NASCAR in the South, Part Four: May 11, 2017--The Gary Artis Collection

Gary Artis' Magic Garage

After breakfast at the hotel, the "Museum in Motion" caravan hit the road at 8:00 am and headed south towards the South Carolina boundary.  Our destination was a private car collection specializing in Corvette Indianapolis Pace Car replicas.  It is owned by Mr. Gary Artis, a successful entrepreneur in the business software industry.  

Upon our arrival we were treated to refreshments and received a printed booklet about all the cars in the collection.  Mr. Artis (noted on the booklet as "Curator & Janitor" of the collection) was most hospitable and clearly enjoyed having a group of enthusiasts with Corvette Religion who would appreciate his cars.

Mr. Artis' first Corvette was a 1977 Coupe purchased in 1985.  However, the Pace Car collection began in 2001 with the purchase of a 1998 Corvette, one of 1,158 Pace Car Replicas built that year.  It is highly distinctive, with its "Radar Blue" exterior colour and yellow wheels and it was purchased in celebration of Mr. Artis' 40th birthday.  He thought that a collection of Pace Car Replicas would be fairly easy to do as at that point there were only four different ones.  He clearly has had a lot of fun in spite of being wrong, but collecting tends to do this.

Where it began: 1998 Corvette Pace Car

Chevrolet made things more challenging as in the following seven years the Corvette was named Pace Car six times and the collection expanded.  And expanded.  With business being good, Mr. Artis started to add some other Pace Cars--Oldsmobile, Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro, Dodge Viper, Pontiac Fiero (!)--until the day we visited there were 20 Pace Car Replicas in his 36 car collection.  Also at the time of our visit it was announced that once again Corvette would be the Official Pace Car at Indy 2017, with a nice red-white-and-blue Grand Sport flying the colours so Mr. Artis will have to dig into his wallet again to keep the set going. (And as I write this in January 2019, it would be remiss not to point out that the 2018 Official Pace Car was, yes, another Corvette: the super-fast ZR1.)

2007 Pace Car 

2014 C7 Corvette with lettering added to resemble the 2013 Pace Car, which was not available as the new generation was only being introduced at that time

2003 C5 50th Anniversary Edition Coupe with Pace Car graphics

This gorgeous 2004 Pace Car Convertible was used at the Indianapolis 500 as a "festival car," but is more celebrated as the survivor of the sinkhole collapse that wrecked eight cars at the National Corvette Museum in 2014, where it was on display at the time.

1978 Corvette Coupe--the first Special Edition Pace Car

2005 Corvette Pace Car, No. 8 used at the Indianapolis track as a "festival car"

Special Edition Corvettes: 1996 Grand Sport (foreground) and 2007 Ron Fellows Edition C6 Z06

Along with his terrific cars, Mr. Artis has lots of collectibles, including posters and lots of model cars.  One thing that really stands about the collection is that the cars were plugged into battery tenders and in fact are regularly driven.  A really nice C5.R replica, the only one produced by the company that was selling body parts, has more than 90,000 miles on the clock. 

1997 C5.R replica by C5West, designed to look like the C5.R that won its class at Daytona in 2000 and there driven by Dale Earnhardt Sr., Dale Jr., Kelly Collins, and Andy Pilgrim

We enjoyed a real family atmosphere with Mr. Artis and the neighbours he invited and spent the morning admiring the cars and talking Corvette.  The collection is a reflection of his personal interests and is nothing like a warehouse of untouchable cars.  We were grateful for the chance to see the cars and meet him; a Southern hospitality highlight of our North Carolina "NASCAR in the South" tour.

Chevrolet Camaro Pace Cars

1957 Chevrolet Bel Air

1996 Dodge Viper GTS Pace Car Replica

1970 and 1972 Oldsmobile Pace Car Replicas

Continue on to Part Five here...

NASCAR in the South: Touring with the National Corvette Museum, May 7-14, 2017--Part One

The Old Mill of Guilford in Oak Ridge, North Carolina

With my last day of work on Friday, May 6, 2017, I left gainful employment after 35 years in the workforce and began the next phase of life On Saturday we departed southwards to join the National Corvette Museum's Museum in Motion tour, this one called "NASCAR in the South."  The museum has a full slate of trips around the United States and we thought that going to the Southern USA and getting Spring early was very attractive, although we knew pretty much nothing about NASCAR, having never been to a car race of any kind.

The tour was limited to 50 people/25 cars and we had been among the first to book, having paid by early January.  This turned out to be a good idea as the tour was sold out quickly.

We were to be based in Charlotte, North Carolina, for most of the tour but as Charlotte is too far from Ottawa for a single day's drive, we elected to stop at the historic George Washington Hotel in Winchester, Virginia for our first overnight stop.

Winchester sits at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley and was first settled by Europeans around 1729, with the incorporation of Winchester itself (previously known as Frederick Town) in 1752.  George Washington was active here as a young surveyor and the city was the site of fierce fighting during the Civil War, changing hands numerous times.  Winchester was the birthplace (and burial spot) of noted country music star Patsy Cline.  It is the county seat of Frederick County and has around 27,000 residents.

The George Washington Hotel was built in 1924 and was strategically located near the Baltimore & Ohio railroad station.  It was a vital part of the city's downtown core and expanded in 1929, to a total of 150 rooms, and hosted celebrated guests, including Lucille Ball and Jack Dempsey.  But the decline of passenger rail travel and the increase of personal travel on the Interstates (although it should be noted that I-81 passes directly by the city) resulted in closure of the hotel in 1978.  It was converted to a senior citizens' residence and used in this capacity until 1993, after which time it was vacant until 2004.  That must have been pretty depressing, having a very large and elegant building in the center of your town empty for eleven years, a constant reminder of better days.  Of course, there was a happy ending as the building was purchased and renovated over four years to become a fine hotel once again, reopening in 2008.

We enjoyed our very comfortable room after the long drive but downtown Winchester was very quiet so rather than drive to the junk food strip along I-81 for dinner we enjoyed a modest meal in the pub/restaurant at the the hotel.

The next morning, which was surprisingly cold, I walked around Old Town Winchester, which was empty although it had a nice pedestrian zone.  There was some good solid architecture, such as the Masonic Hall, and novelties like the Snow White Grill, a tiny restaurant that opened in 1949 and is the last survivor of a small chain of places selling mini-hamburgers.  The one-time Taylor Hotel, built in 1847, is a fine classical building that was used as a hospital during the Civil War.  The handsome B&O station, built in 1892, is still standing as well.

the Taylor Hotel

B&O Station

Departing Winchester on Saturday morning, we travelled south through Virginia and into North Carolina, following some smaller highways and state roads until we arrived, around 5 hours later, in Oak Ridge, North Caroline. We done come to buy us some grits!

Oak Ridge is the home of the Old Guilford Mill, a grist mill first constructed on Beaver Creek in 1767, and subsequently moved downstream to its current location in 1818.  It is one of the oldest operating mills in the United States.  The 24 foot water wheel was added in the 1950s and does not actually power the mill.  There was a nice selection of stone-ground products, including unbleached wheat flour, cornmeal and grits and we even picked up some hush puppy mix.

Taking our leave of the ladies at the mill, we continued south and ninety minutes later we arrived at our destination, Concord, North Carolina, which is basically a continuation of sprawling Charlotte.  For the remainder of the trip we would be based at the Holiday Inn Express, which was conveniently located next to the Interstate and offered the usual shopping/restaurant choices.

Seeing all the Corvettes parked at the hotel meant we were in the right place!  There was an introductory pizza party where everyone said where they were from and if they had been on an NCM tour before.  People came from all over the United States, from as far away as California, Texas and Minnesota, so coming from Canada as we did was not the longest stretch by far.  Everyone laughed when I said that I had been retired for two days: I am sure that pretty much all the participants were retirees, and some of them for a long time!

2016 Z06 C7.R Edition with additional markings to look like one of the Corvette Racing C7.R GTLM racing cars.  This is one of 500 cars built in this edition.

Continue to Part Two here...