Corvette Convention

Australian 16th National Corvette Convention
Melbourne, Victoria - Easter 2004

A bit of info for you folks in the US of A...

By James Pierce

The Convention...

The Convention was held in Melbourne, Victoria over the Easter weekend, Good Friday and Easter Monday being public holidays. This allows the interstate attendees to arrive on Good Friday and have Monday to return home.
The furtherest traveled were a couple of Vettes from Perth which were shipped over on the transcontinental rail but many of the Queenslanders drove down over 2 or 3 days.

Australia is about the same size as the Continental U.S. so it is no small feat to get over 200 Corvettes in one place at the same time. The previous record for an Australian Convention was 130 Vettes and this Convention blew that record out of the water!
The venue for the convention was the Carlton Crest Hotel located opposite Albert Park Lake. Albert Park is the street course used for the Formula one world championship.

Friday was registration day, time to meet old friends and wash the Vette. As usual, part of the registration is a goodie bag containing items from the various sponsors and the bottle of commemorative port. There was also information on the NCM and application forms for membership available. The major sponsors for this year's convention included AC Delco, Holden and Gulf Western Oil.

The first official event was a gathering and barbeque dinner in the evening. It was a meet and greet with briefing announcements for the following days events.

Saturday dawned fine and clear for the Show and Shine. It was only a short drive to Pit straight where 70 of the Vettes were put on display in the Pit Sheds while the remaining 130 were parked in order from oldest to newest along the pits. The display featured 3 '54s though to an '02 Z06 and an '03 Indy Pace Car.

This particular vehicle started life as a prize for one of the NCM raffles and when won was immediately put up for sale. The Australian buyer then shipped the Vette to Australia and it arrived with only 50 miles on the clock!
During the day there were bands playing on a semi trailer with dancers to entertain the throng of public which attended. The usual food vans catered to the public but the Convention attendees had a catered spit roast lunch with salads and desert.
When judging was completed the cars traveled back to the hotel so the owners could get gussied up for the evening's entertainment. At 4.30 we boarded double decker buses for the trip to the Melbourne aquarium. A special treat was the underwater rides through the main tank. The trip back to the hotel was the scenic route with pre-dinner drinks so the interstate visitors could get an eyeful of Melbourne's skyline at sunset.

Dinner was a sit down meal in the restaurant across the road from the hotel. After desert, there were a few more announcements regarding Sunday's events and most of the attendees hit the sack early due to the big day planned. Zero blood alcohol level was specified for the track events so the party animals had to wait until Sunday night to let loose!

Sunday was again another beautiful day and the Vettes formed up early for the 100Km drive to the General Motors Holden proving ground at Lang Lang.

Once there, everyone formed up, 4 lanes wide, on the banked high speed circle for the photo opportunity.
When the happy snaps were over everyone lined up for laps on the circle track, the go to whoa and the motorkhana.

The laps were a non competitive high speed run limited to 180kmh with only 2 Vettes on opposite ends of the track at any one time.

The go to whoa and the motorkhana were competing against the clock for trophies as were the drags held after lunch.

I'm sure most of the drivers could have stayed out until dark but we had to get back to the hotel and clean ourselves up for the presentation dinner held in the Grand Waldorf Ballroom of the Carlton Crest.

Before dinner there was a presentation from the Royal Children's Hospital Good Friday appeal as the profit from the Convention was donated to this worthy cause. A total of $8000 was raised which helps the Children's Hospital with new equipment.
Pictures of every Vette at the show and shine were projected on a big screen to the applause of the owners and their friends during dinner.

After the presentation of trophies an auction took place which featured Corvette and Australian motor racing memorabilia. The proceeds of this auction helped bring the donation to the hospital up to the $8000 level.

By this time it was well past midnight and several of us retired to my room for a quiet Bourbon or two to celebrate our wins.
I received the trophy for best 68-72, Personalised (4 to 7 modifications) and Bob Page had received three trophies for the driving events including best overall performance.

Monday morning was another beautiful day and a goodbye breakfast in the park topped off an excellent weekend before most of the participants checked out and hit the long road home. The next Convention is being held in Perth, Western Australia and if anyone is interested in attending please contact me through the site Webmaster and I will get the information to you.

James Pierce
Member CLBG and Vic Vettes