Thousands of Corvette owners from across North America, including more than 100 from various parts of Ontario, will drive to Bowling Green, Kentucky later this month to visit the museum that celebrates the birthplace of the iconic car.
The Corvette Caravan is billed as the largest moving vehicle event in the world and this is the 30th anniversary. It is a week-long event that begins in the last week of August and runs through to Labour Day weekend.
Corvette owners from seven separate regions will start the trek on August 25, led by James and Lianne Krane. James is the President of the Corvette Club of Ontario, the oldest Corvette club in Canada.
“We’ve been planning this for about the last 3½ years,” James told me. “It’s to commemorate the anniversary of the museum, but it’s also a fundraiser for the museum. We charge a fee for everybody to participate and have sponsors that help with different events down there. Whatever money we have left over, we donate to the museum, which does not receive government funding.”
In 2014, James and Lianne drove to Bowling Green for the 20th anniversary. It became an emotional experience.
“I kind of got choked up,” James said. “Lianne looked at me and says, ‘What’s the matter with you?’ I said, ‘It’s like going home.’ It’s the birthplace of the Corvette, it’s what it’s all about. Everywhere you look there’s Corvettes. It’s difficult to describe unless you’ve experienced it.”
In 2019, James and Lianne led a group of 65 Corvette owners, but the time it will be 110 cars because of the popularity of the event. Of the 65 car owners who did the trip last time, 55 are doing it again.
“This is really a testament to the event itself,” he said. “It’s just a really enjoyable, well-organized machine. The folks at the museum have done it enough times to make it really seamless. The 20th anniversary was the single best trip Lianne and I have ever taken in our Corvette. The people who went also said it was the best trip they’ve taken in their Corvettes. The organizers who were running it in 2014 were looking for someone to take it over and we decided to do it.”
He said the package sold out in six months.
The journey for the southern Ontario contingent will head west to Sarnia and cross over into Michigan, where all the Ontario clubs will meet up in a Bavarian town called Frankenmuth, which hosts car events. It will be the first time that all 209 members of this southern Ontario group will convene for this trip. The journey will continue to Pratt Miller Engineering, which manufacturers the Corvette Z06 GT3.R race cars that compete in the IMSA Series. The next stop will be the Gilmore Car Museum, which tells the history of America through the automobile. From there it will continue through to Indiana on route to Bowling Green.
“On one side of the highway is the Corvette Assembly Plant and beside it is the National Corvette Museum, and across from that is the National Museum Motorsport Park, which has a 3.2 mile racetrack,” he said.
Krane has rented the track for his contingent to do touring laps, which has an instructor in a pace car leading 10 cars at a time for four laps. Some winners of a raffle will have a chance to drive some of the track’s Z06 cars on the track behind an instructor. After that, it’s a visit to the museum before the majority of the cars arrive from other parts of North America. There’s various events the museum will host for the next few days.
James owns a 2011 Grand Sport Convertible coloured Cyber Gray.
“It’s just a whole lot of fun to drive,” he 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.
“Our motto with the Corvette Club of Ontario is you join for the cars, you stay for the people. Over the last 15 years 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. We’re pretty proud of that. Who knows where that’s going to go if the Corvette ever produces an SUV.”
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.