Automotive

Earlier this month I joined a large group of Corvette enthusiasts for the annual Grand Prix of Long Beach race to cheer on the Corvette Racing Team.   I've been attending these races over the past few years when it was named the ALMS American LeMans Series.  For this year, the race was the inaugural Tudor United Sports Car Championship. I found it interesting that this race series was a merger of the ALMS and the Rolex Sports Car Series, and Rolex has committed their Tudor watch brand to sponsor the racing series for 5 years.  The race at Long Beach was the 3rd race of the series and the new C7.R Corvette did not do very well in the first two races.  The two C7.R cars didn't even make a podium finish at the January Daytona and March Sebring races, so everyone was hopeful that Long Beach would have better results. 





We woke up earlier to join a Corvette caravan for a morning drive to the Long Beach area where they closed down Shoreline Drive for the race.  Corvette Racing has been sponsoring a Corvette Corral hospitality area and I've really enjoyed attending because it makes the race more comfortable.  There is a private parking area for 100 Corvettes.





Most of the parking lot were a mix of C5 and C6 generation Corvettes however there were quite a number of the new C7 Corvette Coupes and Convertibles.




Inside the hospitality tent were treated to large screen monitors with closed circuit viewing of the race, free drinks and snacks, and best of all we had several seminars throughout the day.  First up was the Mobile 1 representatives presenting information about their line of synthetic oil.  They were also generous in providing freebies like a quart of 5W-30 oil for our Corvettes, and Corvette Racing baseball caps.  I really enjoyed hearing about technology in the motor oil and learning about fuel economy and future development.  The reps were talking about 0w-10 low weight oil for ultra high fuel efficiency.  Of course this isn't intended to be used in a 6.2 liter V8 LT-1 engine





Afterwards the representatives from Michelin stepped up and talked to us about tires.  I'm still a little bit sad that Goodyears F1 EMT tires are no longer the OEM tire on Corvettes, but have to admit that the Michelins that I've used have better performance and are quieter.  Corvette Racing has been using Michelin for a number of years and now the 2014 and future Corvettes will be equipped with Michelin Pilot Super Sport ZP run flat tires. 

 
At last year's Corvette Corral I was able to handle sample cut pre-production tires and now this year we were shown the OEM tires.

After the two presentations we stepped out of the Corvette tent and walked around the race course to watch the IndyCars practice.  There were plenty of vendors lined up outside the grandstands so we stopped for a quick snack.  King Taco is a L.A. area favorite and grabbed two carnitas tacos with fresh onions and cilantro. 

It was still early morning but we stopped by for some free samples of Italian Ice.  Pretty good, we'll have to come back here later in the day!

Lots of great smelling BBQ places too!

We picked up some freebie t-shirts by answering some interesting questions from the staff at the Port of Long Beach (they were really friendly and I learned new facts about Long Beach port).

The lifestyle expo had all kinds of vendors.  Outside were 'Marilyn' and 'Elvis' entertaining the crowd. 

 Inside the expo there were all kinds of vendor booths and fun games for the kids (and adults) like this slot car racing track.

This was really cute, kids got to drive around in electric powered open wheel cars for a few laps. 

Of course Chevrolet had their usual large area in the main building showcasing their vehicles including the new C7 Corvette Stingray Convertible. 

Also on display was the new C7.R Race Car

Back at the Corvette Corral hospitality tent we had Ron Fellows presenting the Corvette Racing School and announced some exciting news for C7 Corvette owners.  Starting with the 2014 C7 Corvettes, Chevrolet is sponsoring the new Corvette Driving Experience in collaboration with Ron Fellows Racing School.  It provides a substantial discount to owners, so I'm looking forward to my next Corvette and learning how to drive it better.

After the presentation by Ron Fellows we were served lunch which was a catered roast beef, turkey, and ham sandwiches with a variety of salads.  I enjoyed last year's much better when they served bacon wrapped hot dogs and burgers.  But the quality of the food was pretty good.

In the afternoon we headed out to the grandstands to take our seats for the race. 

And here's a video with the pace cars leading the race cars to starting lap. 



I'm happy to report that the Corvette C7.R claimed it's first victory of the 2014 Tudor United SportsCar Championship!  The #3 C7.R came in 1st place for the win in GT LeMans class and the teammates in the #4 C7.R came in 3rd.  I'm looking forward to the next race in May at the Monterey Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway.

Regards,
ED-209

 
This message has been edited by ED209 on 2014-04-29 22:30:33

One question. I am not sure you wrote something about that, but is there a possibility for a C 7 owner to upgrade it in a R version?

Best,

Nicolas

But I have been wrong before.

Mike

No message body

Hi Nicolas,
I'm sure sometime in the near future Pratt and Miller will offer a chance to 'upgrade' to a C7.R.
 I've seen the previous generation Corvette was offered a C6.R.  Basically you would purchase a new Z06 and have it shipped Pratt and Miller for the conversion.  The last time I've seen one was at last year's Petersen Auto Museum debut for the Corvette.  I'll see if I can dig up some pics. 

Regards,
ED-209

No message body

I'm surprised that over the years that Porsche and BMW has decreased their corrals or even stopped attending.  We had a great time and I'm already booked for next year.

Regards,
ED-209

No message body

It was a lot of fun.  Please we found a cool bbq place nearby that had some fantastic beef ribs.
Regards,
ED-209

Long Beach ... reminds me of a certain Miami Vice episode with race cars on a street circuit ... but probably somewhere in Florida off course ...

Thanks Bim!  Will definitely post when I get a C7.  Hope you can make your way over to SoCal someday.

Regards,
ED-209