1957 Corvette Race Car
Seeking Information
Amazingly, right here in Fort Wayne, Indiana, two Corvette
Collectors, Keith Busse and Larry Gerig, built a magnificent building to
house their extensive Corvette collections. They have opened the building to
the public as a museum now that they have a staff to handle visitors.
On June 9, 2001 with the Indiana NCRS
chapter (but without camera) and on July 14, 2001 with the Fort Wayne Corvette
Club (and WITH camera) I had the opportunity to tour the building and learn more
about the cars.
The collections represent the "best of the best"
of all 5 generations:
Larry's collection includes one each of every color of
1957 Corvette. All are in their original color and all are fuel injection cars.
The white one (red interior) is VIN # E57S105116 and is an air box car from
Hawaii. The red/red one at the end is also an air box car VIN # E57S104742:
The silver blue car is the one that really intrigues me:
The sign says:
1957 Corvette Convertible
VIN # E57S102281
- Exterior Color: Artic Blue
- Interior Color: Red
- Auxiliary Hardtop
- Rare 283 ci / 283 H. P.
High Performance "Motor"
- Fuel Injection
- Positraction Rear Axle
- Heavy Duty Racing Suspension
- One of only 8 cars produced with only the big brake option.
- This car was built and raced at the Sebring track.
- Only 746 miles since restoration.
Awards:
- NCRS Top Flight
- Bloomington Gold
- Gold Spinner
- Triple Crown
Owner: Larry Gerig
Larry very generously allowed me to photograph his
documentation on 2281. This is an early owner of the car. The lettering on the
car is "103 BP" - apparently when the car raced in the SCCA
"B" Production class :
These original pictures are unfortunately very blurry.
They are said to be of the car racing at Sebring with no further information
available:
This is the car restored to its SCCA racing days:
Does anyone have further information about any of these cars - particularly 2281? I would like to know more about them and I am sure Larry would appreciate further documentation. Please email me at the Contact location at the top of the page.
P. S.
I had such a great time touring the museum, taking
pictures and asking questions, I was almost the last to leave (but I did manage
to catch the crowd before they all got to Flanagans):
Update on October 18, 2004 - Larry Gerig has completed his own private building for his collection so it is no longer in the Corvette Classics Museum. However, Keith Busse has expanded his collection and the Museum still has an amazing group of Corvettes.
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This Page Last Updated - Thursday, December 24, 2009