Bridling A 600 Horsepower Callaway For 300,000 Miles

“Oh, the places you’ll go!” I doubt the good Dr. Seuss had a particular 2010 Chevrolet Corvette in mind when he coined that phrase, but the title that has captivated kids, both young and old, fits this particular Crystal Red Metallic beauty to a “T.”

You need to get in early if you’re planning to roll the sixth digit of the odometer three times. That’s exactly what Chris Chessnoe, then Program Manager for Callaway Cars in Old Lyme, Connecticut, did immediately after setting eyes on Chevy’s newest Grand Sport offering.

“It seems like just yesterday when the Corvette Team pulled back the cover in the Skydome at the National Corvette Museum (NCM) during the 2009 NCM Bash Event in April,” Chris stated. “The excitement was high, and I remember thinking this car is going to be huge!”

The World’s First Callaway SC606 Corvette

At the time, the company’s business card was a bright red, 2008 Callaway SC580 coupe. Chris admits that as soon as he saw the bristling, bright red Grand Sport, he KNEW the car would become the next showcase of the company’s prowess for “Powerfully Engineered Automobiles.” He just needed to convince Mike Zoner, his boss back in Old Lyme, that it was the right thing to do.

Chris didn’t waste any time putting together a business plan. Part of the business plan was to showcase the new car turning 100,000 miles. The intent was to show the reliability of the Callaway supercharger package, and that it could be driven everywhere, every day, if someone wanted.

Having a nationwide network of authorized Callaway dealers helped greatly in getting an order in early. Jay Gross, Purifoy Chevrolet’s Corvette Manager, helped secure Callaway’s time on the assembly line for the first day of ordering.

The car came together during the first day of production as VIN 00059. It was a very early car and may even be the first one delivered as a retail order. There was no time to spare; with the car arriving in Old Lyme in early July 2009, the team had just a month to fit the SC606 supercharger package to the vehicle before the car debuted at Corvettes at Carlisle in August.

Of course, the new LS3 in the Grand Sport featured a dry-sump oiling system, and there were several other mechanical changes from previous production that needed to be sorted through to get the car ready. The car debuted at Corvettes at Carlisle at the end of August, and the following week it went to the NCM for the Labor Day event. For both of those events, the car was trailered, as the car wasn’t ready for the road. The car had accrued only 16 miles.

Chris wouldn’t be rollin’ the miles on the new Grand Sport any time soon, because his boss said the 2008 Callaway had to be sold before the keys to the new car were handed over. Talk about a sales incentive!

Callaway began upfitting Corvettes to Callaway specification through the NCM’s R8C program. Callaway customers Steve and Nancy Bronner were first on the R8C schedule to receive their black, convertible Grand Sport Corvette with the newly offered Callaway SC606 package. Zoner and Chris drove the company’s Callaway to the NCM to present them the keys during delivery. Afterward, Chris dropped his boss off at the airport in Nashville and set the Grand Sport’s GPS for Effingham, Illinois, for the Mid America Motorworks Funfest event. Chris recalls it was the only other Grand Sport at the event, save for the ones Chevrolet brought to show the crowds.

Chris and the C6 hit the ground running. The duo clocked over 60,000 miles together in just one year. In just two years, Chris and Corvettes at Carlisle co-owner Lance Miller were celebrating the car rolling over 100,000 miles amid a smoke show during the burnout competition in front of a grandstand-filling audience.

Granted, many Corvette owners would never consider putting their rides in a burnout competition. And, rumor has it, the folks in Old Lyme weren’t exactly enamored with the idea either. For Chris and the Grand Sport, the act was more of a celebration of the milestone than it was about any competition.

That doesn’t mean the Grand Sport shied away from competing, though. The car hit the dragstrip many times, threaded road courses across America, carved around cones in autocross events, as well as enduring the weather during a lot of highway miles in between.

Shortly after the 100k celebration, the suspension on VIN 00059 was changed to a specific Callaway configuration which included a Callaway/Bilstein damper. The car now cornered like a C6R and planted on hard launches from a standstill.

At around 118,000 miles, Zoner and Chris went to a dragstrip in New Jersey to find out how “planted” the new suspension could be. After driving the car through Connecticut’s notorious rush hour traffic, the car was allowed some time to cool. Then, Zoner made two passes before being told he needed a roll cage because the car delivered a 10.8 at 128 elapsed time in the quarter-mile. The car was then driven back home, time-slip certification in hand.

The car also saw more than its fair share of snow, rain, sleet, and ice, and did a good job in each climate when driven judiciously. Since the car was for show purposes as much as proving reliability, car washes were frequent. By the numbers, the car was washed over 700 times. Brakes were swapped out a half-dozen times using low-dust pads designed to fit into the factory calipers. And, to keep the view clear both day and night, three sets of windshield wiper blades were swapped in place of the originals.

Highway miles and time in the saddle took a toll on the inside of the Grand Sport, though. As a result, the original seats became less than supportive and were swapped with a pair of 2012 production seats. Then, a pair of Callaway fixed-shell sport seats were fitted to the Grand Sport’s interior. While giving up some adjustment in recline, the Callaway sport seats retained all the power controls. Chris reports they were tremendously supportive, especially during those miles added in angst at the track.

The car also consumed more than two dozen sets of tires. Of the three models of zero-pressure tires used, Chris favored the Michelin Pilot Sport ZP tires the most. The car also wore Hoosier R6 tires for road courses and currently still hits the highway with a set of non-run-flat tires.

Oil changes were always performed with Mobil1 full-synthetic oil, as often as the driver information center advised, which worked out to more than 50 drain and refill cycles over the course of 300,000 miles. Callaway Cars began using Mobil1 oil when validating engines as part of Chevrolet’s Regular Production Option (RPO) B2K for the 1987 (to 1991) Callaway Twin Turbo Corvette package. It was the only oil that met the required standards during engine development in the mid-1980s, and Callaway continues to use this proven essential fluid in their vehicles 40 years later.

By 2013, VIN 00059 had over 150,000 miles, and the company began to shift its focus to the new C7 Stingray. Even so, the decision was made to shoot for 200,000 miles before putting the C6 out to pasture. As the milestone neared, the decision was made to turn the 200,000th mile on-track at the NCM Motorsports Park.

It was planned that retired Corvette Quality Engineer Art Spong would be at the helm during the milestone and Corvette historian Walt Thurn would document the event. As the team arrived at Bowling Green, everyone realized they were approximately 100 miles shy of the intended 200k-mile goal. Under those conditions, the solution was easy: Ratchet off the needed miles, taking turns making laps on the NCM’s track!

Since the car had performed flawlessly through two rotations of the 100,000-mile decimal, banter began to form about putting a quarter-million miles on the car! As the car continued to put on the miles, other demonstrator cars weaved their way through the Callaway stable. There was a C7 Stingray, C7 Z06, and various others.

The Grand Sport had served as the nation-wide face of the company for years as it traversed to-and-fro over this great land. Over time, though, the miles became less frequent, and new product required more time and travel than the C6 could provide.

Chris recalls, “In December 2018, while in Oklahoma, I got called to a meeting in Florida to present the Callaway Corvette SC757 AeroWagen to a panel. The only problem was that the car was currently in Temecula, California, at Callaway Cars West. “I left the Grand Sport in the airport parking lot in Oklahoma City on Friday and caught a flight to San Diego. My meeting in Florida was on Monday morning, some 2,500 miles away.”

Chris wasn’t sure when he’d get back to Oklahoma, and the car was racking up lot fees in the airport parking lot faster than it was miles on the odometer, so Chris called a good friend and asked if he could pick up and store the car if he mailed him the key. At this point, the car had around 273,000 miles on the odometer, and the friend was more than happy to help curb the miles-to-lot-fee ratio.

That was a good thing, because in January of 2020, the car was still residing in the friend’s garage. He drove it occasionally, accumulating several thousand more miles on the meter, which now neared 278,000 miles.

It was decided that it was time for the C6 to move on to another pasture, and Chris asked the car’s current caretaker if he would be interested in purchasing the car that was already residing in his stable. Their time together must have been a positive one, as he bought the car and over the next six years, added 22,000 miles to bring the car to this 300,000-mile milestone.

With all those miles, the car was still on its original clutch and the supercharger was still delivering the goods. The throwout bearing was just beginning to make some noise, so it was swapped out at just under 300,000 miles. The new owner also had a leak-down test performed on the engine, which revealed one cylinder was around 6-percent and the rest between 4- and 5-percent. It was STILL a very healthy car, even with 300,000 miles on the odometer!

For those who prefer all the zeros before the first whole-mile digit, that feat may not strike a chord. But when it comes to this car’s intended purpose, each milestone earned on the odometer etched another win in this car’s history. For that, it has earned the respect and adoration of engineers and enthusiasts alike.