The 1958 Fuelie Collection

Corvette enthusiasts don’t come more passionate than Larry Gerig of Fort Wayne, Indiana. A Woodburn, Indiana native, Larry began working for Erie Haven Concrete in Indiana in 1963 and became sole owner in 1991, making valuable contributions to building in and around Fort Wayne for decades. Larry has also contributed mightily to the Corvette community. Collector, restorer and owner/curator of the Corvette Classics Museum in Fort Wayne, Larry has been well known, highly respected and incredibly active in the Corvette hobby for over 30 years. In that time he has restored more than seventy Corvettes that have garnered top honors at Bloomington Gold and NCRS judged events. He has also assembled one of the most revered Corvette collections in America, an assemblage that included one fuel injected example of every available color in both 1957 and 1958.

One of Larry’s favorite model years is 1958, which featured an extensive redesign incorporating new body panels, a revised pebble-grain interior with improved instrumentation, and a passenger grab bar with Corvette lettering behind it, quad headlights, a non-functional louvered hood and chromed trunk spears.

In May 2015, Larry Gerig will be bringing no fewer than eight 1958 Corvettes, one in each color offered that year, to Dana Mecum’s 28th Annual Spring Classic Auction at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Presented as the 1958 Fuelie Corvette Collection, all are high-horsepower Fuel Injection models; all restored by Larry and awarded Bloomington Gold and NCRS Top Flight certification. In recent years, these special Corvettes have served duty as judging examples for the NCRS Indiana Chapter’s annual spring visit to Mr. Gerig’s museum each February and most have been judged at 99 points or higher. Also, the 1958 Fuelie Collection was featured in a group display at the Corvette and Muscle Car Nationals where the cars received the Triple Diamond Award in 2011.

Each of the eight Corvettes has a special story; the Tuxedo Black one-family-owned former race car, for instance, is a heater/radio delete, with a Red interior, was built in the last week of production, well after the factory stopped using Charcoal midway through production and began using Black. The Inca Silver car, a radio delete model also sporting a Red interior, is one of just 193 finished in the rarest of all 1958 Corvette colors.

A glorious offering of award-winning Corvettes, the 1958 Fuelie Corvette Collection will take center stage at Indy 2015 on Saturday May 16, 2015, a must-see for fans of America’s Sports Car.