The £7700 Corvette C6
Discussion
Full disclosure.....yes, it genuinely cost $9995 (£7688 at 1.3 exchange rate), but ok, it cost me quite a bit more than that by the time I shipped it back to England, but a bargain none the less. It's a manual Chevrolet Corvette C6, 2007 model.
Introduction
Working in Motorsport I have the privilege of hearing V8’s burble and roar, but I'd never owned one.
In October 2016 my wife, Beth and I enjoyed our first road trip to the USA, hiring a Mustang convertible and exploring California. The highlight of this trip was driving on a trackday at Laguna Seca (in a friends BMW Z4M), towards the end of the day I asked a stranger for a passenger ride in his Corvette C6 Grandsport.
The torque and noise was intoxicating, giving the car real character. I started looking at classified adverts for used Corvette that night!
In January 2017 I joined the CCCUK at the London Classic Car Show, in March Beth and I test drove a manual Corvette C6, at Ian Allen. https://www.ianallanvirginiawater.co.uk/
Having proved to ourselves that we would both be happy to drive a left hand drive car in the UK, the research continued. With a planned house purchase most C6’s were priced higher than we wanted to spend, with the majority being autos too, so the plan of buying one in the States became more appealing, making the purchase into a roadtrip. By November 2017 our offer on a house was accepted, but it meant changing cars to free up space and raise extra deposit money; it seemed like the ideal time to include a Corvette in our plans. With the currency exchange rate poor I started to look at C5’s, as most manual C6 started around $15,000 - $20,000 and that’s before shipping and taxes. Much as I like the C5, especially with those pop-up headlights, I preferred the slightly more compact dimensions of the C6 and it's slightly more modern styling.
At midnight just before Christmas I was browsing a US Corvette forum in bed and read an advert entitled 'Get Into A Clean One Owner C6 For Under $10K'. I got in touch with the seller immediately, it sounded a little too good to be true; it was the cheapest 2007 C6 manual I had seen. https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/c6-corvettes-...
When I spoke to the seller, Jay, he informed me I was second in the queue, but we chatted about the car some more and I made it clear he could contact me anytime if the first seller backed out. The reason for the very low price? The mileage; despite being only 11 years old and having one owner from new it had 193,000 miles on the clock! Jay owned a C4, the C6 in question and a C7; he was clearly an enthusiast, who worked on his cars himself. The C6 travelled a round trip of 500 miles every week on the freeway, to visit his girlfriend (before they got married). To show how much time it spent on the cruise control it had worn out a bush in 6th gear (requiring a gearbox rebuild from RPM Transmission's a couple of years ago) and the clutch when replaced was only 20% worn. It was still on its original brake pads, although the discs were replaced for purely cosmetic reasons!
At 3:30am I woke to find a text message had arrived saying "Hi David - I've got smashing news for you. Please call me"
Bleary eyed I called Jay who told me I now had first refusal! Deal done and a deposit of $1000 was agreed and paid!
My wife, Beth didn't share the same level of excitement at 4am; I couldn't get back to sleep so gave up trying and drove to work extra early! I worked out a roadtrip and then booked cheap flights, insurances, shipping, hotels and more. Ivan, a Californian friend we met in 2016 was a huge help in arranging the car insurance through Geico.
The advert remained on the Corvette forum and attracted other offers of more than the owner’s asking price, thankfully for us Jay remained totally loyal to the deal we struck.
Day 1: Sunday 21st January 2018
We left sleet behind and flew from Gatwick to Los Angeles. A nagging concern to our timetable was the notorious LA traffic combined with the mudslides that had tragically closed Highway 101. A night time paddle in the outside Jacuzzi was surreal with high-rise buildings all around!
Day 2: Monday 22nd January
It was an early 4am start to pick up the hire car and get out of L.A. before the traffic crawled to a halt. We were relieved by the news that the highway was re-opened ahead of schedule, saving us hours of detour. Uber and a hire car took us north on the Pacific coast via Santa Barbara for breakfast on the pier as the sun rose.
Back on the road we dropped in to the local Chevrolet dealer, Home Motors, to pick up a few spares I had pre-ordered plus the first upgrade: Z06 brake cooling ducts, to help with track use. We're pretty certain their parts department had never had a phone order from so far away!
It was then just a short drive to Jay and Michelle's house in Santa Maria, to see our new car. It was an exciting if slightly strange moment to first meet them. Michelle exclaimed "You're real!" as she was certain we didn't exist and this was some sort of elaborate confidence trick! After all, who travels 6000+ miles to buy a cheap (relatively) car?
We were shown through the house into the huge garage, where 'our' C6 was covered up. They let us uncover the car and stood back waiting for our reaction; they needn't have worried, it looked great.
|https://thumbsnap.com/setyfW2B[/url]
During our email conversations some weeks before I asked Jay if there was anything we could bring from the UK. He jokingly asked if we could get him a McLaren P1! Thanks to McLaren CEO Mike Flewitt (and wife Mia) we did just that, although only a model and brochure would fit in our hand luggage.
Test drive and paperwork done, the remaining $9000 cash was handed over. It was time to say goodbye and get on the road.
We dropped the hire car to Santa Maria airport and with 119 miles range showing on the fuel gauge we headed East. The miles passed by, the weather was warm for January, with barely a car on the road.
The distance between gas stations nearly caught me out, coming very close to running out.
We drove on for a few more hours, booking a motel in Tehachapi, CA, best known for its railroads, with noisy trains rumbling and honking past all through the night.
Day 3: Tuesday 23rd January
A chilly start with frost on the car. Crossing the Mojave Desert took hours, it wasn't hot at that time of year but it was certainly barren each side of Highway 58. Crossing the Colorado River saw us enter our second state, Arizona, along with small traces of snow at the side of the road; not surprising as we were regularly up at 4000 feet altitude.
After turning off Interstate 40 at Kingman we were on Historic Route 66, the famous cross country road that carried millions of Americans between Chicago and Los Angeles from 1926 through to the mid 1980s.
Travelling in January meant we were able to travel for 30 or 40 miles miles at a time without seeing another car!
Dinner was at the famous Roadkill Cafe at Seligman. After reassurance that they didn't actually serve creatures scraped off the tarmac Beth was happy to eat there. We arrived at Williams, another Route 66 town, in the dark. There was plenty of snow on the ground, it was very cold being 6800 feet up. A small coolant stain under the front of the Corvette was partly expected as Jay had warned of a joint that weeps after a run, something to keep an eye on.
Another broken night’s sleep, this time by an amorous French couple in the next room, ooh la la!
Day 4: Wednesday 24th January
Wrapping up warm we explored Williams in the early morning, it had a friendly, traditional feel. Beth visited a couple of shops selling riding gear and cowboy hats.
The snow on the ground increased in volume as we headed North, towards the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The partly snowy car parks were almost empty, the perfect opportunity to check the efficiency of ‘competitive driving mode’!
The viewing points nearest the visitor centre were busy with tourists, but once we walked away on the Rim Trail we were mostly by ourselves, in peace and quiet. The views were astonishing.
Reluctantly moving on we drove North East, pulling into various 'turn outs' and taking these photos with parts of the Canyon in the background.
We entered the Hopi and then the Navajo Indian reservations. We entered our third State, Utah, as darkness descended.
Day 4: Wednesday 25th January
After a breakfast in our room at Gouldings Lodge we headed to a very cold Monument Valley. The Corvette was too low to be able to drive around the trails, with limited time available this suited us fine, with a look around the museum, a horrible coffee and a long look at the astonishing views.
Once again, thanks to it being winter time we were almost the only visitors, we were sure the place would be heaving in the summer, despite the high entrance fee.
We headed north in the direction of 'Mexican Hat', towards a view I had wanted to see since childhood. I used to daydream of being there when looking at the 'Best of the Eagles' album cover. It was later a key scene in Forrest Gump, in fact the view is now named ‘Forrest Gump Point’ on Google Maps.
Past Mexican Hat we ate a Navajo frybread burger at a lovely native American cafe for lunch (we were still well within the Navajo reservation), called Twin Rocks, in Bluff, Utah.
Back on the road we crossed the San Juan River. Having passed into our 4th state, Colorado, for a couple of hours we were then into our 5th, New Mexico, with lots more miles still ahead of us.
We crossed the continental divide; the geographical centre of North America where on one side water flows west to the Pacific and on the other it heads East to the Atlantic. The mountainous scenery disappeared, with endless miles of dead straight roads with only scrubby grassland each side.
I wondered if I could have reached the 186mph top speed but played it safe at all times, never sure if a highway patrol might be lurking. At last we had left the Navajo reserve, but not before witnessing the large amount of homelessness and an accident involving an Indian lady in a huge 4x4 who turned into a flat bed trailer in front of us. It had been a long day of driving and we were happy to get back on Route 66 and check in to the Sunset Motel in Moriaty.
Day 6: Friday 26th January
This motel had been a pleasant surprise. It had barely changed since the same family started the business in 1959 and is now the oldest in New Mexico in original ownership. The hostess was as friendly as she was knowledgeable. With no dining room in motels from this era it was normal to take your breakfast from the reception area back to your room.
Our longest day of driving lay ahead of us, well over 600 miles. The long, straight roads seemed endless, as did the huge trains, some comprising of 200+ carriages and 10+ engines.
We kept an eye out for UFOs around Roswell, but no sign of them.
As we neared Texas we started to see Pumpjacks.
Texas, our sixth State. For hundreds of miles we saw little else but oil and gas machinery and what looked like snow (cotton). Dinner was at a Mexican in Lampasas, where I tried Catfish for the first time.
We could see storm clouds ahead and rain hit as it became dark. 70mph felt fast on wet, twisty roads on pretty bald rear tyres. The wipers were possibly original as the rubber blades scraped across the glass. I couldn’t avoid running over a dead skunk with the back wheel and it stank! By sharing the driving throughout the long day we made it to the modern, but unremarkable, Motel 6 in Marble Falls in good spirits.
Day 7: Saturday 27th January
We experienced 'Biscuits and Gravy' for the first time at breakfast. White gravy? Very peculiar! This was my wifes special day, where her dream of being a cowgirl came true, with an exclusive few hours riding on a ranch with a wrangler guide, Dewain, giving me time to actually look at my car (rather than driving it). To explain the license plate, it is the name of an Album 'Face Melter' from a Californian rock band 'Y & T'. Jay has followed the band for decades, becoming friends, the band members have driven the Corvette too.
We tried that Texas speciality, BBQ food, and in the process enjoyed a complimentary Pecan Pie thanks to our accents and road trip!
With the car having over 2000 miles of dust, rain and even snow on its bodywork and the aroma of dead skunk, I decided the Corvette (now named Clive) had to be cleaned. With Beth feeding quarters into the machine and pressing buttons whilst I got soaked, the car was rinsed, washed and waxed. The wax changed colour from pink to blue within seconds!
Day 8: Sunday 28th January
The day I had been looking forward to, a trackday at the Circuit Of The Americas, Austin. COTA is a relatively new circuit, home of Formula One since 2012. Organised by a company called www.chintrackdays.com I signed on as a passenger and rented a helmet, having already decided that I couldn't risk using my Corvette on those worn, original brakes and worn rear tyres, especially as we still had part of the journey to complete. I had signed up for the lunch time parade laps instead.
We wandered around the paddock chatting to various drivers, particularly those with Corvette and with the blessing of the organisers I enjoyed passenger laps in a white ‘base’ C6 like mine, an E46 M3 race car and finally a C7 Z06.
All were exciting, with the C6 being a good comparison to how mine might behave (fast and tail happy), the M3 a reminder of how good my similar Z4M was, with the C7 impressing with its inbuilt data logger/camera and raw power.
Off to the local McDonalds for lunch (why can’t the UK have the Mushroom Swiss Burger too?) before getting back to the circuit in good time for the parade laps. We were first in the queue.
The engine did get hot whilst idling which was a worry. Although the parade laps were at relatively slow speeds, it was great to drive the track myself and for Beth to get out in a car too.
It was time to leave the circuit to head for Houston, our last night with the car. It took some time to drive through Houston, despite so many lanes on the Interstate. The US has such contrast between empty rural roads and heaving cities.
The hotel we chose was just a few miles from where we would drop the Corvette to the shipping company the next morning. Close by was a Mexican seafood restaurant. As we walked in we felt all eyes were on us, the place was packed and we were about the only white people in there! We needn't have worried, it was friendly and the prawns and fish were tasty, really cheap too, less than $20 in total, including tip!
Nothing special but here are a few video clips put together up to this point in the trip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bH7dMqTxyQ
Day 9: Monday 29th January
A very early start and probably the most pressured part of the trip. We were booked into a 10:34 flight from Houston to Nashville and the airline suggests we should be there two hours before. The only problem was the shipping agent didn't open until 8am and we would have to catch an Uber across the city after handing over the Corvette. It was a good job we were early as a transporter full of cars turned up. The lady from the shipping company took photos, rushed through the simple paperwork, I handed over the keys and we were off to the airport (after saying goodbye to Clive).
Traffic was kind and we made it to the 'George Bush Intercontinental' Houston airport and through security in good time, panic over. After take-off we looked down on the Gulf Of Mexico, happy in the knowledge we had driven 2000+ miles from coast to coast with no problems aside from a small loss of coolant.
We landed in Nashville, Tennessee, our seventh state of the trip. Hire car collected we drove north for just over an hour, crossing in to our eighth state, Kentucky. It was cold and overcast, with some flurries of sleet and snow. Pulling into the Corvette museum at Bowling Green, the car park was almost deserted, excellent! First things first, food! Straight in to the impressive museum building and in to the Corvette Cafe, for burger, fries and thick shakes, what else?
Feeling sufficiently fed it was on to the museum, passing the rows of new Corvette C7's awaiting customer collection.
A friendly security guide got chatting to us and said that the very last car to be restored after the sinkhole disaster of 2014 was nearing completion and would we like to see? He unlocked a door and took us behind the scenes to see the beautiful, black 1962 model, we felt privileged to be shown.
We both absorbed plenty of new Corvette facts, with reassurance that our C6 was a youngster compared to the 773,000 mile C5 on display.
With closing time approaching we left for the day as we knew we'd be back the next morning to check out the bits we'd missed and importantly visit the gift shop!!!! Just a short drive back into Bowling Green where we stayed in the Baymont Inn and Suites, for what would be our last night in the States. The local steakhouse was superb, belatedly celebrating Beth's birthday and what had been our best roadtrip ever.
Day 10: Tuesday 30th January
Up early and back to the museum. It was below freezing but clear.
Having bought a cap, T shirts, magazines and a hoody we just had time for a final milkshake before heading south to Nashville and an internal flight to JFK airport in New York, New Jersey (our ninth and final State). We flew through the night with Norwegian Air on the comfortable Dreamliner, arriving on Day 11: Wednesday 31st January, tired, but happy.
The waiting then began, checking the cars agonisingly slow progress on a tracking website. It sat for a month at the dockside before finally boarding the ‘Maersk Montana’, leaving Galveston, TX, stopping at Norfolk, Virginia, headed across the Atlantic and dropping the 40ft container at Antwerp.
An even larger container ship, the Maersk Kawasaki collected 'our' container, stopping at Rotterdam before unloading at Felixstowe on the 9th of April. It was taken to the Ship My Car depot in Milton Keynes from where we drove it home on the 17th April (via a pre-booked MOT), on its California licence plate. After refusing to start and then overheating (it seems the coolant loss is more serious that first thought) it made it home through wind and rain. I will write more about the steps taken to get the car on the road and planned modifications for trackday use shortly.
The Statistics
Distance driven 2450 miles. Distance flown 10343 miles
Average fuel economy 26.9 US (32.3 UK) miles per gallon
Average speed 54.6 mph
Total mileage of the car by Texas 194,786
The Car Costs
£7688 Corvette $9995 based on 1.3 $ to £
£995 Port-to-Port Shipping (shared container) shipmycar.co.uk
£35 Cost for shipping items within vehicle
£140 Marine Insurance
£165 US Customs and Loading Fees
£175 UK Terminal Handling Charges
£245 Container Unloading, Customs Clearance and NOVA
£640 HM Customs Duty
£1408 VAT
£700 parts and technical equipment (Tech 2 and Blinker Splitter) to comply to UK lighting regulations (doing this myself)
£35 MOT
£12226 Total for the car on the UK roads
The Road Trip
£1053 Flights for two (£408 Gatwick to LA, £232 Houston to Nashville, £196 Nashville to New York, £217 New York to Gatwick)
£85 Car Hire
£24 ESTA (US Visa)
£507 Hotels (9 nights)
£483 Food
£130 Sundries (Razor, Car Wash, Paypal deposit fee, airport parking, Uber, Corvette Museum etc.)
£228 Petrol
£92 Travel Insurance (annual policy)
£94 Horse Riding
£45 Trackday helmet hire and passenger fee
£2741 Total for the Road Trip for both of us (excluding T shirts and Cowboy Hat!)
Regards, Dave
Introduction
Working in Motorsport I have the privilege of hearing V8’s burble and roar, but I'd never owned one.
In October 2016 my wife, Beth and I enjoyed our first road trip to the USA, hiring a Mustang convertible and exploring California. The highlight of this trip was driving on a trackday at Laguna Seca (in a friends BMW Z4M), towards the end of the day I asked a stranger for a passenger ride in his Corvette C6 Grandsport.
The torque and noise was intoxicating, giving the car real character. I started looking at classified adverts for used Corvette that night!
In January 2017 I joined the CCCUK at the London Classic Car Show, in March Beth and I test drove a manual Corvette C6, at Ian Allen. https://www.ianallanvirginiawater.co.uk/
Having proved to ourselves that we would both be happy to drive a left hand drive car in the UK, the research continued. With a planned house purchase most C6’s were priced higher than we wanted to spend, with the majority being autos too, so the plan of buying one in the States became more appealing, making the purchase into a roadtrip. By November 2017 our offer on a house was accepted, but it meant changing cars to free up space and raise extra deposit money; it seemed like the ideal time to include a Corvette in our plans. With the currency exchange rate poor I started to look at C5’s, as most manual C6 started around $15,000 - $20,000 and that’s before shipping and taxes. Much as I like the C5, especially with those pop-up headlights, I preferred the slightly more compact dimensions of the C6 and it's slightly more modern styling.
At midnight just before Christmas I was browsing a US Corvette forum in bed and read an advert entitled 'Get Into A Clean One Owner C6 For Under $10K'. I got in touch with the seller immediately, it sounded a little too good to be true; it was the cheapest 2007 C6 manual I had seen. https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/c6-corvettes-...
When I spoke to the seller, Jay, he informed me I was second in the queue, but we chatted about the car some more and I made it clear he could contact me anytime if the first seller backed out. The reason for the very low price? The mileage; despite being only 11 years old and having one owner from new it had 193,000 miles on the clock! Jay owned a C4, the C6 in question and a C7; he was clearly an enthusiast, who worked on his cars himself. The C6 travelled a round trip of 500 miles every week on the freeway, to visit his girlfriend (before they got married). To show how much time it spent on the cruise control it had worn out a bush in 6th gear (requiring a gearbox rebuild from RPM Transmission's a couple of years ago) and the clutch when replaced was only 20% worn. It was still on its original brake pads, although the discs were replaced for purely cosmetic reasons!
At 3:30am I woke to find a text message had arrived saying "Hi David - I've got smashing news for you. Please call me"
Bleary eyed I called Jay who told me I now had first refusal! Deal done and a deposit of $1000 was agreed and paid!
My wife, Beth didn't share the same level of excitement at 4am; I couldn't get back to sleep so gave up trying and drove to work extra early! I worked out a roadtrip and then booked cheap flights, insurances, shipping, hotels and more. Ivan, a Californian friend we met in 2016 was a huge help in arranging the car insurance through Geico.
The advert remained on the Corvette forum and attracted other offers of more than the owner’s asking price, thankfully for us Jay remained totally loyal to the deal we struck.
Day 1: Sunday 21st January 2018
We left sleet behind and flew from Gatwick to Los Angeles. A nagging concern to our timetable was the notorious LA traffic combined with the mudslides that had tragically closed Highway 101. A night time paddle in the outside Jacuzzi was surreal with high-rise buildings all around!
Day 2: Monday 22nd January
It was an early 4am start to pick up the hire car and get out of L.A. before the traffic crawled to a halt. We were relieved by the news that the highway was re-opened ahead of schedule, saving us hours of detour. Uber and a hire car took us north on the Pacific coast via Santa Barbara for breakfast on the pier as the sun rose.
Back on the road we dropped in to the local Chevrolet dealer, Home Motors, to pick up a few spares I had pre-ordered plus the first upgrade: Z06 brake cooling ducts, to help with track use. We're pretty certain their parts department had never had a phone order from so far away!
It was then just a short drive to Jay and Michelle's house in Santa Maria, to see our new car. It was an exciting if slightly strange moment to first meet them. Michelle exclaimed "You're real!" as she was certain we didn't exist and this was some sort of elaborate confidence trick! After all, who travels 6000+ miles to buy a cheap (relatively) car?
We were shown through the house into the huge garage, where 'our' C6 was covered up. They let us uncover the car and stood back waiting for our reaction; they needn't have worried, it looked great.
|https://thumbsnap.com/setyfW2B[/url]During our email conversations some weeks before I asked Jay if there was anything we could bring from the UK. He jokingly asked if we could get him a McLaren P1! Thanks to McLaren CEO Mike Flewitt (and wife Mia) we did just that, although only a model and brochure would fit in our hand luggage.
Test drive and paperwork done, the remaining $9000 cash was handed over. It was time to say goodbye and get on the road.
We dropped the hire car to Santa Maria airport and with 119 miles range showing on the fuel gauge we headed East. The miles passed by, the weather was warm for January, with barely a car on the road.
The distance between gas stations nearly caught me out, coming very close to running out.
We drove on for a few more hours, booking a motel in Tehachapi, CA, best known for its railroads, with noisy trains rumbling and honking past all through the night.
Day 3: Tuesday 23rd January
A chilly start with frost on the car. Crossing the Mojave Desert took hours, it wasn't hot at that time of year but it was certainly barren each side of Highway 58. Crossing the Colorado River saw us enter our second state, Arizona, along with small traces of snow at the side of the road; not surprising as we were regularly up at 4000 feet altitude.
After turning off Interstate 40 at Kingman we were on Historic Route 66, the famous cross country road that carried millions of Americans between Chicago and Los Angeles from 1926 through to the mid 1980s.
Travelling in January meant we were able to travel for 30 or 40 miles miles at a time without seeing another car!
Dinner was at the famous Roadkill Cafe at Seligman. After reassurance that they didn't actually serve creatures scraped off the tarmac Beth was happy to eat there. We arrived at Williams, another Route 66 town, in the dark. There was plenty of snow on the ground, it was very cold being 6800 feet up. A small coolant stain under the front of the Corvette was partly expected as Jay had warned of a joint that weeps after a run, something to keep an eye on.
Another broken night’s sleep, this time by an amorous French couple in the next room, ooh la la!
Day 4: Wednesday 24th January
Wrapping up warm we explored Williams in the early morning, it had a friendly, traditional feel. Beth visited a couple of shops selling riding gear and cowboy hats.
The snow on the ground increased in volume as we headed North, towards the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The partly snowy car parks were almost empty, the perfect opportunity to check the efficiency of ‘competitive driving mode’!
The viewing points nearest the visitor centre were busy with tourists, but once we walked away on the Rim Trail we were mostly by ourselves, in peace and quiet. The views were astonishing.
Reluctantly moving on we drove North East, pulling into various 'turn outs' and taking these photos with parts of the Canyon in the background.
We entered the Hopi and then the Navajo Indian reservations. We entered our third State, Utah, as darkness descended.
Day 4: Wednesday 25th January
After a breakfast in our room at Gouldings Lodge we headed to a very cold Monument Valley. The Corvette was too low to be able to drive around the trails, with limited time available this suited us fine, with a look around the museum, a horrible coffee and a long look at the astonishing views.
Once again, thanks to it being winter time we were almost the only visitors, we were sure the place would be heaving in the summer, despite the high entrance fee.
We headed north in the direction of 'Mexican Hat', towards a view I had wanted to see since childhood. I used to daydream of being there when looking at the 'Best of the Eagles' album cover. It was later a key scene in Forrest Gump, in fact the view is now named ‘Forrest Gump Point’ on Google Maps.
Past Mexican Hat we ate a Navajo frybread burger at a lovely native American cafe for lunch (we were still well within the Navajo reservation), called Twin Rocks, in Bluff, Utah.
Back on the road we crossed the San Juan River. Having passed into our 4th state, Colorado, for a couple of hours we were then into our 5th, New Mexico, with lots more miles still ahead of us.
We crossed the continental divide; the geographical centre of North America where on one side water flows west to the Pacific and on the other it heads East to the Atlantic. The mountainous scenery disappeared, with endless miles of dead straight roads with only scrubby grassland each side.
I wondered if I could have reached the 186mph top speed but played it safe at all times, never sure if a highway patrol might be lurking. At last we had left the Navajo reserve, but not before witnessing the large amount of homelessness and an accident involving an Indian lady in a huge 4x4 who turned into a flat bed trailer in front of us. It had been a long day of driving and we were happy to get back on Route 66 and check in to the Sunset Motel in Moriaty.
Day 6: Friday 26th January
This motel had been a pleasant surprise. It had barely changed since the same family started the business in 1959 and is now the oldest in New Mexico in original ownership. The hostess was as friendly as she was knowledgeable. With no dining room in motels from this era it was normal to take your breakfast from the reception area back to your room.
Our longest day of driving lay ahead of us, well over 600 miles. The long, straight roads seemed endless, as did the huge trains, some comprising of 200+ carriages and 10+ engines.
We kept an eye out for UFOs around Roswell, but no sign of them.
As we neared Texas we started to see Pumpjacks.
Texas, our sixth State. For hundreds of miles we saw little else but oil and gas machinery and what looked like snow (cotton). Dinner was at a Mexican in Lampasas, where I tried Catfish for the first time.
We could see storm clouds ahead and rain hit as it became dark. 70mph felt fast on wet, twisty roads on pretty bald rear tyres. The wipers were possibly original as the rubber blades scraped across the glass. I couldn’t avoid running over a dead skunk with the back wheel and it stank! By sharing the driving throughout the long day we made it to the modern, but unremarkable, Motel 6 in Marble Falls in good spirits.
Day 7: Saturday 27th January
We experienced 'Biscuits and Gravy' for the first time at breakfast. White gravy? Very peculiar! This was my wifes special day, where her dream of being a cowgirl came true, with an exclusive few hours riding on a ranch with a wrangler guide, Dewain, giving me time to actually look at my car (rather than driving it). To explain the license plate, it is the name of an Album 'Face Melter' from a Californian rock band 'Y & T'. Jay has followed the band for decades, becoming friends, the band members have driven the Corvette too.
We tried that Texas speciality, BBQ food, and in the process enjoyed a complimentary Pecan Pie thanks to our accents and road trip!
With the car having over 2000 miles of dust, rain and even snow on its bodywork and the aroma of dead skunk, I decided the Corvette (now named Clive) had to be cleaned. With Beth feeding quarters into the machine and pressing buttons whilst I got soaked, the car was rinsed, washed and waxed. The wax changed colour from pink to blue within seconds!
Day 8: Sunday 28th January
The day I had been looking forward to, a trackday at the Circuit Of The Americas, Austin. COTA is a relatively new circuit, home of Formula One since 2012. Organised by a company called www.chintrackdays.com I signed on as a passenger and rented a helmet, having already decided that I couldn't risk using my Corvette on those worn, original brakes and worn rear tyres, especially as we still had part of the journey to complete. I had signed up for the lunch time parade laps instead.
We wandered around the paddock chatting to various drivers, particularly those with Corvette and with the blessing of the organisers I enjoyed passenger laps in a white ‘base’ C6 like mine, an E46 M3 race car and finally a C7 Z06.
All were exciting, with the C6 being a good comparison to how mine might behave (fast and tail happy), the M3 a reminder of how good my similar Z4M was, with the C7 impressing with its inbuilt data logger/camera and raw power.
Off to the local McDonalds for lunch (why can’t the UK have the Mushroom Swiss Burger too?) before getting back to the circuit in good time for the parade laps. We were first in the queue.
The engine did get hot whilst idling which was a worry. Although the parade laps were at relatively slow speeds, it was great to drive the track myself and for Beth to get out in a car too.
It was time to leave the circuit to head for Houston, our last night with the car. It took some time to drive through Houston, despite so many lanes on the Interstate. The US has such contrast between empty rural roads and heaving cities.
The hotel we chose was just a few miles from where we would drop the Corvette to the shipping company the next morning. Close by was a Mexican seafood restaurant. As we walked in we felt all eyes were on us, the place was packed and we were about the only white people in there! We needn't have worried, it was friendly and the prawns and fish were tasty, really cheap too, less than $20 in total, including tip!
Nothing special but here are a few video clips put together up to this point in the trip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bH7dMqTxyQ
Day 9: Monday 29th January
A very early start and probably the most pressured part of the trip. We were booked into a 10:34 flight from Houston to Nashville and the airline suggests we should be there two hours before. The only problem was the shipping agent didn't open until 8am and we would have to catch an Uber across the city after handing over the Corvette. It was a good job we were early as a transporter full of cars turned up. The lady from the shipping company took photos, rushed through the simple paperwork, I handed over the keys and we were off to the airport (after saying goodbye to Clive).
Traffic was kind and we made it to the 'George Bush Intercontinental' Houston airport and through security in good time, panic over. After take-off we looked down on the Gulf Of Mexico, happy in the knowledge we had driven 2000+ miles from coast to coast with no problems aside from a small loss of coolant.
We landed in Nashville, Tennessee, our seventh state of the trip. Hire car collected we drove north for just over an hour, crossing in to our eighth state, Kentucky. It was cold and overcast, with some flurries of sleet and snow. Pulling into the Corvette museum at Bowling Green, the car park was almost deserted, excellent! First things first, food! Straight in to the impressive museum building and in to the Corvette Cafe, for burger, fries and thick shakes, what else?
Feeling sufficiently fed it was on to the museum, passing the rows of new Corvette C7's awaiting customer collection.
A friendly security guide got chatting to us and said that the very last car to be restored after the sinkhole disaster of 2014 was nearing completion and would we like to see? He unlocked a door and took us behind the scenes to see the beautiful, black 1962 model, we felt privileged to be shown.
We both absorbed plenty of new Corvette facts, with reassurance that our C6 was a youngster compared to the 773,000 mile C5 on display.
With closing time approaching we left for the day as we knew we'd be back the next morning to check out the bits we'd missed and importantly visit the gift shop!!!! Just a short drive back into Bowling Green where we stayed in the Baymont Inn and Suites, for what would be our last night in the States. The local steakhouse was superb, belatedly celebrating Beth's birthday and what had been our best roadtrip ever.
Day 10: Tuesday 30th January
Up early and back to the museum. It was below freezing but clear.
Having bought a cap, T shirts, magazines and a hoody we just had time for a final milkshake before heading south to Nashville and an internal flight to JFK airport in New York, New Jersey (our ninth and final State). We flew through the night with Norwegian Air on the comfortable Dreamliner, arriving on Day 11: Wednesday 31st January, tired, but happy.
The waiting then began, checking the cars agonisingly slow progress on a tracking website. It sat for a month at the dockside before finally boarding the ‘Maersk Montana’, leaving Galveston, TX, stopping at Norfolk, Virginia, headed across the Atlantic and dropping the 40ft container at Antwerp.
An even larger container ship, the Maersk Kawasaki collected 'our' container, stopping at Rotterdam before unloading at Felixstowe on the 9th of April. It was taken to the Ship My Car depot in Milton Keynes from where we drove it home on the 17th April (via a pre-booked MOT), on its California licence plate. After refusing to start and then overheating (it seems the coolant loss is more serious that first thought) it made it home through wind and rain. I will write more about the steps taken to get the car on the road and planned modifications for trackday use shortly.
The Statistics
Distance driven 2450 miles. Distance flown 10343 miles
Average fuel economy 26.9 US (32.3 UK) miles per gallon
Average speed 54.6 mph
Total mileage of the car by Texas 194,786
The Car Costs
£7688 Corvette $9995 based on 1.3 $ to £
£995 Port-to-Port Shipping (shared container) shipmycar.co.uk
£35 Cost for shipping items within vehicle
£140 Marine Insurance
£165 US Customs and Loading Fees
£175 UK Terminal Handling Charges
£245 Container Unloading, Customs Clearance and NOVA
£640 HM Customs Duty
£1408 VAT
£700 parts and technical equipment (Tech 2 and Blinker Splitter) to comply to UK lighting regulations (doing this myself)
£35 MOT
£12226 Total for the car on the UK roads
The Road Trip
£1053 Flights for two (£408 Gatwick to LA, £232 Houston to Nashville, £196 Nashville to New York, £217 New York to Gatwick)
£85 Car Hire
£24 ESTA (US Visa)
£507 Hotels (9 nights)
£483 Food
£130 Sundries (Razor, Car Wash, Paypal deposit fee, airport parking, Uber, Corvette Museum etc.)
£228 Petrol
£92 Travel Insurance (annual policy)
£94 Horse Riding
£45 Trackday helmet hire and passenger fee
£2741 Total for the Road Trip for both of us (excluding T shirts and Cowboy Hat!)
Regards, Dave
Edited by Fishy Dave on Tuesday 7th April 12:40
Knowing that I would be using the car on track and that my car is the 'base' model (not a Z51 or Z06) I started to order a few modifications.
I already had Z06 brake ducts from our US trip, in addition to service items, I ordered new headlight lenses (mine are crazed, a common C6 issue), a lower temperature thermostat and a 4.1 final drive ring and pinion from Zip Corvette https://www.zip-corvette.com/. I will fit the final drive in the winter, for now I will live with the VERY long gearing.
Whilst from Improved Racing http://www.improvedracing.com/ I chose a large oil cooler with thermostat and baffled sump with crank scraper. Oil temps on my model noticeably increase even after accelerating on the road, the fluid would get dangerously high on track. They are also prone to oil starvation with sticky tyres on long left hand bends (such as the first turn at Rockingham).
The exchange rate improved earlier this year so the costs with shipping were pretty good.
To get the car legal for the road you need to do things in the following order:
Modify the car for UK roads
Arrange Insurance (on the VIN)
Pass the MOT (also on the VIN)
Apply for first registration and V5 to the DVLA by post
Wait
Form comes through giving authority to buy plates, so you can start driving and insure the car on its reg number
V5 arrives
The C6 has Canbus type electrics making life more difficult to configure the electrics to suit our rules ; you can't just splice into every wire, else you run the risk of buggering up the ECU. I wanted to do the conversion myself, partly to save money, partly as I like to do things myself and partly so I can choose how I configure the lights.
Using a hair drier and glue remover we peeled off the dark tints on the side windows.
|https://thumbsnap.com/bPRrbIos[/url]
A US C6 has orange front daytime running lights, that flash orange with the indicators.
Its rear lights are all red, with all four lights coming on with the headlights, all four getting brighter when braking (plus the 5th centre light coming on) and each pair of red lights flashing with the indicators.
Corner lights are on all the time, amber front and red rear.
No rear fog lights.
Xenon dip is standard, but they aren't self levelling or have washers, but I'm not going to change them at great expense or complexity to EU spec. They have a flat beam so shouldn't trouble oncoming traffic if adjusted correctly.
The way I have chosen to alter the lights may not be correct, but it passed an MOT and retain the cars clean lines. There is very little written about how to convert the cars electrics, probably because most owners pay a company and those companies naturally don't want to share their methods.
I had ordered and collected a Euro loom from California, but in the end decided not to use it. Also on forum advice I bought a Tech2 clone, to re-programme the car to a different region, but in the end left it as a US zone car as it keeps the very useful tyre pressure monitor. I'm sure the Tech2 will come in useful in the future. Before collecting the car in January I had ordered this kit from Radioflyer Innovations: https://radioflyerinnovations.com/shop?olsPage=pro...
That neatly took care of the rear fog lights and upgraded the brightness of the reverse lights as a bonus.
Their switchback harness took care of the running lights and front turn signal, giving added safety of modern, white DRLs.
After a lot of googling I discovered a Swedish company selling a device called a blinker splitter. https://cartown.eu/index.php?route=common/home This made life so much easier to sort out the rear lights.
Also from Cartown I bought a pair of amber/red switchback bulbs, that shine yellow through red lenses https://cartown.eu/index.php?route=product/product...
I spliced into the original rear loom, wiring up to the blinker splitter box, ending up with all four tail lights coming on with the side/headlights, the inner pair plus centre as brighter brake lights and the outer pair as amber indicators. The corner, marker lights now act as amber indicators too.
|https://thumbsnap.com/8WZ9M64j[/url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/GeCITtkS[/url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/Jks0N2TX[/url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/lJGAcmrI[/url]
I'm not hugely skilled at electronics, learning as I go, so this took me a weekend to do neatly.
For the first time ever I bought a personalised plate, simply because I wanted 5 characters rather than 7 as standard. A pair of new Hankook Evo tyres were fitted to match the front, they aren't a favourite, nor were they cheap at £200 each fitted, but as the fronts were like new it made sense to have four matching.
The very next day it passed it's MOT, the condition underneath is astonishing, virtually no marks or corrosion anywhere.
Just two weeks later I had the paperwork back from the DVLA, this was much earlier than I had been expecting, top marks to Swansea.
It's first outing was to Brands Hatch for American Speedfest. Very hot, but a fun event and the drive there and back was the first time we could enjoy the car with the roof off (the standard exhausts were in the boot in the States). It was too late to get a space on the club stand but will be there next year.
By co-incidence we saw the same car we had test driven 18 months before and chatted to its new owner.
I already had Z06 brake ducts from our US trip, in addition to service items, I ordered new headlight lenses (mine are crazed, a common C6 issue), a lower temperature thermostat and a 4.1 final drive ring and pinion from Zip Corvette https://www.zip-corvette.com/. I will fit the final drive in the winter, for now I will live with the VERY long gearing.
Whilst from Improved Racing http://www.improvedracing.com/ I chose a large oil cooler with thermostat and baffled sump with crank scraper. Oil temps on my model noticeably increase even after accelerating on the road, the fluid would get dangerously high on track. They are also prone to oil starvation with sticky tyres on long left hand bends (such as the first turn at Rockingham).
The exchange rate improved earlier this year so the costs with shipping were pretty good.
To get the car legal for the road you need to do things in the following order:
Modify the car for UK roads
Arrange Insurance (on the VIN)
Pass the MOT (also on the VIN)
Apply for first registration and V5 to the DVLA by post
Wait
Form comes through giving authority to buy plates, so you can start driving and insure the car on its reg number
V5 arrives
The C6 has Canbus type electrics making life more difficult to configure the electrics to suit our rules ; you can't just splice into every wire, else you run the risk of buggering up the ECU. I wanted to do the conversion myself, partly to save money, partly as I like to do things myself and partly so I can choose how I configure the lights.
Using a hair drier and glue remover we peeled off the dark tints on the side windows.
|https://thumbsnap.com/bPRrbIos[/url]A US C6 has orange front daytime running lights, that flash orange with the indicators.
Its rear lights are all red, with all four lights coming on with the headlights, all four getting brighter when braking (plus the 5th centre light coming on) and each pair of red lights flashing with the indicators.
Corner lights are on all the time, amber front and red rear.
No rear fog lights.
Xenon dip is standard, but they aren't self levelling or have washers, but I'm not going to change them at great expense or complexity to EU spec. They have a flat beam so shouldn't trouble oncoming traffic if adjusted correctly.
The way I have chosen to alter the lights may not be correct, but it passed an MOT and retain the cars clean lines. There is very little written about how to convert the cars electrics, probably because most owners pay a company and those companies naturally don't want to share their methods.
I had ordered and collected a Euro loom from California, but in the end decided not to use it. Also on forum advice I bought a Tech2 clone, to re-programme the car to a different region, but in the end left it as a US zone car as it keeps the very useful tyre pressure monitor. I'm sure the Tech2 will come in useful in the future. Before collecting the car in January I had ordered this kit from Radioflyer Innovations: https://radioflyerinnovations.com/shop?olsPage=pro...
That neatly took care of the rear fog lights and upgraded the brightness of the reverse lights as a bonus.
Their switchback harness took care of the running lights and front turn signal, giving added safety of modern, white DRLs.
After a lot of googling I discovered a Swedish company selling a device called a blinker splitter. https://cartown.eu/index.php?route=common/home This made life so much easier to sort out the rear lights.
Also from Cartown I bought a pair of amber/red switchback bulbs, that shine yellow through red lenses https://cartown.eu/index.php?route=product/product...
I spliced into the original rear loom, wiring up to the blinker splitter box, ending up with all four tail lights coming on with the side/headlights, the inner pair plus centre as brighter brake lights and the outer pair as amber indicators. The corner, marker lights now act as amber indicators too.
|https://thumbsnap.com/8WZ9M64j[/url]|https://thumbsnap.com/GeCITtkS[/url]|https://thumbsnap.com/Jks0N2TX[/url]|https://thumbsnap.com/lJGAcmrI[/url]I'm not hugely skilled at electronics, learning as I go, so this took me a weekend to do neatly.
For the first time ever I bought a personalised plate, simply because I wanted 5 characters rather than 7 as standard. A pair of new Hankook Evo tyres were fitted to match the front, they aren't a favourite, nor were they cheap at £200 each fitted, but as the fronts were like new it made sense to have four matching.
The very next day it passed it's MOT, the condition underneath is astonishing, virtually no marks or corrosion anywhere.
Just two weeks later I had the paperwork back from the DVLA, this was much earlier than I had been expecting, top marks to Swansea.
It's first outing was to Brands Hatch for American Speedfest. Very hot, but a fun event and the drive there and back was the first time we could enjoy the car with the roof off (the standard exhausts were in the boot in the States). It was too late to get a space on the club stand but will be there next year.
By co-incidence we saw the same car we had test driven 18 months before and chatted to its new owner.
Edited by Fishy Dave on Sunday 5th August 18:07
davepoth said:
Awesome trip.
One question though - what did you do about insuring the car while you were in the US?
Thanks guys One question though - what did you do about insuring the car while you were in the US?
I used Geico, they were happy to insure me as a non-US citizen and without a social security number. With the help of Ivan, the Z4M friend we made from our first USA trip in 2016, we arranged it with breakdown cover based at his address in California. By paying on instalments we cancelled after the first payment so it cost us just over $100. We were 100% honest with the answers we gave them. Where things were less certain was over the legality of driving it across states with a Californian title, where the car was effectively unregistered. You have to register it within 14 days from the date of sale, so we were within that. It worked out ok.
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