curious - amount of car use on your C1 or C2

[BarryK]

I was just curious how much people tend to drive their C1's or C2's.

My Corvette Club had an Icecream cruise on Sun. We met at a spot for everyone to gather than cruised together into a nice small town for where there is a really good icecream stand and a BBQ stand.
after that the cruise went another 30-40 miles south to a nice resturant on the water for dinner than back home.

When i showed up in my '65 i was the only C2 car there although a good number of club memebers have C1's and C2's. with the exception of my C2 and another members late model C3, ALL of the other cars were C4's and C5's.
I mentioned this to one of the guys there (he also happens to be the current club president) and he said they almost never see the C1 or C2 cars on these events - it's always the newer cars only and he was actually really glad to see me show up with BABY.
I know a few of the guys in the club have true show cars (trailer queens) so I don't expect to see those cars on the road but most of the others are just really nice driver cars but they just don't drive them that much. if the C1 or C2 owners also have new model vettes they drive those instead.

personally, i bought mine to drive and enjoy. It's not a daily driver to take to work or the grocery store but on nice days i want to drive it for fun and i want to enjoy it on these kinds of club social events.

so I was just curious how much and how often others with C1's and C2's use and drive their cars.

 

[Neal]

The local Corvette club I used to belong too was the same way. Very few either had or at least drove anything older than a C4. (That's the main reason I am no longer a member) But I will say in their defense, if I had a C4 or C5 to go along with my C1, I would drive the newer one on any extended road trip. As much as I love my '58 and the reaction it gets when on the road, it's very tiring to drive any real distance. Consequently, it only gets around 1,000 miles a year. And trust me, it's not a NCRS concourse vehicle, but rather a driver. Just not daily.

 

[tigernut]

Mine's a daily "tinkerer". I love tearing it apart and working on it even more than driving it (what I really bought it for, as a way to relieve stress) ,so it is seldom all together, although when it is, I tend to take it on weekend drives to nowhere in particular, usually covering around 100 miles/day.

 

[JohnZ]

My cars are weekend and "ice cream" drivers; I put about 1,000 miles a year on each of them (having a 6-month driving season here doesn't help much ).

 

[Ron Miller]

I put about 3,000 - 3,500 miles a year on my '66 vert Powerglide, less than 300 miles a year on my '65 A/C coupe. Go figure, sometimes wonder why I keep them both, but then I remember . . . .

I just love the C-2's!!!!!

 

[Vetsvette2002]

I enjoy driving my 67. It takes only a couple of minutes to go from ready to go postal to a smile on the pie hole.

Don

 

[Grizzly]

In Full Agreement

My experiences pretty much follow what already has been said. There only a few C1 and C2 cars in the club and they don't show up much. I like to take the '67 Coupe as much as I can becuase it is such an ego trip. That old coupe and it's thundering sidepipes kind of steal the show, and to be truthful I think some of the members resent it. NCRS it's not, but it has a real fine straight paint job that attracts a lot of attention. Had friend with me recently that mentioned that people walk down this whole line of 3's 4's and 5's and stop in front of my car.

I stick mainly to local shows. It is hot, noisy, and uncomfortable for long trips. That's what we have my wife's 92 vert for.

Get those old cars out to the shows guys and let people see them, they love them. I love it when a kid comes up to me and says "What's that mister"?

 

[attret00]

I only drive her around 2000 mi a year. She is in excellent shape, but I realize she is 40 yrs. old. Like Neal said it is tiring to drive on a long ride. I'm getting old too!

 

[Sky65]

I drive my 65 every weekend. I have company car I use during the week and the 65 is my weekend transportation. Not only for crusing but hardware store, grocery store, cleaners or anywhere else I can think of to go...

 

[wallyknoch]

I haven`t touched the dinosaurs this year except for polish and cleaning. 10 minutes to wash the sucker and two hours to clean the wheels.Besides the newer ones have nice cold air compared to the hot box the Black 62 becomes in the summer sunshine. And actually my iron horse freedom machine Harley gets more use than any of them and a hell of a lot easier to clean.

 

[IH2LOSE]

Barry over the last 2 years i did not get to use the car as much as I wanted to (recovering from kness surgeries) this year we are on target for at least 1000 miles.I use it as often as I can for car cruises,and shows.In our area there is a car cruise almost ever night of the week..

We also have a short season for driving april (after the road salt is cleaned off the roads) up intill about 2nd week of november.This year my caddy is also g
etting some miles on it with the wife behind the wheel. My daughter is at an age that she almost always has a freind at the house so there following in the caddy to the cruises.

 

[IH2LOSE]

I just wanted to add.

The reason for my low milage is because not because I dont like to drive the car or reliabilaty.( I would have NO fear of driving my car across the county as a matter of fact any of the collector cars I have built)

Its just for lack of time and places to go.We had planned on driving the 2 vettes out to Carlilse this year but I am picking up parts there so I have to bring the car trailer.(maybee next year Ill drive it out

 

[JL66REDCPE]

I do not drive the car very much at all - maybe 300-500 miles a year. I attend cruise ins mostly and maybe a couple shows a year. I just dont like sitting in a parking lot for 6-8 hours waiting to get a trophy anymore. Don't get me wrong, there are shows that I do attend that are really fun. These shows are either at a great venue or have some kind of festival associated (which equates to great food) with them. The shows at Smithville, NJ, the Blueberry Festival in Hammonton and the Ocean Cty NJ Boardwalk show are two in particular. Also our club Corvette show at Wheaton Village in Millville NJ is a terrific show celebrating its 25th year. I also belong to a local club where the C5's have really taken over. If the club goes on a long cruise, the average travel speed is way faster that I care to travel, plus -- where the heck am I going to get Cam2 or some other racing fuel out on the highway. I have long time freinds with C2's and other classic cars who I travel with to the cruises.

 

[BarryK]

Interesting responses so far

kind of along the lines of what I expected to hear from many owners but still nice to know and most actually seems to be in sync with my own use of my car.

I do have to agree with the people that plyed that said that these older cars are more tiresome to drive no matter how much fun they are. Hot, rough, somewhat uncomfortable on longer trips and definately loud especially with my sidepipes and 4:11 rear gears but at the same time being the only one or one of the very few with a C2 in a pack of C4's and C5's really makes my car stand out and get attention and the boost to my ego sure makes my day!


My wife now wants a C4 for herself so I can foresee that on many of these events we would end up taking the C4 instead of BABY for the comfort aspects and overall reliability issues even though it might not get quite as much attention as the '65, but hey, it's still a Vette and better than all the non-Vette people would have!

I'm not sure how many miles I've put on BABY since I got her in March because my odometer doesn't work (i don't want to fix it either - she can be a 48,664 mile car forever!) but I'm estimating that i've already put approx 1000-1200 miles on her and that time frame includes the 6 weeks she was back into the restoration body shop when an idiot at a red light backed into her.

IH2lose, our "driving season" here is about the same as yours although sometimes March can me fairly nice or sometimes we get some late snowstorms. With the great heat inside the car I can actually see me possibly driving the car year round though including winter months as long as there is no snow and/or salt on the road. Any snow or salt means she will sit in the garage until it is completely gone, but I hate the idea of just parking it in the Fall and she is basically stored until Spring. I think that would just be a waste of the use of a wonderful car although I know that where many people live that is just what they have to do. Our winters are not THAT bad that I can't see being able to use BABY at least sometimes during our winter.

JL66REDCPE, where in Jersey are you? I grew up in Jersey and so did my wife. Still have family there. I was in Pemberton and my wife in Delran although we are in Delaware now. From your post I gather you are around the Millville/Vineland area?

 

[ctjackster]

2000 miles or so a year (end of snow (March) thru beginning of snow (November)), weekends and a mid-week sunny day commute every so often, I get the impression I drive it waay more than many (but not all) of my fellow C2 owners in the area . .

at this rate it will have 64,000 original miles in 5 years . . .

 

[JL66REDCPE]

BarryK - I am just east of Vineland -- small rural town called Richland -- population 912

 

[IH2LOSE]

I just dont like sitting in a parking lot for 6-8 hours waiting to get a trophy anymore

John I could not of said it better.I have the found the cruises better,the sun is not as hot,and everybody there is there to talk and enjoy cars (not there for a trophy) I find I meet alot of plain ole car folks at the cruise inns.The only cars shows I have attended this year were corvette only shows or cadillac only shows.

John

When are you arriving in carlilse? I need some voulenteers to help me at the show feild to put a frame I am purchasing on my car trailer some time on thursday night.

 

[JL66REDCPE]

Larry -- my plans have been thrown into turmoil. I had a prospective customer in Danville PA (90 minutes from carlisle) schedule a business meeting from 1-3pm on Friday the 20th. I will have to re-adjust my plans this year. I wont be getting there until at least Friday night now -- may have to cancel plans. I hate it when work gets in the way.

 

[SG4206]

Me and my babe ,will venture about 1- 1 1/2 hrs. out from home base on the weekends in the '66.
The '95 runs every day.

 

[Blue1960]

Berry, I try to drive my 60 as much as I can but it seems it's just clue events or cruise ins. A couple weeks ago we had close to 100 vettes at Lowes [charlotte] Motor Speedway got to do 10 laps at 80mph with pace car leading us. That was alot of fun. There were 3-C1 maybe 10 C2, 10 C3 the rest were 4&5s. Steve