RANT: Corvettes VS collectable TQs

[magicv8]

I'm gonna rant here for a minute. This rant is caused by regularly occurring advice about crap parts being ok for a driver/ The advice is crap. Speaking as a driver who drives his car everywhere, crap parts are ok for trailer queens. Real Corvettes that are driven a lot need good quality parts to be able roll along at triple digit speeds when the owner hits the loud pedal.

All a TQ has to do is crawl off a trailer and look shiny. Whether the engine has internal cracks that are welded, or the rear end needs new gears is irrelevant. A lot of them have frame damage covered with plastic and painted. TQs MAY actually be road worthy, but that is not their current purpose.

There are Corvettes, and there are TQs.

I'm a driver. Stop referring to a Corvette as one. It’s a car – unless it’s a TQ – then it’s a collectable.

I drive my Corvette hard while pouring on whatever maintenance it takes to keep up with the c5s I travel with on road tours - and I have never had them stop because I needed help or needed to make a repair.

 

[Mac]

I haven't noticed the comments about crap parts but I firmly believe you get what you pay for and there's more ways of paying than with money. An investment of my time to determine the quality of a replacement part is worth more than the money I spend. Crap parts aren't necessarily cheap, if you get what I mean!

The only thing worse than a trailer queen is a dust collector- sitting in a museum or someone's "private collection" for years doing nothing but collecting dust. Trips to car museums usually depress me.

The only thing worse than a dust collector is a rust collector- one of those warped individuals who buy cars and park them in the field to watch them deteriorate to a slow and rusty death while the owner dreams of that someday (which will never come) when he's gonna fix it up.

 

[magicv8]

You're right about the rust collectors - some of the dust collectors at the NCM are really interesting.

Dang, I thought I'd stir up a lot of controversy with this post. I'll try harder next time.:booty

 

[67HEAVEN]

What's to disagree with?

 

[John Mcgraw]

The only time I see a comment about "Driver Quality" parts is when the part is too ugly or worn out to put on a TQ! Contrary to popular opinion, most trailer queens are cars which are close to perfect. They are most definately not covered over with paint or plastic. Most TQ cars go on to be driven cars after they have reached the pinacle of their judging. Most people who restore cars for judging have to go through a performance verification and a car has to be mechanically perfect to pass. If you are not aware, There is no passing score for a PV other than perfect!
If one tiny little part of the car does not operate EXACTLY like the factory intended, then the car fails! I really get steamed when people knock TQ cars. A lot of us put years into restoring a car for judging and we pretty much have to trailer the car to prevent the restoration from degrading before it's judging life is over.
The 60 that I finished a 4 year restoration on last year is as close to being a perfect car as you are likely to see both mechanically and asthetically. For someone to call it something other than a real Corvette is insulting!
I have never knocked anyone's Corvette, whether it meets my vison of a Corvette of not and I feel personally insulted when someone decides to knock my choice.
I am not a diehard Restoration only fanatic and am currently building a 59 with a tube chassis, C4 suspension, and a LS6 engine. I get just as insulted when some of my restoration friends make negative comments about me "butchering" a C1!
I m proud of my 59 and am just as proud of my Duntov award winning 60.
Lighten up and quit knocking other peoples cars!
Regards, John McGraw

 

[Mac]

Very good and valid points, John.

If a guy is going for PV, you know he's going to be driving it- he has to in order to ensure everything works. Doesn't the NCRS give extra points for cars which are driven to be judged rather than trailered in?

When I think of trailer queens, I tend to think of cars which never see the light of day or touch the asphalt. They're on the floor of the car show or they're on a trailer, going to another show. Or they're been modified so they're impossible to maintain while driving. Like my buddy who loved car and liked to go to car shows. He didn't get into resto judging; he went the other way. He chromed so many parts on his 67 bb Chevelle (ie: you name it, including upper & lower a-arms, etc) he was afraid to drive the car. A one hour drive meant a full day of clean up & polish. He chromed it so he could show it. In order to get to shows, he had to buy a trailer. Voila- a trailer queen.

I guess that's why I'll never make my car too perfect. I want to be able to enjoy driving it and if I can't take pleasure in driving it without worrying. Worrying about how much time it'll take to clean up. Fearing something, anything might go wrong and damage my car. Constantly being stressed about intangibles would spoil the whole experience for me.

 

[magicv8]

If TQs are close to perfect, why do I see the owners roll them out of the trailers when they are within less than a days ride of the PV judging?

Lets do a lap on the North America - say starting on a winter morning in Eau Claire WI - we can head across Canada to Toronto and then reenter the US in Buffalo before heading south through the rock salt and snow.

 

[John Mcgraw]

Once again, We put them on trailers to keep them perfect until we are through judging them. I have absolutely no intrest in driving my corvettes restored or otherwise in the snow, ice and Rock salt, and would submit that anyone that does deserves all the crappy, pitted and scratched "driver Quality" parts that they can find. If you like entering your Corvette in mud racing, it is no no intrest to me, I would you would just hope that you could understand that not everyone aspires to sit on that same peak of moral superiority that you apparently do.
Regards, John McGraw

 

[magicv8]

There aren't any crappy pitted parts on my car - I work at keeping it looking like yours - but I drive mine. It just takes more effort and better parts - stainless fasteners, frame shields, stainless mud guards, stainless exhausts, cast blast and clear coated castings - all the stuff a TQ can't have.

I also clean and wax the bottom of the car - another thing not allowed in judging - but it keeps my chrome oil pan shiny (want to buy my original?) I do have all the original parts, I just found better ones.

Take a look at the pics on my home pages - especially the Details page - and tell me where you see even one crappy pitted part.

 

[John Mcgraw]

I never said a thing about your car having crappy parts on it! As a matter of fact, I have not said anything about your car at all!
I do not knock other peoples rides period. I do however find it amusing that you knock my car as being something other than a "real Corvette" when it has the 95% of the parts that it left the factory with still on it. Your car has a replacement engine, Recaro seats, custom suspension peices, Tuck and roll interior, ect, ect.
Yet your car is a "real" corvette and mine is not. It must be really great in that world which you live in. You obviously have your mind made up and are not interested in anything but your little corner of the world, so I will just quit wasting my time responding to you.
Regards, John McGraw

 

[Sams '66]

Uh......who do you think will play in the Super Bowl? (just changin' the subject)

 

[BLACK MOON]

I don't know but Buffalo will never make it.:cool

 

[Sams '66]

I am going with the Falcons

 

[magicv8]

I'll go with Falcons too, but I'm an old Bills fan - grew up in Buffalo.

 

[John Mcgraw]

Sorry guys,
Sometimes it just gets to me!
Regards, John McGraw

 

[67HEAVEN]

Cumbaya my Lord,
Cumbaya.............



P.S. John........I love your new frame.

 

[MoeJr]

New England Patriots are going to the dance I think. I would love to see them win another Super Bowl. This years team is battered but they are a gritty bunch. Quit is not in their vocabulary and the defense is good.

 

[60fuelie]

magicv8, you enjoy your corvette for the purposes that you see fit. You get the enjoyment of driving your corvette too. My 60 corvette is not finished yet, but when it is, it to will be a TQ until I am satified with the scores that it achieves, then I too can drive and enjoy it. NCRS does reward a driven corvette a small amount of points for being driven to the meet, but it is taking a chance if you plan to show it again. Years ago (1978) a friend drove his freshly restored car to a national event about 500 miles away. He won first place and received several awards that week for his accomplishments in restoration. On the way home we went through a rain storm, the car now sets for the past 25 years because what he wanted was a "top flight" car and after the 1000 mile round trip and the rain storm, the car is no longer premier show quality. If he wishes to reach that level again, it will take another ground up restoration. He should have trailered it, $25-30,000 mistake! Enjoy your car for your reasons, I respect them. I have one classic that I drive for pleasure, the 60 corvette will be trailered. We should respect each others choices!

Greg
1960 fi vette

 

[ptuner11]

great thread!
comments seem valid to me... except the ones about the Falcons.

 

[magicv8]

I am also enough of a perfectionist that I am drawn to make the car top flight - indeed I have stored all the parts to do so, but will probably never use them. Dunno.

At any rate, my rant is about the term "driver" that TQ owners use to describe "ugly" parts that they do not want on their cars.

I am a driver. My car is a Corvette. The chrome on it is as good as any top flight car. If some one has ugly or junk parts to get rid of - don't denigrate Corvettes that are not TQs by referring to the ugly parts as "driver quality". If you need a marketing euphemism, try "number 2 quality" or "imperfect". The inference that ugly parts are for nonTQs is what got this post started.

I am satisfied with the remarks made here - and I always appreciate looking at the NCRS restored cars that I tour with, but referring to ANY Corvette - even by inference - as ugly or junk - gets me going. They are all Corvettes. Except for a very few very low mileage cars that have not been molested, they are all variously unoriginal. Restoration only makes a car APPEAR as original - so sayeth NCRS. I chose to make my Corvette APPEAR customized, and indeed, I could show it as a Sportsman class Corvette - but that would only get me started on the road to top flight.

I spent as much time and money (at least) in making my Corvette the custom touring car that it is - as it would have taken to make it top flight. However, I know that what 60fulie says is true, my car would end up on a trailer, and I would be driving a truck and trailer to NCRS conventions instead of an all purpose touring car. Kudos to the people who own cars made for judging competition, as long as they don't sneer at the rest of us - even by inference.