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All love stories have a beginning, and this one is no different. As is the case with most ladies, she belonged to another man. And for sixteen years, George Hedrick of Lyles, TN made many offers to make her his, promising to restore and love only (not to sell). In early 2000, George’s friend (who had made the purchase from the original owner) passed away and the car went to auction where George was able to purchase her for the high bid of $1200.

The first thing George did after making her his was to properly store her, where she remained until 2009. During those 9 years, George finished his career as an independent contractor, the whole time never forgetting his love that waited. The plans were to restore her to original specs, but as the pictures show, many things changed– and as Elvis said, “I did it my way”. With a little help from friends Richard Dunn and Rod Lyonhurst, they restored a lot of metal and changed the original color from Deepwater Blue to 2008 Corvette Atomic Orange.

We recently had the opportunity to visit Bill Tower in Plant City, FL. Bill has one unique and fascinating collection of early Corvettes! For those of you who may not be familiar with Bill, let us introduce you...

Bill Tower is a man of many talents. He’s done just about everything, from racing the American Bandstand-sponsored Top Fuel “Rat Trap” digger in the late ’60s to working on the Space Shuttle launch program. Bill is a GMI trained engineer, and worked for Chevrolet from 1965 through the mid ’80s. He is still involved with GM today, working with them on various engineering projects.

(continued from Project Car: '55 Bel Air, 2 Door Hardtop)

Project '55 Bel Air: May 2014 Update

Project '55 Bel Air: June 2014 Update

Project '55 Bel Air: July 2014 Update

Seems all of a sudden, but this has been slowly creeping up on us all. We shouldn't be surprised!

With the addition of the 2015 Corvette Z06 Convertible to its stable, the Chevrolet Performance lineup grows to include 14 vehicles. These include nine variations of the Camaro, the Australian-made SS sedan and four Corvette models, with engine output ranging from a respectable 323 horsepower to the Z06’s stratospheric 625 horsepower.

The drop-top Z06 showed its face a bit early...

It was supposed to wait until the New York Auto Show this week, but, as is usually the case for vehicles this exciting, the secret can’t be kept for long, and photos have leaked online early.

But that blue, though!

Being that this C7 drop-top is still a Z06, we can suspect a metric ass load of horsepower and torque from its supercharged LT4 V8, insane brakes, equally insane suspension, and even more mental aerodynamics. All of this coupled with either the choice of a precise seven-speed manual or a super-quick eight-speed automatic transmission. This would also make the Z06 Convertible the only vehicle of its kind with this much power, and two choices of transmissions. Best of all, it will probably come in under the $100,000 mark, although that remains to be official. Historians may also enjoy the fact that there hasn’t been a Z06 convertible since 1963 (the 427 doesn’t count).

If you go onto the Internet Movie Cars Database to check out Tri-5s at the movies, you’ll be there all day! (We've provided a link at the bottom of this story, just in case you've got the time!)

We’ll share the 4 most memorable ones here (in our humble opinion anyways). Feel free to let us know your favs!

1973’s American Graffiti starred (among others) Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Harrison Ford and Suzanne Somers. The black ’55 Chevy in this film was a re-work of the same car used in Two-Lane Blacktop.


Two-Lane Blacktop from 1971, starring James Taylor, Dennis Wilson, Warren Oates and Laurie Bird. One tough ’55 that sports the meanest hood scoop of all time.

For the C5’s introductory year (1997), Chevrolet was intent on spelling everything out in plain English. This 2 page spread print ad was written by none other than David Hill, the Chief Corvette Engineer at the time. The very wordy ad touts all the new car’s attributes– from its all-new 5.7L aluminum engine (now rated at 345 hp) to its state-of-the-art hydroformed perimeter frame. Easy to see why Chevy executed this ad: they “Changed a Classic”, as they state in the ad’s second paragraph.

As of last week, seven of the eight Corvettes which fell into a sinkhole that opened up in National Corvette Museum had been recovered, but one car, the C5 Z06 Mallett Hammer, was still nowhere to be found. The car was one of the first to fall in the sinkhole, and has been buried under rocks and debris the entire time the team has been searching for it. Thankfully, after almost two months of searching, the construction crews stumbled upon the Mallett Hammer Monday evening.

Predictably, the Mallett Hammer appears to be in the worst shape of all the Corvettes which fell victim to the hole. The Corvette Museum was only able to photograph the cars underside, as the rest of the car is completely buried under rocks and dirt. Teams attempting to extract the car have been pouring water into the hole to try and make mud, which is easier to vacuum up out of the hole than dirt. The rocks on top of the car must also be removed individually to prevent the debris from shifting and re-burying the car.

With the 2015 Corvette Z06 getting the 8L90 eight-speed gearbox to compliment its seven-speed manual transmission, everyone felt it was only a matter of time before the Corvette team rolled the new transmission into the Corvette Stingray. Today, Chevrolet announced just that, and buyers can expect the 8L90 in the Corvette Stingray beginning the 2015 model year. This wasn’t expected to happen until 2016.

There was a bit of a surprise at the GM Renaissance Center today. As you can see from the photos, there were multiple custom Chevrolet Camaros surrounded by a film crew in GM’s circular showroom.

Just what is the occasion? Are they New York International Auto Show surprises? Chevy did catch everyone off guard with the Z/28 announcement last year, after all. Though they could just as well be movie cars from Transformers 4. But as it turns out, the Camaros seen here are neither official Chevrolet concepts, nor are they Autobots (or Decepticons).