Motor City
REGIONAL
BY WALT THURN (^) I PHOTOGRAPHY BY THE AUTHOR
[LIFESTYLE]
Les Stanford Chevrolet hosts the NCRS Regional Corvette event
T
he National Corvette Restorers Society
(NCRS) was founded in the mid-’70s for
the purpose of verifying the authenticity
of a factory built Corvette. Unfortunately,
documentation on early Corvettes is
sketchy. The NCRS has done exhaustive
research to confirm the correct standards that a Corvette
must meet to be judged factory correct. The driving
purpose of this effort is to preserve the way Corvettes
appeared as they left the St. Louis or Bowling Green
Assembly Plant. The NCRS created regional chapters
around the U.S. to allow trained judges to inspect and
certify Corvettes against that standard. If they meet the
requirements, the owners are presented with a coveted Top
Flight award at the evening banquet.
We recently visited one of these events in Detroit.
Werner Meier is the chairman of the Michigan NCRS
Chapter (www.michiganncrs.org). He’s assisted by Tom
Dingman, the incoming Judging Chairman, and Patrick
Hulst, coordinator of the meet. The Michigan Chapter has
close to 250 members and it began in the early-’80s. Each
summer they host their annual meeting at Les Stanford
Les Stanford Chevrolet has hosted
the Motor City NCRS Regional for four
years. This dealer is among the top Cor-
vette dealers in the U.S. In addition, Par-
agon Corvette Restorations & Repro-
ductions (www.paragoncorvette.com)
was also a sponsor.
Werner Meier is the chapter chair of the
NCRS Michigan Chapter. Werner owns
Master Works Automotive Services and
specializes in period-correct Corvette
restorations (www.mwauto.com).
The Dearborn Inn hosted the opening
of the NCRS Regional. The Fabulous
Restorations replica of the Owens Corn-
ing L88 Corvette was displayed in the
hotel ballroom. Owens Corning driver
Tony DeLorenzo and crewmember
Randy Wittine spent time inspecting
the replica. Many current and retired
GM employees were in attendance.