Corvettes in Paradise

(Text and photos Tapio K)

My wife and I had the opportunity to visit Hawaii in October 2001. As a Corvette enthusiast, I naturally checked whether there was a Corvette club on the islands. While surfing the net I came across the homepages of the Corvette Club of Hawaii. I immediately contacted club president Dennis Shewell via e-mail and received an enthusiastic reply.

So, after having arrived in Honolulu, on the island of Oahu, I called Dennis on the phone. We had a nice chat and agreed to meet the same evening at a local all car club cruise night in Waipahu, near downtown Honolulu. My wife was ready to be the co-pilot/navigator, so we rented a Camaro ragtop and headed down to Waipahu McDonald's. Dennis and a few of his friends had already arrived. As it turned out, the cruise had been relocated to Wendy's a few miles away. So we jumped in the Camaro and followed Dennis and the taillights of his '63 convertible through the early evening traffic.

Finally I had the opportunity to talk with local corvette enthusiasts. During the conversation I had the pleasure of presenting Dennis with the flag of our club. It really was nice to chat about the Corvette hobby in general and especially the cars. The other Corvettes besides Dennis' '63 were a '61, a C4 coupe and a brand new Z06. Unfortunately there weren't more Corvettes attending the cruise, also there weren't many of other makes or models represented either. This may have been because of a big football game at Aloha Stadium that same evening. Anyway, there was much to talk about and time really flew. As if this wasn't nice enough, Dennis invited us to take a sightseeing tour of Oahu with him the next day.

We took off from Honolulu early next morning. Because it really gets cramped with three people in a Corvette, Dennis showed up with his wife's Camaro convertible. I just can't describe the beauty of the island of Oahu. The scenery is simply fascinating. And of course there was the Pacific Ocean and the beaches! As a huge fan of the Beach Boys (by the way, they drove Corvettes too) it was great to see some of the beaches they sang about.

On the way we also visited Dennis' home. Dennis owns two corvettes, a pristine silver blue '63 convertible with knock-offs and a split window coupe. Since I too own a ´63 convertible, we talked on and on about the details and features of the '63 cars. The coupe was originally imported to Hawaii and sports an ultra rare heater delete -option. Dennis is only the third owner. The car is currently under restoration, the fenders need some work as they had been flared. The original engine is missing, but will be replaced with a 350 small block. Transmission is a Borg Warner 4-speed.

Finally we headed back to Honolulu. Dennis gave us a ride to our hotel on Waikiki Beach and it was time to say goodbye. Thank you Dennis for your hospitality, we had a great time and greetings to Pam ! If you would like know more about sun, surf & Corvettes, be sure to check out the homepages of the Corvette Club of Hawaii at http://home.hawaii.rr.com/corvetteclub/