Photos courtesy Carlisle Events
The Carlisle Chevrolet Nationals, in some form or another, have been taking place at the Carlisle PA Fairgrounds since 2001. The most recent rendition, June 23-25, 2017 offered up an event that rivaled those over the past five years at Carlisle. With guests traveling from the region over to attend, combined with a renewed excitement about the Chevrolet brand, the cars, people and excitement were on full display this year, with even more momentum building for next year’s show. Before we look too far ahead to 2018, let’s look back at the 2017 Carlisle Chevrolet Nationals.
Every show at Carlisle is supported by its amazing vending base and invitational displays and those two arms of the Chevrolet Nationals came together nicely as event set up day came and went on Thursday, June 22. After the sun set on Thursday, the third day of summer (Friday) saw gates open at 7 a.m. and offer a full array of displays, guests and action. Top draws included Chevrolet! For the first time in a long time Chevrolet came to Carlisle for this show along with their engineers and a new product showcase, including the amazing ZL1 1LE Camaro and their Auto X concept.
While Chevrolet hosted walk-arounds all weekend, Friday really got going with an early morning Nitrofest session with Bruce Larson, his USA-1 Corvette and the Time Bomb Vega. Everyone loves to go fast, so the day also featured autocross rides with UMI Performance, open autocross hosted by the Cumberland Valley Corvette Club and even the Real Street Shootout autocross race Friday evening. Before the day wrapped though, TV stars Lou Santiago (Car Fix on Velocity) and Kevin Tetz (Trucks on Spike) hosted seminars, signed autographs and more.
Saturday saw some of the nicest cars and weather at Carlisle in some time. History was on display with nearly 100 years of Chevrolet (and Chevrolet family) products on-site. The oldest known car was a 1922 Oakland, owned by the same man since 1944, with a wide array of modern-day machines showcased too. In between even more history came to town with the first-ever Camaro produced and sitting innocently beside it was the 5,000,000th Camaro produced too. A special V-12 custom built 1967 Camaro sat across the aisle from the original ’67 and all around those cars were some of the best ever produced rides to come out of Detroit.
With displays decided to the 50th Anniversary of the Camaro and Firebird, combined with a pace car display, general invitational display, Solid Lifter Showroom and the National Parts Depot Showfield laced with nothing but the best from Cadillac, Pontiac, General Motors, Chevrolet, Buick, Cosworth Vega, Monza Mirage and more, the weekend really had it all. If the spotlight cars weren’t enough, there were multiple awards and competitions too, from Carlisle Elite picks on Friday, to the Historic Vehicle Association honors Saturday, burnouts, beauty and the overall showfield awards Sunday, tens of thousands of guests walked away with memories to last a lifetime.
Chevrolet is planning on returning for 2018 and guests and enthusiasts should consider doing the same. The 2018 Carlisle Chevrolet Nationals run June 22-24 and will feature even more of the best cars of their type in the region and across the country. Registration is open now at www.CarlisleEvents.com or by calling 717-243-7855.
