Corvette drivers can care for the environment, too, you know, even accidentally
Who says Corvettes drivers don't care about the environment? There seems to be a slight clustering of Corvette-related news on ABG recently - from the Z06 winning the MPG Marathon to the Corvette C6R winning the first ever GT class of the ALMS Green Challenge - and today we bring you a report from the Looking Glass Corvette Club from Highland, Illinois and the Original Corvette Club of St. Louis. These Corvette fans drove on over to Mid America Motorworks in Effingham, Illinois last Sunday. Why would they do this? To donate two Red Maple trees, named "Red Sunset" and "October Glory."It's great to plant trees and all, but let's do a little math. The drive from Highland to Effingham is 69 miles. From St. Louis to Effingham is 101 miles (these numbers courtesy of Google maps). Let's say two Corvettes made the drive, assuming only one Corvette from each club made the drive, and got 25 mpg each. I'm being generous here and pretending it's all highway miles. That means at about 14 gallons of gas were burned. Those 14 gallons turn into 280 pounds of CO2. A Trees for the Future PDF tells me that a tree like the one in the picture might sequester about 25-30 pounds of CO2 a year for the until they get some girth and height. So, the drive to plant the trees means the trees won't have an impact on the CO2 balance until about five years from now. Not exactly the most efficient way to clean up the air, but also not totally worthless.
Oh, wait. The announcement of the tree planting contains this quote from John Mullane, President of the Looking Glass Corvette Club: "Our donation of this tree is to commemorate the memories made at Mid America Motorworks Corvette Funfest." Guess it wasn't about the environment after all. Well, then I guess we can consider it a bonus that we might see a positive effect after five years.
[Source: Mid America Motorworks]
PRESS RELEASE:
Corvette Clubs Donate Trees to Mid America Motorworks
Representatives from the Looking Glass Corvette Club from Highland, Illinois and the Original Corvette Club
of St. Louis paid a special visit to Mid America Motorworks on Sunday October 26, 2008. The clubs came to
Mid America Motorworks' corporate campus in Effingham, Illinois to donate two Red Maple trees, Red Sunset and October Glory.
Darrell "Pokie" Wildhaber and Dennis Hardesty came up with the idea to donate the trees to Mid America Motorworks and worked with both clubs to get it organized. The trees were planted near the Funfest Sales and Registration Building north of the Corporate Building.
John Mullane, President of the Looking Glass Corvette Club, said "Of all the places we go, Eureka Springs, Veterans Parkway in Bloomington, the Springfield Fairgrounds for Bloomington Gold, the place where the best memories are made is in the middle of a cornfield at Corvette Funfest. Our donation of this tree is to commemorate the memories made at Mid America Motorworks Corvette Funfest."
Shirley and Rick Berving were in attendance representing the Original Corvette Club of St. Louis. "We would like to give thanks from the bottom of our hearts for all of the small things that Mike Yager, Mid America Motorworks, and Corvette Funfest do for us and the Corvette hobby."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
CNCMike 10:29AM (11/02/2008)
Driven conservativley the Corvette gets pretty good mileage.
I've riden in a friends Corvette to Carlisle PA., about a 4 hour drive and at 55 mph he averaged 30.3 mpg. I drove my 3L v6 Mazda last year and averaged 30.5 mpg.
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state 4:10PM (11/02/2008)
Sebastian Blanco continues to be "biased". If Audi had driven a few diesel cars across country with some car writers doing the driving, then that is fine. Sebastian Blanco makes no complaints about the incredible waste of fuel and the carbon footprint the recent trip by Audi.
Sebastian Blanco remains a true double standard kind of guy.
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state 4:10PM (11/02/2008)
Sebastian Blanco continues to be "biased". If Audi had driven a few diesel cars across country with some car writers doing the driving, then that is fine. Sebastian Blanco makes no complaints about the incredible waste of fuel and the carbon footprint the recent trip by Audi.
Sebastian Blanco remains a true double standard kind of guy.
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Serge 11:21AM (11/03/2008)
Planting trees is awesome -- thanks guys.
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john mullane 9:56PM (12/02/2008)
I guess any press is good press. But in this case, a "reporter" concerned with all things green should probably know that 'red sunset' and 'october glory' are in fact types of maple trees, not names given them by a group of Corvette enthusiasts..
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