For those of you not on the ZR-1 Net list

[vandornjim]

From time to time I have been writing some memoirs that might make a book some day. They don't charge me for the bandwidth so here's some of it.



It was 1991 when I read a small blurb in Corvette Fever about something called a "ZR-1 Registry" that was being formed by a guy in New York. The organizer, some guy named Larry Merow, said his reason for the club was to gather all the ZR-1 owner's information and keep it along with the car's info to share with all the members of his Registry. I wrote my info down and mailed it that day.

In reality, Larry also had some paint issues he couldn't live with on his new 1990 ZR-1. (Besides he really liked the new '91 nose). He went to his dealer a few times and they screwed it up worse. He decided to demand that he be able to take the car back to Bowling Green for the repairs. While all of this was going on, Larry told GM he was forming an owner's club and use it against GM if necessary. Needless to say, GM was not pleased with the threat especially with the problems they were "hiding". Imagine an owner's group coming back on GM with problems??? It scared them to death.

Well, Larry's car got shipped back to BG but the guys at BG weren't real happy here either. First, to admit they made a mistake in the first place, and two, they made it perfectly clear that they were the assembly plant, not a repair station. In the end, Larry's car was worse than it was in the beginning. And then the threats started aimed at GM. Now Larry already had
50 owners under his wing, telling them we were a social club to have fun, while telling GM he had an army behind him and was ready for battle. So GM offered Larry a new 1991, made him fully inspect it in their presence, and they were done with him.


The ZR-1 Registry had started out with a bang but in GM's eyes, it was already a black-balled enemy. Questions began to arise when some cars were more powerful than others. Some began to question the advertised horsepower.
This sent chills down GM's spine as they knew there was a BIG problem there.
The fact of the matter was each engine was dyno tested for a 58 minute sequence prior to shipping to BG. And while some engines actually did much better than the 375hp rating, others did miserably worse, sometimes there was a horsepower difference of 10% (and more) between cars. One trip to BG, an employee and I went out for some test drives. It has a hot summer day. We jumped in one car and it ran like the power key was off. We jumped in
another and found one that really ran good. And if an owner could prove
his car did not perform as advertised, GM would be forced to make it perform, or buy it back. It wasn't until later that we figured out the problem....



SO after I sent Merow my information, I received a nice little package in the mail including a membership card. I was amazed that I was #21 already.
So much response and so quick! Anyway, in the months and years ahead Larry and I became very good friends. He was so proud of his newsletters and I was honored when he asked me to write articles for him. I was one of the very few (if any) independent shops that had worked on a production ZR-1 or LT5 outside of the corporations (Merc, Lotus, Chevrolet) so Larry asked for tech advice and of course Don Fisher and I did our piece called "From the West".
I suffered the dreaded starter problem early on and when I called the Corvette Action Center (located in the plant and manned by Jerry Watts and Harold White) they said that when we figured it out to please let them know because they had a dozen or so out there with the same problem. Well, it was time to do the inevitable so we pulled our first plenum, mine, and did a standard starter check. We then saw the water in the valley. I had just
washed my engine a week ago. I called Jerry and the problem was solved
along with big headlines to owners, DO NOT WASH YOUR ENGINE! Many owners discovered or encountered problems and they were all fully explained in the newsletter, along with driving tips, detailing, cars for sale, and personal experiences.

During one of our articles in early 1993, my friend (still) Don Fisher (#7) and I were speaking with the guys at MerCruiser when they very first spilled the beans that the ZR-1 program was being terminated. Our cars were going to be worth a ton as collector cars (weren't they??)!! We asked if we could come to Stillwater and say Thanks to all of the LT5 employees and they agreed. So, Thunder at Stillwater was born.

There was no real public internet back then so information traveled slowly, mostly by Larry's newsletter. I learned it was quite a feat to organize a national event, something I had never done, but I wanted to say Thank You to those folks who had done such a great job on our engines. So Don and I organized it.

Larry was a cold bird at times. He wasn't even going to go to Stillwater so he let us do all the planning, organizing, and then at the last minute, and I mean within days of the event, decided to show up. He got completely irate when the management at Mercruiser gave me their LT5 cutaway to take back to Calif. During the presentation the General Manager of MerCruiser said it was going to "The West Coast ZR-1 Registry". Larry went nutso. As I approached his motel room, clear down the hall I could heard him screaming to his friend Carl one thing and another until I knocked on his door and handed him $4,000, the proceeds of the event. Later I pleaded mercy with the MerCruiser guys and so they found a warranty engine laying around and shipped it to Larry.

All in all, we organized several west coast events, unfortunately, usually at my expense. Larry wanted something for the west coast folks to do, after all, they had events all over the east. So, Don and I did the Millard Fillmore Desert Classic and we brought out Dave and Glenda McLellan in 1992.
He had just retired and the story of the ZR-1 had not been told so we invited him out for an interview. Don Fisher and I interviewed Dave for the Registry newsletter but during the interview, Paul Zazarine (Editor of Corvette Fever) walked by and noticed us. He later asked what we were doing and I told him about the interview with Dave. He wanted it. So, after it ran in our newsletter, I gave it to CF. After reading it, Zazarine called and asked me to start writing for his magazine. Really? A Contributing Editor for CF? Boy we were really riding a wave! After the event I submitted a bill for expenses including McLellan's airfares, their rooms, meals, etc.
Larry, had setup his "store" in the parking lot all weeknd, sold out, but then said he'd have to wait and "figure everything up". Several other times I mentioned it. He never sent a dime.


Speaking of waves, we did an AWESOME San Diego event with Larry Hayes and toured an aircraft carrier, submarine base (including a tour of a nuclear sub), and finally, toured the Top Gun "Fighter Weapons" School and got to fly an F14 Tomcat simulator. It costs $35,000 per hour to operate one of those babies but Larry got all of us a chance to land an F-14. The funniest thing was that D.Randy Riggs ( Editor of Vette Magazine) was there and he and I were always at each other. I was (now) with Corvette Fever. I kept telling him he couldn't do it and I could. I had him all worked up so when he crashed he got really pissed. Zora crashed, then McLellan, Larry, all of them went down(or up) in flames. About that time our guide (aka "Maverick") told his guys to change the scenario from the huge (wide and lonnnggg) Miramar airstrip to a carrier landing for me, (I was last). Everybody laughed when they turned out the lights and made it into a NIGHT CARRIER LANDING! Well, only Maverick knew that I was (am) a pilot. If you could've seen the look on D.Randy's face when I landed the thing.hard, but it said
"Survivable".


We did the NCM Grand Opening and shortly thereafter, I realized the end of the Z's production was coming. Dave had the Net up by then and GM had assigned people to monitor us. We also had several GM guys on there like Jim Ingles "Jingles" for a while. I think Jim left after he realized there were so many oil and sparkplug "experts" on the list, he was outnumbered. So we began something I never knew would be as big as it was. I began to contact some guys at GM and told them of my idea. Ironically, some of those same guys were at Stillwater's event but were being very quiet and in the background. But they were watching.

So I sent a letter to Chevy's top guy, a Mr. Jim Perkins. I tried to explain that this was purely an appreciation event and we'd like to have Chevy's participation. Weeks later I get this letter back giving me a date (Jan '95) for a meeting with some PR people at GM. ARE YOU KIDDING ME????

So I get there and they tell me I'll have a car waiting for me at the airport. The guy gives me a ride up to an Admiral Blue '94. The guy said they didn't usually give Corvettes out so my meeting must be "important". I remember joking to myself that there was no way it was a 6 speed, after all, there was a foot of snow on the ground. It was..

After skidding all over the City of Detroit for a day (man was I stupid crazy back then!), my meeting came with all the top Chevy guys there. PR Chief Bill O'Neill asked me why I thought this would be good for Chevrolet, that Chevrolet doesn't celebrate the old, but rather the present and new. He asked me if I was a wealthy guy, you know, had money. I told him I had to tune up my buddy's Silverado to make airfare. He called me "Forest Gump" and said he thought they could reimburse me for my trip. He asked what we were going to do if GM decided not to participate and, in the spur of the moment, I replied;

"Oh we'll just call all the car magazines and have them come interview 400 of the most loyal owners of Chevrolet's most expensive production car ever, ..while we're parked in a liquor store parking lot outside the plant."
True story.the Legend Lives event was a go.

I never believed it would take four, four inch notebooks to house all the letters, memos and faxes, nor 5 months to plan the event. Who was going to do what, with whom, they left nothing to chance. Then there was the issue of the coor of the last ZR-1. Chevy had planned it to be yellow, but now that the media was involved, (some 12 magazines covered the event) they realized that yellow doesn't show up well in black and white photos (i.e. newsprint).
So they asked me what color it should be. I knew they wanted the white w/red interior like the first, 1 millionth, etc., but it was my fun. RED!

Chevy came with toys and even chocolates made to look like the ZR-1 emblem.
The plant figured out a way to bring the last ZR-1 out as planned. We had one of each color ZR-1 in the NCM circle for the photo op. All but the one Copper Metallic. There were brochures and posters, videos, there were hundreds of ZR-1's there and I think even Mr Perkins was amazed. At the event banquet I handed out the proceeds, donations and contributions. Larry got $10,000 for a new Power MAC computer he needed for the Registry newsletter, (probably a $400 laptop in today's specs ) and I gave the NCM the remaining $12,000 to keep their doors open for a while.


Dave Bright organized an annual event in BG he dubbed "The Gathering".
Larry again went nuts saying the word "Gathering" was his to use, he came up with it, and Bright stole it. We all came to those first few events, but Larry always acted offended. Truth was, without trying, Bright threatened Larry's rule and his kingdom. Bright was hosting a new list server and our talk and information sharing was immediate and definitely a threat to Larry's prized (now quarterly) newsletter. And Larry didn't have flame wars like we did. I couldn't wait to get to my computer each morning to see who was attacking who. But what Larry didn't realize was just how much he was appreciated by everyone including Dave Bright. In fact, many of us had saved each and every single issue of the newsletter, and it was prized just the same. I still have them all. Larry and his staff did a magnificent job on them.

Stay Tuned for Part 2 of "The Saga of the ZR-1 Clubs"