![[VIDEO] Throwback Thursday: Malcolm Konner Takes 25 Customers to Pick Up New 1960 Corvettes in St. Louis](https://www.corvetteblogger.com/images/content/2022/011922_13b.jpg)
Many of you may have seen the throwback pics last weekend from National Corvette Seller Mike Furman who shared a number of photos featuring Chevrolet dealer Malcolm Konner who took 50 people (25 customers) to the Corvette Assembly Plant in St. Louis in October 1959 to pick up their new 1960 Corvettes at the factory and they would drive them home to New Jersey.
We’ve actually done a previous Throwback Thursday post about this trip back in 2017, but last week we got a whole new look as Malcolm Konner’s son RJ Konner shared these two home videos to Facebook showing the trip to St. Louis (and even some scenes from inside the factory) before the 25 new Corvette owners headed home to Konner Chevrolet in New Jersey via a timed road rally. Waiting for them in New Jersey was the famous entertainer Pat Boone who was a personal friend of Malcolm and a Corvette customer.
Along the way the camera captures scenes of late-1950’s Americana featuring wide-open highways to drive on and stays at the Holiday Inn.
Check out the official invitation for the Personal 1960 Corvette Delivery at the plant, as well as the Road Rally plans:
![[VIDEO] Throwback Thursday: Malcolm Konner Takes 25 Customers to Pick Up New 1960 Corvettes in St. Louis](https://www.corvetteblogger.com/images/content/2022/011922_14b.jpg)
It’s really amazing that Malcolm was able to put a trip like this together just six years into the production of the sports car, and it also says a lot about his customer’s passion for the new Corvette to jet off to St.Louis and then drive halfway across the country to back home. Just the logistics of chartering a TWA airplane and then planning the drive home must have taken some planning as the national highway system has just started construction three years prior.
The videos are just three minutes or so but definitely worth the watch!!
This trip made such a lasting memory that the Konner family would do it again in the Spring of 1986. Malcolm had passed away a few years before and Chevrolet authorized the first-ever run of 50 special edition 1986 Corvettes dedicated to the dealer called the Malcolm Konner editions. The Konners brought a group of customers to the Bowling Green Assembly Plant and they would all drive them back to Konner Chevrolet in New Jersey.
Here are the photos from the St, Louis to New Jersey 1959 Corvette Road Rally:
And here is a quick look at those 50 1986 Malcolm Konner Editions:
Finally, here is our friend Mike Furman with one of the Malcolm Konner Special Edition 1986 Corvettes. Mike started working in automobile sales at Malcolm Konner Auto Group in the summer of 1978 at the age of 17 years old!
![[VIDEO] Throwback Thursday: Malcolm Konner Takes 25 Customers to Pick Up New 1960 Corvettes in St. Louis](https://www.corvetteblogger.com/images/content/2022/011922_15b.jpg)
Source:
Mike Furman, RJ and Gary Konner.
Related:
[PICS] Throwback Thursday: Chevy Dealer Malcolm Konner Goes to St. Louis
Corvettes on eBay: Rare Malcom Konner Edition 1986 Corvette
[PIC] Throwback Thursday: Tony DeLorenzo and the Glory Days of Corvette Racing
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From the videos it doesn’t appear that very many of those 25 new 1960 Corvettes came equipped with removable hardtops (unless the hardtops were delivered separately to the dealership).
It appears that around 50% of buyers of new 1960 Corvettes opted for the auxiliary hardtop, so either this group were outliers or Konner arranged for some hardtops to be shipped separately so that those customers had the ability to cruise topless on the drive back to New Jersey.
“Kool” Pictures and history of the Konner dealership and his support of the Corvette. I wish there were more pictures of the plant, but appreciate the ones they posted. I recognized some of the locations at delivery in St. Louis, my home town. A little before my time at Corvette but still great to see the delivery. I am proud to say as a Quality manager at St Louis and BG Ky. that I was part of the 1986 Konner cars in BG. Helped to get parked out front of the plant in BG. and welcome the visitors. Still have some souvenirs from that time.
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