Malcolm Konner Chevrolet’s 1959 Customer Trip to Corvette Factory Pt 1

In this throwback video from RJ Konner, Chevrolet dealer Malcolm Konner took 25 customers to the Corvette Assembly Plant in St. Louis in 1959 to pick up their new 1959 Corvettes at the factory and they would drive them home to New Jersey’s Malcolm Konner Chevrolet via a timed road rally.

Malcolm Konner Takes 25 Customers to Pick Up New 1960 Corvettes in St. Louis

Photo Credits: RJ and Gary Konner

Many of you may have seen the throwback pics last weekend from National Corvette Seller Mike Furman who shared a number of photos featuring Chevrolet dealer Malcolm Konner who took 50 people (25 customers) to the Corvette Assembly Plant in St. Louis in October 1959 to pick up their new 1960 Corvettes at the factory and they would drive them home to New Jersey.

We’ve actually done a previous Throwback Thursday post about this trip back in 2017, but last week we got a whole new look as Malcolm Konner’s son RJ Konner shared these two home videos to Facebook showing the trip to St. Louis (and even some scenes from inside the factory) before the 25 new Corvette owners headed home to Konner Chevrolet in New Jersey via a timed road rally. Waiting for them in New Jersey was the famous entertainer Pat Boone who was a personal friend of Malcolm and a Corvette customer.

Along the way the camera captures scenes of late-1950’s Americana featuring wide-open highways to drive on and stays at the Holiday Inn.

Check out the official invitation for the Personal 1960 Corvette Delivery at the plant, as well as the Road Rally plans:

It’s really amazing that Malcolm was able to put a trip like this together just six years into the production of the sports car, and it also says a lot about his customer’s passion for the new Corvette to jet off to St.Louis and then drive halfway across the country to back home. Just the logistics of chartering a TWA airplane and then planning the drive home must have taken some planning as the national highway system has just started construction three years prior.

This trip made such a lasting memory that the Konner family would do it again in the Spring of 1986. Malcolm had passed away a few years before and Chevrolet authorized the first-ever run of 50 special edition 1986 Corvettes dedicated to the dealer called the Malcolm Konner editions. The Konners brought a group of customers to the Bowling Green Assembly Plant and they would all drive them back to Konner Chevrolet in New Jersey.

Here are the photos from the St, Louis to New Jersey 1959 Corvette Road Rally:

And here is a quick look at those 50 1986 Malcolm Konner Editions:

Finally, here is our friend Mike Furman with one of the Malcolm Konner Special Edition 1986 Corvettes. Mike started working in automobile sales at Malcolm Konner Auto Group in the summer of 1978 at the age of 17 years old!

Source:
Mike Furman, RJ and Gary Konner.