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Well, I'm back from the Land of Oz and it was a REAL eye opener, boys and girls! They have EXCELLENT Corvettes and the outcome of our Flight Judging included Top Flight awards for BOTH left hand and right hand drive cars. This was the NCRS debut and attendance was good (14 cars to judge from '54-'87). We even had five make the 1000 mile flight from New Zealand to check out the meet.
Don't for a New York Minute think these guys are naive! I had four of the 'Newsies' working on my Shark team and they were CRACKER JACK at looking at and evaluating even minor engine/suspension items that had been changed....
On the RHD conversions, the learning process was like drinking from a fire hose! What we saw were NOT 'chop shop' conversions--they were more akin to Mona Lisa art forms where owners had shelled out $20-50K for the job. The parlance down under is 'mirror image' conversion vs. 'standard' conversion.
A standard conversion gets the job done with minimal cost using relay's, chain drive, Etc. to simply transfer the steering. The mirror image conversions will BLOW YOUR MIND!!!
They'll take a LH dash, slice and dice it into 'particles' then re-arrange/re-distribute and 'glaze' the particles back together to achieve the exact mirror image GM/Chevy 'would' have done if they'd tooled for a RHD vehicle in the first place. Since Corvette actually offsets the drive train from center chassis to gain nearly neutral RH/LH weight distribution, a number of the mirror image conversions address this too! They actually re-indent the front frame cross member to achieve harmonic balancer clearance and weld/fill/grind the existing RH cross member indents.
The changes impact wiring harness (each individually unwrapped, wires 'stretched' by splicing, and re-wrapped to leave no telltale evidence of modification), clutch/brake/fuel line re-do's, custom accelerator linkage...the story goes on and on and on!!! The better conversion jobs are SO WELL DONE that you have to look and re-look since they appear at first blush to be factory authentic...
The people are GREAT! We were welcomed with open arms, 'forced' to consume as required assembly lubricant in after hours pub 'debrief' sessions and experienced hours and hours of constructive, friendly information sharing. Last, the day after the meet ended, those of us who stuck around were treated to a road trip by van to a New South Wales forest where we could hike and 'walk about' to get up close and personal with a herd of Kangaroos in the wild (no look through the bars on the cage, zoo tour here, mate!).
Here's to hoping all ya all (the southern plural of y'all) get a chance to make the trek down under, see the Southern Cross, drive a Corvette on the 'wrong' side of the road, and enjoy the company of our newest NCRS chapter!
Don't for a New York Minute think these guys are naive! I had four of the 'Newsies' working on my Shark team and they were CRACKER JACK at looking at and evaluating even minor engine/suspension items that had been changed....
On the RHD conversions, the learning process was like drinking from a fire hose! What we saw were NOT 'chop shop' conversions--they were more akin to Mona Lisa art forms where owners had shelled out $20-50K for the job. The parlance down under is 'mirror image' conversion vs. 'standard' conversion.
A standard conversion gets the job done with minimal cost using relay's, chain drive, Etc. to simply transfer the steering. The mirror image conversions will BLOW YOUR MIND!!!
They'll take a LH dash, slice and dice it into 'particles' then re-arrange/re-distribute and 'glaze' the particles back together to achieve the exact mirror image GM/Chevy 'would' have done if they'd tooled for a RHD vehicle in the first place. Since Corvette actually offsets the drive train from center chassis to gain nearly neutral RH/LH weight distribution, a number of the mirror image conversions address this too! They actually re-indent the front frame cross member to achieve harmonic balancer clearance and weld/fill/grind the existing RH cross member indents.
The changes impact wiring harness (each individually unwrapped, wires 'stretched' by splicing, and re-wrapped to leave no telltale evidence of modification), clutch/brake/fuel line re-do's, custom accelerator linkage...the story goes on and on and on!!! The better conversion jobs are SO WELL DONE that you have to look and re-look since they appear at first blush to be factory authentic...
The people are GREAT! We were welcomed with open arms, 'forced' to consume as required assembly lubricant in after hours pub 'debrief' sessions and experienced hours and hours of constructive, friendly information sharing. Last, the day after the meet ended, those of us who stuck around were treated to a road trip by van to a New South Wales forest where we could hike and 'walk about' to get up close and personal with a herd of Kangaroos in the wild (no look through the bars on the cage, zoo tour here, mate!).
Here's to hoping all ya all (the southern plural of y'all) get a chance to make the trek down under, see the Southern Cross, drive a Corvette on the 'wrong' side of the road, and enjoy the company of our newest NCRS chapter!