I recently attended the Corvette Club of Ontario’s annual get-together for charity at Bill Wallace’s Gateway Chevrolet in Brampton. This was my second time doing it and similar to the first I was awestruck by the cars and their owners’ pride.
The Corvette Club in Ontario is the oldest Corvette Club in Canada, established in 1962. It includes 300 members, some of whom are original members.
Some of the cars have been handed down or willed from a previous owner, creating second- and third-generation owners.
This year the money raised from the event, which costs a $20 entry fee, raised funds for the Tiger Jeet Singh Foundation. It is a registered Canadian charity founded by pro wrestling legend Tiger Jeet Singh and his son Tiger Ali Singh Jr, also known as Tiger Ali Singh. They have both used their celebrity to bring awareness to promote inclusion, support children, woman shelters, hospitals and funding for public school initiatives such as mental health, literacy, inclusive classrooms and nutrition.
The Corvette Club of Ontario does various events a year, yet the common theme is celebrating owning one of the world’s most celebrated car brands. “Our motto with the Corvette Club of Ontario is you join for the cars, but you stay for the people,” said current President James Krane.
“Over the last 15 years that I’ve been a member we’ve made lifelong friendships within a hobby. It’s a friendly group that is very welcoming and make it easy to stick around. I’m in my ninth year as President and we’ve tripled our membership in that time. We’re pretty proud of that.” James and his wife, Lianne, are proud owners of a 2011 Grand Sport Convertible coloured Cyber Gray. “It’s just a whole lot of fun to drive,” James said. “It’s got pretty low mileage.
Most of the cars do because we only drive them on nice weekends. I’ve had it since 2020 but I’ve been a Corvette owner for about 15 years. It’s something I always wanted and had the opportunity to get one and I’ve never looked back.”
On display at the event were two rare 2011 Z06 Carbon Edition Cars owned by Enzo Colosimo and Lee Upton. I approached one owner, Robert Hawn, who joined the club in 2021 and has become its Vice President. “I joined for the activities and the socializing with the Corvette community,” he told me. He’s owned Corvettes for 12 years. In July he privately bought his current car, a black 2019 C7 Z06. “This particular one is the last of a breed, front engine, manual shift, high horsepower and it only had 10,000 kilometres on it,” he said. He has a personalized plate PUNISHRR on it. He wanted PUNISHER, but it was already taken by an owner with a FORD F150.
“In my opinion it’s better than most simply because it’s a little bit larger than Miatas or similar little cars, and it’s got great power that makes for a lot of fun when you drive it spiritedly,” he said. “I’m completely selective where I drive it. I drive just over the fashionable speed limit, but I do bring it to the track to have that enjoyment of doing that. “I typically take a bunch of my friends up to Grand Bend that has a wonderful little track that allows you to get a heavy right foot with very little danger unless you are being silly. Most of the people I take out for the first time come back vibrating and say, “When’s the next one, I’m signing up.”
I also talked to Casey Haars and his wife, Sandy, who joined the club two years ago. They attended the event in her 2021 red and black Stingray with the license plate 1FASTKAR. They bought it brand new. “I don’t like Ferraris and I don’t like Porsches, I’ve always liked Corvettes,” Sandy told me. She said she waited 35 years to own her own Corvette. She said when she first met her husband, he had a 1973 Corvette, then he went to a 1988, a 2007, a 2010, a 2014 and then a 2019. “He’s always been a fan of them, unfortunately he’s a double amputee and can’t drive,” she said.
He lost both his legs to diabetes.
They traded in the 2010 and 1988 Corvettes to purchase the new one. Her husband and daughter designed the new car.
Sandy said she’s known quite a few of the members of the club from other events and decided to join because of a similar interest of cruising in their Corvettes rather than participating in car shows. She and all the members who attended the event had to deal with some rain, but it didn’t dampen their enthusiasm or their pride.
Some other nice Corvette's
Perry Lefko is the Content Manager of The Car Magazine. He can be reached at [email protected]. Feel free to forward any story suggestions or comments.