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2013 Corvette Grand Sport 60th Anniversary Coupe

LS3 6.2 L V8 436 HP, 428 lb. ft. torque
10.7 : 1 compression ratio
Red line - 6,500 rpm
6 speed paddle shift automatic trans
4-wheel ventilated, cross-drilled cast-iron  14" rotors w/6-piston front calipers 4-piston rear calipers w/ABS
0-60 mph - 3.9 seconds
1/4 mile - 12.3 @ 117 mph
Top speed - 190 mph
Curb weight - 3,330 lbs.
Arctic White exterior.  Blue Diamond 4LT leather-wrapped interior.  Sueded microfiber accents. 60th Anniversary design package.

5-10-13 Here it is sitting in front of Bill Jacob's Chevrolet in Joliet the day we bought it.

As much as we enjoyed the '96 we felt it was looking pretty tired so decided to check another item off our bucket list and traded it in and sold my 2000 Grand Prix so we would be down to three cars.  Below is a slide show with more details.

Like all the other Corvettes we have owned over the years this car will not be a garage queen, but a driver.  Here we are at a nursery.  Now it is just waiting for us to go on more adventures.

We went on our first official road trip to explore downtown Ottawa and had lunch at Starved Rock State Park.  We hopped on I80 and then explored downtown Morris, too.

The Grand Sport was the "go-for" vehicle one day for our grandson's Eagle Scout project which was building a gazebo for his hometown.

We went to the Timber Creek Inn Car Show in Sandwich with Earl and Bonnie and Ralph.  Small show. Hot night.

7-26-13 We had a great day trip up to Minhas Brewery in Monroe, Wisconsin today.  (After the tour we even came home with free samples of beer and soda!)  We had a nice breakfast snack at Ralph's and the rain cooperated enough to just rain on the way up there.  We had a delicious lunch at the Suisse Haus Restaurant and a nice time exploring the town square. 

As you can see below we barely made it out of town before the storm hit Monroe.

7-27-13 Went to the Sycamore Cruise last night.  There were over 150 cars and we cruised through Sycamore and all the beautiful Victoria homes from one nursing home to another.  Let's just say we had a lot of laughs.

8-3-13 Tonight we went to the Cherry, Il Car Show which was celebrated as Hawaiian Night.  A nice way to spend a beautiful summer afternoon and evening with our friends from the Starved Rock Corvette Club as shown in the slide show below.

8-9-13 I think we probably broke the rain curse for our day trips.  It didn't rain today!  Ralph and Bonnie, Earl, Chuck and Steve met at our house in the morning for a trip to White Pines State Park for lunch.

We then proceeded to the Wings and Wheels Museum.

We posed all the cars in front of the 1920's style gas station.

We ended the beautiful day in front of our grandson Jacob's Eagle Scout project.

8-23-13 The Rain or Shine Corvette Club went on another day trip to the Hegeler Carus Mansion and the Uptown Grill in LaSalle, IL.  We hit another gorgeous day and enjoyed it immensely.  Check out the pictures below.

We were having such a good time even stranger joined us.

Here is the Hegeler Carus Mansion which is in the slow process of restoration to it's 1860's splendor.

On the way home we stopped at an old Standard gas station in Serena.

9-6-13 Our steadfast couples, Barb and Earl and Bonnie and Ralph went on a day trip to Kewanee, IL.  We visited the Good's Furniture Complex and enjoyed a great lunch in their café and wandered around their beautiful selections of furniture.

Jake checking out the furniture.

From Good's we went to the Johnson-Sauk Trail Recreation Area where we saw a beautiful round barn.  It was a nice back ground for the Corvettes as you can see in the following slide show.

9-19-13 We went on our last official Corvette day trip for the Rain or Shine Corvette Club today on a boat tour of Geneva Lake, WI and a tour of the Blackstone Mansion on the lake.  It was built by Conrad Stiepps who was a brewer in Chicago and this was his summer home.  His family turned the house and it's contents over to the state a few years ago.  We ate sandwiches from the Pot Bellied Pig on the way back to the dock.  The weather cooperated and stayed overcast, but no actual rain.  The guys will be spending the day tomorrow cleaning up the cars because we ran through a patch of newly oiled road.  Nice day all in all.

Getting ready to go.

On Riviera Dock waiting to board.

Here we are, Earl and Barb, Ralph, Jake and I and Bonnie.

Here we have three dirty, but enjoyable driven Corvettes.

4-4-14 Today, April 4th, 2014 we started our Corvette day trips.  Our intrepid group was Bonnie and Ralph, Barb and Earl, Chuck and Sally and Steve and our special guest, Jordan.  It was a cloudy, blustery day.  We went to the auto museums in Pontiac, IL.  The first one was the Pontiac Museum.

We had a wonderful lunch at DeLong's right next to the museum.

From there we went on to the Route 66 Museum and Military Museum.

We made a stop at an old gas station in Odell, IL.

All in all considering it was such a cold blustery weather it was an enjoyable day.

5-2-14 Our second day trip of the year turned out to be still another cool, blustery day, but it didn't stop us from enjoying the Volo Auto Museum in Volo, IL.  We ate lunch in the Food Court.

Volo has an exquisite Duesenberg collection.

Here are a couple of "For Sale" cars.

They had a whole building full of cars called Hollywood.

Speed Racer Car

Sally looking at Miami Vice replica.

Earl in Flintstone Mobile.

Jake in Flintstone Mobile.

Volo also had a building full of celebrity owned vehicles.

Volo Car Museum Grounds

Below we're discussing our next destination for the day.

We decided to go to Woodstock Square in downtown Woodstock, IL.

It was so blustery that we went to Starbucks for coffee to warm up.

We ended the enjoyable day with dinner at Maciano's in Yorkville.

6-6-14 We finally had the first spectacular weather day this year for our day trips.  We started out getting ready to go.

We met up with the rest of the group in DeKalb.

We wound our way around beautiful back roads up to the Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford.

After leaving the Anderson Japanese Gardens we went to the Hope & Anchor English Pub in Loves Park to have an authentic English fish and chips lunch.

We continued our way on the scenic back roads to the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, IL.

We rode an electric trolley made in 1923 from the lines connecting the small towns in western Illinois.

We ended the perfect day with an ice cream at the Culver's in Sycamore.

The AR says I need to clarify that we are really at Culver's, but parked in the Farm & Fleet parking lot.




6-8-14 It was a really cool morning today at the Hinckley Lion's Club Pancake Breakfast and Car Show.

6-27-14 We went to the Bloomington Gold Corvette Meet in Champaign, IL yesterday.  It was much better organized than last year.  Nice to see some of our friends and acquaintances that we don't see very often.

2015 ZO6 Convertible

Heavenly place to eat lunch in the shade.

California Pop Top works wonders to keep the sun out of the interior and keeps it nice and cool.

As you can see the event was not that well attended.  The most eventful part of the day was that we hit a pheasant on the way home and it slightly damaged the front license plate.

7-11-14  Our trip to Mendota proved to be more interesting than we expected.  We had delightful weather.  We started with the Union Train Depot and went on to The Breaking the Prairie Museum and the Hume-Carnegie Library. Our tour guide was a gal named Jan who did an excellent job of guiding us through each building.  We had a fantastic lunch at the Whistle Stop Restaurant which is located in the old freight storage building.  The Train Depot had a fascinating huge room sized HO train layout set up among lots of railroad memorabilia including a working Morse Code demonstration.

The first train car we saw was a 1938 restored Milwaukee Combine Car.  It was called a Combine Car because half of it could seat passengers and the other half could haul freight.

The second train car we saw was a 1911 Burlington Caboose.

The third train car was a 1949 Southern Pacific "Golden Trencher" Cafe-Lounge car.

Steve and Jackie waiting for a drink at the bar.

The last example we saw was a 1923 CB & Q steam locomotive.  We were able to climb up inside the engineer and fireman's cab and sit in the engineer's seat to see how it was to actually drive the behemoth.

After the Union Depot Railroad Museum we went across the street to the Breaking the Prairie Museum where we saw early farm implements and where we all posed for a reproduction of the American Gothic painting by Grant Wood:

We had a great lunch at the Whistle Stop Restaurant.

After lunch we took a curvy 26 mile ride up to Shabbona State Park and enjoyed an ice cream while admiring the scenery.  Headed home and had another nice ride on all the back roads of Illinois.  

7-19-14 We started the beautiful Saturday in July meeting for lunch at Bogey's Restaurant in the Prairie Lakes Country Club near Marseilles.  We had giant appetizers and a great meal, too.

After lunch we headed down to the town of Marseilles to the Middle Eastern Conflict War Memorial, which was a wall similar to the Viet Nam Memorial and just as emotionally moving.

We then gathered on Main St. to spend a beautiful summer evening at a car show sponsored by the Marseilles Fire Fighters.  

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We'd like to welcome Gene, Barb and their 2011 Grand Sport to our group.

8-8-14 Today we went to Cantigny Park in Wheaton, IL to enjoy their beautiful gardens, climb on tanks, and visit the First Division Museum and enjoy a tour through the Robert McCormick mansion, who was the owner of the Chicago Tribune for many years.

This is outside the Visitor's Center.

Steve's grandson Will was our special guest.

We were delighted to hear an orchestra practicing for a concert.

We had a nice lunch at the LeJardin Restaurant.

We all squeezed into a tram to ride to the McCormick Mansion.

The weather was just perfect to visit a wonderful place like this.

9-5-14 We are ending our Corvette day trip season by going up to New Glarus, Wisconsin.  We drove among the rain drops traveling up and back, but while we were in New Glarus the weather was perfect.  It was a nice day to be wandering around a small town that looked like a Swiss village.  Ralph and Bonnie were raring to go with the top down.

We had lunch at a great Swiss restaurant and bar called the Glarner Stube.  We even enjoyed a Swiss cheese fondue as an appetizer.  Most of us ordered either cod or perch and Jake ordered meat balls, all of which were terrific.

Afterward Barb and I ventured into the New Glarus Bakery and took home several treats.

Here is a church in the beautiful and immaculate town.

Jake, Earl and Ralph and Bonnie are relaxing while Barb and I explore the town.

We found a beautiful floral shop/nursery called Blumenladen.

Of course the guys found the local ice cream shop called Kennedy's.

On the way out of town we stopped at the New Glarus Brewery to pick up a case of Spotted Cow beer and tour the beautiful brewery.

We drove home in the rain and stopped at a Culver's near Freeport for a snack before separating to go our separate ways. That's the official end of our Corvette day trip season.

10-24-14 It was such beautiful weather we decided to meet for lunch at Starved Rock.  It was a warm, sunny day and the trees were still beautiful. We had a nice group including Chuck and Sally, Barb and Earl, Bonnie and Ralph, Steve and Jackie and Chuck and Char.

We had a nice surprise when we saw Steve and Jackie's new C7 Corvette!

It was a nice ending to a great year of Corvette travel!

4-10-15 We started the 2015 Corvette day trip season by going up to Rockford to the Benson Stone Co., which was a nice ride to an upscale stone and furniture store.  We had lunch in their café.

After lunch we headed to the Nicholas Conservatory for a look at some very unique tropical plants and orchids in particular.  They also had a Butterfly Room that you could enter and watch and be a part of many different species of butterflies flying around.

5-1-15 Our second day trip out we had a perfect spring day.  We met up with the Streator people at the Kroeger store.

We went on all the back roads to the Wheels O'Time Museum in Dunlap, IL.  It was a very nice surprise in that it looked like just one building from the outside, but it was actually 4 buildings filled with antiques, antique cars, historical settings, a multitude of 20th century mid-western artifacts. Even a whole building devoted to Fords.

After an interesting tour of the Wheels O'Time Museum we went across the road to a restaurant called Bernardi's where we indulged in a great dinner.

It was a beautiful night for our ride home.

6-5-15 The weather forecasters predicted rain all week and we enjoyed a beautiful day at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL with Ralph and Bonnie.  We started our adventure with a nice lunch at their Ginkgo Restaurant inside the Visitor's Center.

We had an interesting guided tour of the entire 1,700 plus acres on a tram ride.

We passed the Thornhill Education Center which is located on the site of the original Morton mansion which was torn down due to a deteriorating foundation.  

After the tram ride we went back to the Visitor's Center for Jake to have a hot cup of coffee and to check out the gift shop.

Of all the places we saw on the tram Jake wanted to go back to a place called Frost Hill, where you could see a view of the whole valley.

It also proved to be an excellent place to take picture of the cars.

7-3-15 We did an impromptu cookout before going to the 50th Anniversary of Lake Holiday Car Show.  Finally we had perfect weather for the summer weekend evening. 

7-10-15 We hit it lucky with another beautiful day weather wise.  Bonnie and Ralph and Chuck and Sally  went with us up to the Midway Museum and Victorian Village in Rockford, IL.  We stopped at the new Portillo's eatery and enjoyed a great lunch before traveling on to the museum

Rockford was famous for it's hosiery factories so we all had to stop and pose as sock monkeys.

Jake & Birdie

Chuck & Sally

7-24-15 We decided to go to the Sandwich monthly car show sponsored by the Sandwich Lions Club. We had a great dinner at the I'm One Restaurant with Ralph and Bonnie and Chuck.  Our friend, Jerry G., took the first three pictures.

8-8-15 Today was our annual Lake Holiday picnic for the Rain or Shine Corvette group and it turned out to be a perfect day for a picnic.  The weather was overcast and not too hot and not too cool with a nice breeze.  Ralph and Bonnie, Chuck and Sally, and Steve and Jackie enjoyed the afternoon with us.

We had so much "stuff" we had to drive the 409 with the huge trunk!

We even managed to get in a little exercise playing the bean bag game.

9-11-15 The Rain or Shine Corvette crew's  last official road trip of 2015 was a re-visit to Fair Oaks Farm in Fair Oaks, IN.  It was a cloudy, cool day and we did hit a bit of rain, but it never stopped us from doing what we wanted to do.   We had our intrepid travelers Ralph and Bonnie and Barb and Earl with us.  It was about a two and a half hour ride mostly on great back roads of Illinois and Indiana.  They added a new Farm House Restaurant since we were there in 2012.  Everyone enjoyed their lunch, but think Earl's pecan encrusted walleye would have won the taste test.

A visit to their gift shop is a must not only for the gifts, but a great assortment of butter, cheeses and a great snack shop.

Jake and crew finally getting to eat the butter pecan ice cream he's been pining for. How about that simulated cowhide upholstery?!

Enjoying some down time on the cozy front porch of the Market and Bakery.

Heading home.

10-23-15 We ended the 2015 day trip season by going to Starved Rock for lunch and enjoying a beautiful, mild fall day. We also welcomed Jeff and Jill to our group.  Jeff has a completely restored 1969 Corvette.

It was enjoyable to sit by the huge fireplace while waiting for our reservations.

Luckily the rain held off long enough for all of us to head home.  It was a nice ending to another good season on the road.

9-10-16 - While we won't be going on many road trips this year we did go to a nice Corvette/Camaro Car Show in Hodgkins, IL.

Chuck won First Place in the Custom Class!

The day started out cool and cloudy, but turned into a beautiful day to sit out with friends.

We spent a nice, but hot time at the Walmart Car Show in Streator benefiting the Children's Miracle Network.

9-11-16 The very next day we went to a car show in Hinckley and enjoyed the cool weather and a pancake breakfast. 

Today started the monthly car shows put on by the Sandwich Lions Club.  Chuck won another award for being in the top 21 most popular cars.

Went to a wonderful car show in Plainfield, IL and helped Chuck & Sally celebrate their 36th wedding anniversary. We ate dinner at a great place called Hopscotch & Vine and met Don and Marge and enjoyed the perfect weather.

 Friday night was a perfect night​ for the Lake Holiday Car Show.  It was a nice cool evening to enjoy with friends and view the lake.  Thanks for the pictures, Chuck.

Another perfect weather night for a car show in Marseilles.  We had a perfect spot, nice dinner, and most importantly nice friends.

Friday night was a perfect night weather wise to do anything, but especially the monthly Lions Club sponsored car show in Sandwich.  We had a fantastic fish fry at Knuckle Hedz and then were able to enjoy the evening outside.  Congratulations to Ralph on his new ride!

We went to the Oswego Drag Strip Reunion Car Show on Sat. and enjoyed a cool evening and seeing some really different cars.  It was interesting to talk to the people who also raced at Oswego in the 60's.

As you can see below there was a wide variety of cars represented. Thanks, Chuck for the additional pictures.

We finished off the evening with pizza at Maciano's in Yorkville.

7-24-16 On Sept. 24th we went to Galena with a long detour in Mendota, but a ride on Scenic Ridge Rd. that was the Illinois version of The Tale of the Dragon that made it worth while.

10-28-16 The last event for this year was our annual lunch at Starved Rock State Park where we all enjoyed a delicious lunch and a mild autumn day.  It was an end to the summer event, but also Barb and Earl's new 2017 Grand Sport's inaugural run.

We started the 2017 car show season by going to Sheridan and Hinckley, but I failed to take pictures.  It was darn hot at Sheridan and we had a delicious pancake and sausage breakfast in Hinckley thanks to the Hinckley Lions Club. We went to the first Sandwich Car Show, also sponsored by the Sandwich Lions Club and Chuck took this picture so thank you, Chuck.

This afternoon we went to the Plainfield Car show and upon arrival it started to rain in buckets, but the guys found the bakery and holed up in there for an hour while I visited the shops.  We all ended up in the butcher shop talking to another car nut for awhile until the weather cleared and after the guys wiped down the cars it turned out to be a beautiful night for a car show with a lot of nice cars and a many spectators especially with the questionable weather.

Today we went to the Cherry, IL Car Show and enjoyed a pleasant evening with friends. Earl even won a t-shirt!

Tonight was the perfect night for the last Lions Club Sandwich Car Show of the season and it was made even more perfect by Earl receiving a one of the Most Popular Car award.

The 2018 car show season started off with the Earlville Car Show.  It was cloudy and cool all day and we packed our winter coats before we set off to go to Earlville and on the way there the clouds cleared and the sun came out and it ended up being a beautiful pleasant night.  Chuck and Earl went with us to enjoy a nice dinner of hamburger and brats and homemade cherry pie and brownies.

We had an enjoyable day spent at the Gears and Ears Car Show in Yorkville.  After a very wet week it turned out to be a beautiful day at the Kendall County Fairgrounds.

 7-14-18 - We decided to go to a small car show in Plainfield, IL at Cici's Pizza.  It was a super hot night so didn't stay long, but a few nice pictures.

7-21-18 - Tonight was the Marseilles' Car Show and even though we had a few short, light showers, it was a perfect night.  Earl, and Chuck and Sally enjoyed the evening.

9-26-18 Sandwich Lions Club had their last car show of the season in conjunction with The Taste of Sandwich.  It was  a little cool for the season, but another enjoyable dinner at the Santa Fe Restaurant and evening with great friends.

10-13-18 - We went to one of our favorite car shows, The Rock n' Bowl Car Show in Rockford.  It was pretty darn cold, but an enjoyable day and we won a Pro Pick Award.  It was nice to see Duane Mayer there from the American Hot Rod show.

10-26-18 We ended the Corvette driving season with our annual luncheon at the Starved Rock Lodge. Unfortunately it was a cold, rainy day and most of us already put our Corvettes away for the winter. It didn't stop us from enjoying each other's company and having a nice time.

5-4-19  We started the year 2019 off with a nice Open House/Car Show at Corvette Mike's with Chuck, Earl and Glenn, too.

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 6-3-19 A rare pleasant night for this rainy spring at Wendy's in Morris.  Not much of a show,  Think 7 cars total! Enjoyed the ride down, having dinner with Earl and Chuck and just visiting. Debut for Earl's new Zl-1 Camaro!

7-30-19 - A perfect night for a car show at Johnny K's in Sandwich.  Earl and Chuck were there and even Ralph and Bonnie stopped in to say hello.  Saw other nice friends and acquaintances, too.  

8-16-19 Enjoyed a nice breezy evening at the Lions Club sponsored car show in Sandwich until we were rained out.

8-24-19 - Spent a nice afternoon at the Tonica Car Show.  It was another perfect evening for a car show with almost 300 nice cars flooding this small Illinois town. Earl and Chuck and Sally, as usual, were our die hard companions.

9-20-19 - We went to the Dwight, IL Car Show for the first time, also.  Nice event and great food. It was a pretty hot night for September, but we were able to find shade and enjoy the evening.

9-24-19 - Went to another Johnny K's Car Show because it was such a beautiful night. Here's a great video of all the participants:  https://www.facebook.com/johnnykscruisenight/videos/2457605501151265/

9-19-20 - Because of the Corvid 19 Corona virus most of the car shows and other events have been cancelled for the year.  Johnny K's has been having car shows twice a month on Tuesdays. Leland had a Harvest Fest event that included a car show and it was a nice time.  Perfect weather and the beef sandwiches and apple pie were super good.

6-15-21- Car shows starting up again after being cancelled in 2020 due to Covid19. Below is at Johnny K's in Sandwich.

Johnny K's was rained out a few evenings.
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7-17-21 - The Dwight Car Show was a perfect evening and we started it by going to the old Texaco station on the edge of Dwight to take some pictures. We enjoyed visiting with Chuck and Sally and their friend Jim with the '55 and a bonus to see Jackie and Steve, too.  We also enjoyed the great food from the local bar.

Our friend Chuck has decided he's had enough of his Midnight's antics after 22 years and has traded her for another vehicle so this was her last showing. 

10-19-21 - The weather didn't cooperate too much for the Johnny K's car shows, but the last one of the year had perfect weather for a car show and our family enjoyed the evening.

It is time to pass the torch for the 2013 Corvette Grand Sport on to our son Dave and his family.