modded and some cars that left you wondering what they were thinking when they built the car. LOL Folks were not giving cars away, but prices in general were less than previous years. The Corvettes at Carlisle auction was cancelled, to be folded into an auction later this year with other collector cars. Seems that there were not enough people willing to put their cars up for auction in this economy.

I think the Fri/Sat rains put the damper (sorry could not resist) on sales of some of the smaller (outdoor/no tent) vendors. I spoke to a some vendors that said their business was pretty good - so it varied a lot. I've never figured out how some of these folks expect to sell electronic parts like gages and wiring harnesses that they leave sitting in the wet grass and mud.

"Your" car was in the NCRS gallery - I got a few photos.

Dave

[Erik S.]

Re: Corvette alive and well in Europe

ZR-1 is alive and kicking in the Netherlands as well. Yes - it's pricy (around USD 280,000). Picture taken mid March (credit to the original taker). The NL dealership went belly up and assets were sold off just recently.



Erik

[Rob M.]

Re: Corvette alive and well in Europe

Kurt,

50 new ZR-1 will be/are delivered for Europe (of the first 2009 model year)... (source de Telegraaf, Dutch newspaper which had an article on the ZR-1 last Saturday)

regards,
Rob.