Last weekend was the 41st Annual Plastic Fantastic Corvette Show in San Diego. The oldest Corvette show in the country and the biggest one in the Southwest United States, it attracts the creme de la creme of Corvettes in Southern California (and neighboring states,) and is one of the most important shows of the Corvette hobby.

Run by North County Corvette Corvette Club (NCoCC) it has become an institution for Corvette aficionados. What’s more, it’s held at the Embarcadero Marina in downtown San Diego and is arguably, one of the best car show venues in the world. Check out this drone footage.

A Day in the Life of San Diego from Mark Petersen on Vimeo.

This show was dedicated to the memory of local Corvette guru, mechanic and Navy veteran Jack Grindstaff. His blue and white 1956 was front and center and remembrances and a moment of silence was observed at the award ceremonies. Corvette folks are a tightly knit family and this was a fitting tribute to a knowledgable and well-liked member of our ‘Vette tribe. Rest in peace, Jack.

The show was sold out with 400 cars hitting the grass on May 20th. A raffle, food and vendors were out in full force and if you had non-car folks in tow, the soon to be demolished Seaporte Village–a 20 story building is slated for the site–is just east with shopping, coffee shops, and restaurants.

The show was heavily populated with late model ‘Vettes, but vintage and older models were present and accounted for.  The Corvette turned 65 this year and although we have our favorite years, we’d happily own any generation of GM’s “Plastic Fantastic.”

We entered Corvette Online’s 1995 Project car “Red Haired Step Child,” for judging this year as well. We’d been working hard on the car this last fall and winter, tweaking, repairing and (slightly) modding the car. We had the best names in the Corvette aftermarket parts business sponsoring the build as well.

Mid America Motorworks helped us get our interior in shape with Performance Choice two-tone leather seat covers, visors, gauge cluster bezel and lower console bezel and new shifter boot and knob.  

Mid America’s two-tone Perfromance Choice seats were a big hit with the crowd.

CCW Wheels made us a super nice set of 18′ SP500 wheels that really take the car to the next level. We added Baer Eradispeed rotors and pads, Nitto NT555 G2 tires , and red powder coated calipers from Brad’s Corvettes out of Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Meguiar’s corrected our paint up at their corporate training facility in Irvine, CA, and Covercraft chipped in with a ViewShield car cover to protect the car while it rests in it’s crib. Finally, we added new Bilstein B8 Performance shocks that are specially tailored for a lowered C4 Corvette.

When the smoke cleared, the car won third place in the C4 category, ultimately beat out by two ZR1’s. Alas, the LT5 motor is a hard act to follow. We were hoping for first, but out of 400 cars, only 21 plaques (Seven generations x three awards) so we felt good that we went home with a memento.

1996 ‘Vette in foreground was almost a dead ringer for our 1995. Trio of our 1995 Roadster, Red Split Window (Best of Show, 2015) and a very nice C6 ZR1 wowed the crowd.

The best part of this year’s show was seeing old ‘Vette friends and the well wishes from folks when we were called up to get our plaque. Thanks to all who voted for the car and all of our sponsors!  We’re only as good as the people we work with and you guys are the best in Corvette business.  Thank you so much for your participation…

See you next year!!