Corvette Delivery Dispatch with National Corvette Seller Mike Furman for Jan 14th

Criswell Chevrolet’s Mike Furman delivers new Corvettes to his customers who come from all across the country to work with the nation’s top individual Corvette seller.

Thanks for joining us on what may be one of the coldest days of the year for many of you Corvette enthusiasts. Hopefully, this latest delivery post from Mike Furman will help warm things up! In today’s post, Mike takes a look back at the legendary exploits of Malcolm Konner’s Customer Trip to the Corvette Assembly Plant in St. Louis where customers picked up their new 1959 Corvettes and then participated in a road rally back to New Jersey. Mike learned the car-selling trade from the forward-thinking Konner’s, and it shows today with Mike’s record count of new Corvettes sold. Speaking of sold Corvettes, we see some happy new customers as far away as Hawaii celebrating their new Corvette delivery. Check out the equipment list for each car. Mike also has his weekly collection of throwback and vintage pics so make sure you scroll to the end and let us know your favorites in the comments below!

You can see all of Mike’s posts and pictures through the week on his CorvetteFurman Facebook Page.

~If you’re a Corvette enthusiast then you know the year 1953 is the start of Corvette production. You may also know that 1957 was the start of The Corvette Owners Magazine called “Corvette News”. Well, do you know when the first rally of New Sports car buyers was held in the United States? October of 1959, 50 passengers took a DC7 from New Jersey to St Louis, 25 customers from Malcolm Konner Chevrolet of Caldwell, New Jersey. Malcolm and his wife Florence had the very first stand alone Corvette building next to their Chevrolet dealership in 1957. They put together this sold out trip to the Corvette Plant in St Louis where they would tour the plant and take delivery of 25 brand new Chevrolet Corvettes and drive back Rallye style and guess who was waiting with the checkered flag? Another one of Malcolm Konner’s Corvette customers, none other than the great singer/entertainer Pat Boone. So as you can see from the pictures, this incredible Corvette event was covered by The Corvette News as they sent along a reporter to write an article, which you can still view today in Volume 3, #4 issue for the 1959 magazine Corvette News.

As you can imagine the logistics of such a trip for 50 + people, hotels, functions, plant tour and driving the 1,000 miles back to the finish line in New Jersey. I even have home movies from the Konner’s depicting this historical trip in color! I donated these movies several years ago on behalf of the Malcolm Konner family to the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY.

It was my privilege to start my career working for the Konner family Auto business, I always say the first dozen years were the greatest as I learned so much 1978-1990.

I’m still in touch with Gary and RJ Konner and I remind them all the time as we wax poetic about years gone by, those were the good old days and their father, Malcolm Konner was the greatest Ambassador for the Corvette who led Chevrolet in Corvette sales for over 3 decades. Hope you enjoyed the history lesson along with the pictures of the very first Corvette Plant tour by 50 Sports car enthusiasts. October of 1959!

~6:45am 1/13/24~ Arrive at work and I receive a car show every day. Check out Mr Criswell’s 1963, 1967 and 1960 Corvettes. My office has a great view 24/7/365.

~I will never forget my first trip to the GM Tech Center. We had to turn in our camera’s/phones so there were no pictures allowed. This GM archive picture shows the Interior lobby as you walk in. My first visit walking through the doors and to the right was the 1938 Buick Y Job on display in the lobby. On another floor in the hallway was a 1973 Corvette mid engine concept car. General Motors Technical Center, Warren, Michigan. Architect: Eero Saarinen. 1956. Photo: Balthazar Korab

~ The GM Technical Center was inaugurated in 1956 as General Motors’s primary design and engineering center. In 2000 the center was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and fourteen years later it was designated a National Historic Landmark, primarily for its architecture.

The “Tech Center” is a 710-acre campus located in Warren, Michigan and includes 38 buildings designed to accommodate over 21,000 employees. The site is bounded by Van Dyke Avenue on the east, by Mound Road on the west, by Chicago Road on the north, and by 12 Mile Road on the south. The Tech Center is divided by a north-south railroad right-of-way: the western half includes research, design, and advanced engineering activities while the eastern half includes more planning, current engineering, pre-production, and service activities.

The site offers an advanced technology business atmosphere emphasizing flexibility, efficiency, innovation, quality, safety, and security. It includes 11 miles (18 km) of roads and 1.1 miles (1.8 km) of tunnels, 2 water towers as well as 2 lakes one of which is at least 22-acre (89,000 m2). The lakes are used as emergency fire reservoirs in the event of a catastrophic fire. Fire safety has been a priority at GM since the historic industrial fire occurred in 1953 at the GM Hydramatic plant in Livonia, Michigan.

~1954 production line. This is a photo of the assembly line for Corvettes made in the Route 66 city of St. Louis Missouri. In December 1953, the production of the Chevrolet Corvette moved from Flint, Michigan to St. Louis. The first 300 Corvettes were hand-built in Flint before production moved. This photo is of ’54 Corvettes. The Corvette would become one of the most famous cars in American history. This photo is courtesy of Vintage St. Louis & Route 66.

~Early morning drive out from the Criswell Corvette Wash center for deliveries. I like having the Corvettes inside at clean up the night before so they are all ready at 8am on delivery day. Big thanks to Finn and his inventory staff!

~ C8 Corvette Deliveries for the week!

~What is 5,000 miles away? My customer Nicole and husband reside in Kaneohe, HAWAII! Nicole has bought 3 new Corvettes, 2011, 2016 and now a 2024 from me along with a used 2001 and a new 2016 Silverado for her husband. The picture of Nicole next to her new Cacti Green 2024 Corvette Z51 Convertible with Artemus interior is just after it got off the ship in Hawaii. I’d say Nicole has a permagrin and possibly the only Cacti Green Corvette in all of Hawaii.

Nicole’s Corvette was first enclosed shipped from Criswell Chevrolet of Gaithersburg, Maryland to Long Beach, California and then from there boarded a ship to Hawaii. Congrats all around!

~Cliff and Pat J of Manassas, Virginia have owned two other Corvettes, a White 1968 and a Laguna Blue 2016 that they bought from me. Today they drove home in their new Riptide Blue 2024 Corvette coupe with Jet Black interior. Equipment list: 2LT, GT2 seats, front lift, body color accents, performance exhaust and more.

~Stephen H. of Cave Creek, Arizona ordered his last Corvette from me and took delivery at the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY. This time I had it drop shipped for courtesy delivery to his local Chevrolet dealership in Phoenix, AZ. Stephen ordered a Torch Red 2024 Corvette coupe with Adrenaline Red interior, 1LT pkg and Performance Exhaust.

~Gordon Y. of Troy, Michigan factory ordered from me his new Hypersonic Gray metallic 2024 Corvette Convertible with Natural leather interior. We completed the paperwork/payment process via Fed ex and next week Plycar trucking will enclose ship the 2024 Corvette to Gordon’s Michigan home. Equipment: 2LT, GT2 buckets, body color accents, front lift, magnetic selective ride, bright red calipers, performance exhaust, 20 spoke machined face forge aluminum wheels, and much more.

~ This week’s Top Corvette Barn finds and throwback pictures from around the globe!

Drive safely and enjoy the week.

Mike Furman
Criswell Chevrolet
Gaithersburg, MD
301-212-4420 desk direct (not a text line)
Off Fridays and Sundays
"I sell and ship Nationwide and have done so for 45+ years!
[email protected]
CorvetteFurman.com

Click on the link below for Cigar Aficionado magazine article that just came out:
Cigar Aficionado: The Legend of Mr. Corvette

Each day I post up Corvettes stories and delivery videos…follow on Instagram: corvette.furman and Facebook: CorvetteFurman

Mike can deliver new Corvettes at Criswell Chevrolet in Gaithersburg, MD or through the National Corvette Museum’s R8C delivery program. He can also deliver new Corvettes via covered transport direct to your door or a courtesy delivery to the Chevrolet dealer near you.

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Corvette Delivery Dispatch with National Corvette Seller Mike Furman for Dec 24th