Lingenfelter Trip

On Saturday morning, June 15, eleven Corvettes pulled in at 7AM to the McDonald's near exit 210 on I69 to start a trip to Decatur, IN to see the Lingenfelter Performance Shop. The members included Greg & Donna B, Jeff B & Charity N, Rich B, John B, Dean & Zoe D, Wylie E, Jim & Pam K, Bill & Erika L, Mark & Donna S, Mike & Kelly S, and Greg T, in Corvettes with our other Jeff B coming along in his metal car as he was heading back home to Michigan after the visit. The trip to Decatur was uneventful except for a poorly chosen gas station for a break as only one bathroom was available for both genders. Greg T did take the extended stay opportunity to fill up his car while waiting. We still arrived nearly on time and were given a tour by Dick Watermollen along with Graham Behan, their chief engineer, who gave us insight to what Lingenfelter has done mainly in heads and camshafts where the real horsepower comes from. Also Graham talked about how he had done development and worked for Lotus and GM on the LT5 ZR1 engine used in the 90's C4's. They also showed us parts from the new '14 Chevy truck engine with direct injection that they are working on to get an understanding of the new C7 engine and what it will take to upgrade it once released. We also got to watch a couple of customer cars on the chassis dyno, a ZR1 that pulled 633 hp & 680 ft lb torque and a naturally aspirated 427 Convertible pulled 583 hp & 505 torque numbers. Both cars were in the midst of tuning, so these were not final numbers! Watch out if you see the red convertible on the road as it had no 427 badges, but its exhaust note will give it away. After the tour of the shop, they gave us some goodie bags with lots of information along with a doing drawing for two Mother's Cleaning Kits, which Greg T & Jim K won. From there we mounted up and headed to the Galley restaurant, where we basically had their back room to ourselves. We had good meals, with a number getting their fish lunch special, which they are known for. Once done eating we headed out from Decatur and took state roads west and south back towards Indianapolis. Some how our group was magically routed to go through Cicero and most were able to then make our obligatory ice cream stop of the day. Even though it was not a DQ, connoisseur Jeff even agreed that the ice cream was very good from Alexander's with the extra large servings. The day ended with no weather problems other than a stop to put tops up due to a few sprinkles, but no real rain. The tops later went back down at another bathroom break for the rest of the day. The trip was enjoyed by all, with everyone looking forward to the next one.

Jeff's Drive to Lingenfelter