1996 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport Convertible
Personal story and photograph submitted by owner Brad Stephenson - courtesy of the National Corvette Museum website - for participation in the National Corvette Museum 2008 Historic Motorama II.
I'm Brad Stephenson, certified Car Nut and owner of a 1996 Grand Sport Convertible. My wife Linda and I now reside in Bath, Ohio, a suburb of Akron.
My interest in Corvettes began in 1999 when my brother purchased an odd-looking blue and white convertible 'Vette at an exotic car auction in 1999 and took it home to West Michigan. He had far too many cars at the time and offered the Corvette to me just before the start of the midwest winter. After doing some research, I found out that only 1,000 of the Grand Sports had been produced by GM and were a special model celebrating the end of the C4 production. It commemorated Zora's passionate attempt in 1963 to compete with the Shelby Cobra on the race track; he built 5 'Grand Sport' light-weight race cars and stealthily provided them to racers during a time when Chevrolet had taken a negative stance toward racing.
Of the 1,000 Grand Sports produced in 1996, only 190 were convertibles. I have a soft spot in my heart for somewhat rare automobiles, so I agreed to take the car off my brother's hands. So started the Journey. Along the way I've met a wonderful group of people in the Corvette hobby, particularly those interested in the funny-looking 'skunk' cars (the Grand Sports have a big white stripe down the middle of the car, just like a skunk). The Grand Sport Registry is led by an absolutely passionate lunatic by the name of John "Hutch" Hutchinson. He and the circle of friends in the Grand Sport Registry represent everything that's great about the Corvette -- good times, good friends, and a wonderful automobile!
While we have other cars in the 'fun' side of the garage - notably a Triumph TR6 and a Maserati Spyder Cambiocorsa, the Grand Sport Corvette is the only one that resulted in life-long friendships. A big part of the fraternity of Corvettes is the National Corvette Museum. My thanks to Wendell, Adam, and the entire NCM staff for a Job Well Done preserving the Corvette heritage and for creating Ground Zero for the Corvette hobby.
I am proud to be a part of this elite group and want to thank the friends at GM and the National Corvette Museum for the honor of participating in the Historic Motorama II!
Brad Stephenson
Grand Sport Convertible #951 "PP LE PEU"
NCM Lifetime Member
GSR Lifetime Member
When GM celebrates the beginning of its next 100 years on September 16, 2008, 55 Corvettes will be on display outside its World Headquarters at Detroit’s Renaissance Center. The Corvettes are in fact the Historic Motorama II, a caravan from the National Corvette Museum (NCM) which is comprised of one example from each of the 55 years of Corvette production. The caravan will depart from the National Corvette Museum on September 10th with stops along the way. People attending the GMnext Day activities on September 16th will be able to view the Corvettes before and after the official program.
Look at the next Historic Motorama II Corvette participant, representing a cross-section of Corvette enthusiasts from across the country.
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