If you’ve never been able to carve time out of your schedule to trek to Pennsylvania for the yearly Corvettes at Carlisle event, you need to rethink your priorities. CorvetteOnline was in attendance this past weekend for the yearly gathering put on by the Miller family of Carlisle Events. The show, started 33 years ago by Chip Miller and carried on by his son Lance and the rest of the CE team, is a must-attend event for anyone with the means to do so. Although the Carlisle team puts on other automotive events through the year, the Corvette show is perhaps the most near and dear to their hearts, as it was the first Corvette gathering that spearheaded the entire Carlisle Events roster that now includes a Ford and Chrysler show among others. In order to see everything at Corvettes at Carlisle, we estimate that you’d need a week or two, so we’re going to hit the highlights, including a number of staff picks that we found in the show field.

The scope of the CaC show includes the NCCC judged show field, where the best of the best park early during the festivities and remain for the weekend. On the flip side, the “Fun Field” includes thousands of attendees who are not there to compete for judged trophies and are instead participating for many reasons–chief among them the camaraderie exhibited between all of the show attendees. The field was filled with EZ-up tents for all of the respective groups, as it seems that there’s a registry for each of the particular ‘Vette models–the ZR1, the L88, even the Grand Sport were well-represented. Of course that doesn’t include all of the regional Corvette groups. We even saw one gathering full of folks from across the border in Canada. Simply put, Corvettes at Carlisle is the one show that every Corvette enthusiast should put onto the bucket list.

Time Lapse of the famous “Red White and Blue” assembly of Corvettes

There was a massive schedule of events; so many that we couldn’t get to all of them. Team Chevrolet was on-hand with a group of designers, engineers, and even builders from the Corvette plant. They were hosting seminars all day on Friday and Saturday in the Team Chevrolet tent.

Also on-hand were Paul Koerner and Brittany George of The Corvette Mechanic. Their schedule of seminars was packed full and included discussion on Stingray technology, Diagnostics, Alignment, an open Q&A session, and even a Women’s Car Car Clinic session for the ladies in attendance. We stopped by one of the sessions and were impressed with Paul’s ability to help the enthusiasts in attendance understand their Corvettes in simple terms.

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Installation Alley was part of the Manufacturer's Midway; countless Corvettes rolled into Carlisle with a quiet stock exhaust system, and out of the grounds with another system from one of the many manufacturers on hand at the event.

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On Saturday evening, show participants invaded the streets of Carlisle in a thundering display of Corvette horsepower. We understand that this is the largest gathering of Corvettes that have assembled for the parade in the event's history. Carlisle Events Photos.

In the photo above, this group of new recruits were sworn into the US Armed Forces. Immediately following this segment of the show, all of the veterans in the audience were invited up to the stage to re-affirm their oath, seen in the photo below. It was quite touching to see so much pride in our country.

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How about a little bit of autocross action? The course was operating on Friday and Sunday. On Saturday, it served as overflow parking as the event was absolutely packed.

Carlisle Events Notable Selections:

Coolest Club:

• Club Corvette of Connecticut

Club Participation Challenge:

• Cumberland Valley Corvette Club – 58
• ZR-1 Registry – 57
• National Corvette Restoration Society/NCRS – 55

Kids Choice Award:

• Mike Skelly

Beauty and The Beast Winner:

• Patricia Doerfler

Ms. Corvettes At Carlisle Winners:

1. Aubrey Spittler
2. Amanda Nissley
3. Caitlin Puccio

Spring Mountain Motor Giveaway (3 day weekend in Nevada at Spring Mountain Motor Resort/Ron Fellows Driving School):

• John Whaley

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What would a car show be without a burnout contest? We did find that most Corvette owners aren't into coating the sides of their prized rides with rubber, but Joel Burrill wasn't scared. He heated the hides on his C6 'vert in style, taking home the winner's title as the crowd went wild.

Although the National Council of Corvette Clubs has their judged portion of the event, Carlisle Events gives out a healthy portion of “Celebrity” winners. This is where celebrity owners pick their favorite car from among the rest of the cars on the Fun Field, and represents a healthy cross-section of sweet Corvettes. In lieu of presenting the entire 130-vehicle list in our article, we’ll direct you to this link from Carlisle Events where you can see who was chosen. Notable on that list is the very first vehicle. Listed in the link as owned by Ruth Exline (she signed up for the event registration), the sweet restomod ’54 was actually built nearly 100-percent by her husband Jim and found its way in front of the CorvetteOnline camera as one of our Editor’s Picks from the event. We also completed a full feature shoot on the vehicle, which you’ll see right here on CorvetteOnline in the coming months.

CorvetteOnline Staff Editor’s Picks

When compiling our choices for this year’s event, we tried to stick to a theme of vehicles that were built to be enjoyed. Although our top choice of Jim Exline’s ’54 was flawless as far as we could see, it also wasn’t built to a rigorous Concours standard. Jim put in modern running gear and a fuel-injected engine so he could drive the car and enjoy it, not so it could sit quietly in the corner. It’s that mantra that drove us to select these cars from among the thousands on the property.

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The Exline machine sports a complete LS3 conversion from a GM crate engine. The 480 horsepower heads to the rearend through a T-56 Magnum six-speed transmission and is harnessed by C4 Corvette suspension front and rear. This car is as clean on the bottom side as it is on the top side. The engine block is polished, the transmission case is polished, heck, even the stainless steel exhaust is polished. Jim says it took him approximately five years to complete the car from start to finish, working a few hours each night and ten hour days most Saturdays to complete the restoration. The only work farmed out was the interior. When he began the project, he had no idea how to perform body work on fiberglass, and tells us he sought out an experienced friend for guidance on the repair and preparation process, then performed all of the work--including paint--himself.

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Mahanes’ machine has every option except speed control, and he makes every effort to get the car out on the road to enjoy it. What started as a simple power steering hose leak led him into the shop and turned into a complete body-off restoration that was complete ten months later. The work was performed by Corvette Technicians in North Versailles, PA, and has left Mahanes with a car that purrs like a kitten when cruising around, yet goes like a bat out of hell when he stomps the loud pedal.

Another one of our favorites from the show was Perry Orshan’s modified 1960 machine. The car features a stroked-and-poked 383 backed by a Super T-10 transmission and a 12-bolt rearend pilfered from a Camaro.

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All of the mechanical work and drivetrain installation was performed in the garage at home, and then the body and paint was completed by Fred Ciccarelli at The Paint Shop And Body Works in Ledgewood, New Jersey. The car is painted '07 Corvette Monterey Red with a little bit of 'extra' to kick its appearance up a notch. As you can see from these photos, Orshan is no stranger to horsepower--the '65 Vette is one of his past conquests, as is the Fuel dragster. The current '60 gets driven often, especially to the local car shows alongside wife Maryanne's '89 'Vette..

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Giudice's machine was turning heads. A number of people stopped to chat with him while we were talking about the car, and he said one of the head-turning items had to be the Cragar wheels. Everyone who was a teenager or twenty-something when these cars hit the road remembers the five-spoke Cragar S/S chrome wheel. The truck fleet manager from Long Island looked for this car for two years before picking it up over the border in Ontario, Canada.

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He almost didn't make it to the event. His truck broke down about an hour out from Carlisle, so he called a friend, who--don't laugh--dispatched his cousin Vinny with another truck and trainer to the rescue. To make a long story short, Tony ended up in Carlisle with a U-Haul pickup towing his own trailer, while Vinny took his truck to be repaired. Guidice sold his first 'Vette, a 1980 model, to purchase his first house. At the time, his wife promised him when he turned 40 and the kids were grown, he could buy another. He's had six Corvettes since then; an '00 Fixed Roof Coupe also sits in the garage next to this beautiful car.

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It's hard to believe that these two images are of the same car.

In the judged showfield, Joe Palka shared his incredible 1965 Sting Ray Convertible restomod, the Shadowfax, seen above on the right. The car on the left? That’s the same car before Joe started the project, with recently culminated in a dyno test at Injection Connection in Pennsylvania with 484.2 horsepower at 6,000 rpm, and 484.0 lb./ft. of torque at 4,400 rpm. He bought the car with a plan of making it his unique vision of what a Corvette should be–and it looks like he accomplished his task.

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Underhood this beast are clean as clean can be. Behind the LS376 crate engine, the transmission tunnel houses a Tremec TK600, with a Dana 44/Trak-Lok combination in the rear housing 3.50:1 gears. Street Shop stainless headers and Allen's stainless side pipes get the exhaust out. The Street Shop chassis has hydro-boosted Wilwood disc brakes at all four corners, a full set of coil-overs with QA1 adjustable shocks, and an AGR power rack setup--items that simply didn't exist in 1965. Inside, Classic Instruments built custom gauges, and the car has a custom sound system, Flaming River tilt steering column, and an A/C retrofit from Classic Auto Air. All of the conversion and fabrication and paint work was done by Speedos in Staatsburg, New York. The custom interior--featuring Mercedes-style wool carpet--and custom top were fabbed up and installed by Gillin Custom Design in Middletown, NY. This car is incredible, and since Joe lives just a few miles from our East Coast office, we're working to schedule a feature shoot in the upcoming months.

Our final Staff Pick comes in the form of a car that’s designed more for go than it is for show. Ossining, New York’s Willie Rosario says “I spent more money on performance parts than nonsense.”

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Rosario says the car is good for eleven-second elapsed times on the dragstrip thanks to the ProCharger, which works in conjunction with methanol injection, the Holley intake manifold, and American Racing Headers' long-tube pipes. Also onboard are drilled and slotted Baer rotors, a Spec Stage 3+ clutch, and 19-inch Forgeline wheels. Rosario bought the car new from Kerbeck in New Jersey and has been to Carlisle ten times with this car. It's his first Corvette, but his stable has also included '94, '66, and 2003 models.

If you missed out on Corvettes at Carlisle in 2015, make plans to be there for the 2016 version where Carlisle Events will feature the 20th Anniversary of the ’96 Grand Sports, along with the 50th Anniversary of the ’66 Corvette. And the Chip’s Choice display will be full of famous wide-body Greenwood Corvettes. Make your plans now!