Jag You Are

Why is there a picture of a Jaguar here? Because this picture shows just a portion of the area that will be utilized for the Concours d’Elegance during the 2012 CORSA Convention.

The Sturbridge Host Hotel is located on Cedar Lake, and the shady lawn alongside the lake will be our Concours site. The hotel has been host to gatherings of Jaguars, of Oldsmobiles, and more, and virtually all these groups have displayed their cars by the lake, as we will.

The lawn wraps around the hotel on the west and north sides, with picnic tables, a gazebo, and plenty of room for our Concours cars. What’s more, when the Concours is over there will be no need for car owners to move their cars – the cars can remain in place, safely away from "civilian" traffic, through the big Saturday car show.

Big Saturday car show? Yes, the convention schedule has the Car Display, the big peoples' choice show of all Corvairs, taking place on Saturday, the last day of the convention. Plan on your Corvair being a part of this show!

Richard Lentinello at Sturbridge

There's a lot of buzz in the Corvair community right now because the December, 2011, issue of Hemmings Classic Car magazine is a special issue commemorating the Chevrolet centennial, and the Corvair comes in for many positive mentions.

Among these are the words of Editor-in-Chief Richard Lentinello, who writes,"If I won Powerball tomorrow, the first car I would go out and buy would be a Corvair.  Not a Ferrari.  Not a Porsche.  A Corvair."

Richard Lentinello's affinity for the Corvair is well-known to long-time readers of Hemmings publications -- and that's why earlier this year the organizers of the 2012 convention invited him to be our guest speaker at the convention banquet on July 28.  That's right, Richard Lentinello will be our guest at the convention and he will share some of his insights into the car hobby in general and Corvairs in particular.

When making your convention plans, be sure to include banquet tickets, as this will be a can't-miss evening.

While Richard Lentinello will be our guest speaker, he won't be the only special guest on hand at the convention.  Watch this blog for news and information about more guest visitors.

Judges for the Concours

It is never too early to begin recruiting judges for the Concours d’Elegance to take place during the Sturbridge convention. We will be needing judges and back-up judges. Since we don't know how many vehicles may enter the Concours, we need to have some extra judges just in case. Volunteers are needed.

The Concours judges just judge for condition and cleanliness... they do not judge for originality or any other standard. If you haven't done this it is a great experience. You can do it even if your have a car in the Concours, you just won’t be judging your own vehicle or those in your vehicle’s class.

What happens is that in late December I must send a list of names of potential judges to Don Wagner who coordinates the judges. Don then mails a form to these folks. This form asks them what areas they might want to judge (interior, wheels, trim, undercarriage, etc.). You just fill out the form and send it back to Don. Don then sends a return letter to you.

At the Convention, there will be a Judge's Meeting where the details will be provided. If you are a novice, you'll be paired with a "veteran" judge. You may or may not be called upon to judge... depends upon the number of vehicles.

If you are interested, please send your name, address, phone number, email address to me and I'll compile the list for Don. You can respond by mail or email, your choice. Thank you!

Ken Schifftner
210 Indian Hollow Court
Mahwah, NJ 07430
Phone 201-236-0786
Fax 201-529-0252 FAX
E-mail here

On Track?

A popular question at this point in the convention planning is, will there be an NECC-style road course track event in conjunction with the 2012 convention?

The Northeast Corvair Council, which is an association of CORSA Chapters in the region, was formed back in the 1970s for the purpose of conducting weekend gatherings centered around on-track driving events at Connecticut’s Lime Rock Park. The NECC began conducting similar performance-related events in conjunction with CORSA conventions over a decade ago.

These events do not take place every year and not with every convention, instead taking place where there is a suitable facility close to the convention site and where the local convention committee supports the idea.

Unfortunately, for 2012, there will be no such event. The principal reason for this is that there is no suitable facility available. Lime Rock Park, a beautiful facility and the closest to the convention city, is way too costly. The NECC ran at Lime Rock annually until being priced out of the place a few years ago. And trust us, we are talking waaay too costly.

Other options were considered, such as New Hampshire Speedway, which has a very nice road course, and even Watkins Glen, but neither of these facilities offered the right mix of location and price.

An additional factor is that when the NECC has conducted track events in conjunction with past conventions, the track event was the only thing the NECC was doing. Here, the NECC will be doing the entire convention and as a result its full resources are needed in Sturbridge.

Even without a road course track event in 2012, the convention will offer something for every Corvair-related interest, including high-speed performance. Convention plans at present include conducting the autocross on an oval race track, as was done at recent conventions in Cedar Rapids and Buffalo. So there will be an opportunity to wind out one's Corvair.

By the way, there used to be a well-regarded road course at the Thompson Speedway in Connecticut, only an hour’s drive from Sturbridge. But that course, shown in the photo below, has been decommissioned for decades and what remains is now part of the oval track’s pit and paddock area. The Thompson road course was the first permanent road course to be used by the SCCA, back in 1951. Wish it was still there...

Rampside on a Rotisserie

What we see in this photo is a somewhat unusual Corvair 95 Rampside pickup, stripped of all removable parts and mounted on an automotive "rotisserie" in the early stages of a restoration project.

We are featuring it here because the owner of this Rampside expects to have it, fully restored, at the 2012 CORSA Convention in Sturbridge. Plan to come see the finished product!

What makes it somewhat unusual? Well, for one, the original orange paint that you see here is a fleet color. But more interesting is that this truck belongs to and is being restored by Cal Clark of Clark’s Corvair Parts in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts.

Cal has owned this particular truck for more than 28 years now. Persons with long memories (and copies of old Clark’s Corvair Parts catalogs) may remember this truck appearing in one of the catalog photos depicting the construction of one of the Quonset hut-style buildings for the business many years ago.

In the weeks to come we will be adding more photos of this project to this blog. In truth, as we write this in October, 2011, the truck has already progressed quite a bit further than this photo shows. It is being restored to stock configuration but the original fleet color will not remain – Cal is painting the truck a deep red, a color preferred by his wife, Joan. Smart man!

How about your Corvair restoration? If you are preparing a Corvair for the 2012 CORSA Convention in Sturbridge, send us some photos and tell us about it – we might feature it here on the blog!

The Convention Logo

For the 2012 logo, we turned to vintage car enthusiast and professional graphic designer Tomm Scalera of the Graphic Angels Design Group in South Orange, New Jersey. Tomm took the ideas and suggestions from many NECC members and turned them into this:

Click the logo for an enlarged view.

It’s no surprise that Tomm produced such a terrific convention logo. He’s a Corvair lover at heart and it is very likely that you have seen some of his work previously without realizing it.  For example, here are just a few of his commercial logo designs:

In addition to logo design, Tomm does advertising layouts, catalog and web designs, product packaging, and more. Here are some more samples of his work:

But the proof of Tomm’s passion for vintage automobiles is best found in this image on the Graphic Angels Design Group’s own web site:

And then there’s this, an image he produced for the New Jersey Association of Corvair Enthusiasts some years ago:

If you are in need of professional, proven graphic design services, check out the Graphic Angels Design Group at http://www.graphicangels.com .

The Hotel is Ready to Take Your Reservation

The Sturbridge Host Hotel is now accepting room reservations for the 2012 CORSA Convention. You can make the reservations by way of telephone or by way of the hotel's website. The toll-free reservations number is 800-582-3232 and our group's online code is 1207CORVAI.  (Yes, there is no R at the end.)

It's probably easier to make your reservations by phone, but because I'm a web-page junkie, I used the hotel's website instead.

To get the special CORSA room rate (of $99 per night), you have to take some special steps when you make your reservations online. Here is how to do it:

Log onto the Sturbridge Host Hotel & Conference Center home page at http://www.sturbridgehosthotel.com/ .  Find the "Fast Reservations" section, which is located on the left-hand side of the web page. The "Fast Reservations" section has data entry fields for "Check-In," "Adults," "Children," and "Nights," and these fields are pre-populated. Ignore them. Simply click on "Go."

The website will now direct you to the reservations web page. Near the top of the reservations web page, you will see a horizontal bar with a number of hot links, including links for "Home," "Standard Rates," "Corporate Rates," "Groups," "Travel Agents," etc. Click on "Groups."

A pop-up will appear. It will prompt you for an "Attendee Code." Enter 1207CORVAI in the Attendee Code and click on "Sign In."

The reservation web page will then update itself with dates, rates, and room selections for the CORSA Convention. Our special room rate is available for any date between 7/22/2012 to 7/31/2012, but you can choose your own arrival and departure dates simply by clicking on the calendar shown on the left-hand side of the reservation web page. After you make your selections, click on the "Continue This Reservation" button on the bottom of the reservation web page. The web site will confirm your reservation and provide you with a confirmation number. As always, it's best practice to print out the confirmation for your records.

I was pleasantly surprised that the reservation system did not ask me for a credit card to back up my reservation. Just to make sure, I called the hotel's front desk (using the hotel's toll free phone number). The lady at the desk assured me that my online reservation had been accepted and that I will have a room at the hotel next July.

--Al Lacki

We're on YouTube

The 2012 CORSA Convention is on YouTube!

Or, more accurately, the Convention's promotional video, prepared by Jim Forgey, is on YouTube.  Check it out:

Too late!  Now that the convention is over, we have removed the promotional video from YouTube.  Sorry!