Elmhurst native's 50-year-old Corvette to be featured at speedway

CONCORD, N.C. - In 1970, Dan Crean walked into Gates Chevrolet in South Bend, Indiana, saw a shiny new Corvette Stringray convertible on the lot and knew he had to own it.

The 19-year-old Elmhurst native - a student at Holy Cross College in South Bend at the time - was no stranger to Corvettes. He bought his first on his 18th birthday.

On June 3, 1970, Crean traded in his 1966 black Chevrolet Corvette convertible for the new Daytona Yellow 1970 edition that caught his eye. In the 50 years that have passed, six other Corvettes have come and gone from Crean's stable, but the 1970 Stingray convertible has remained a constant.

“You could say I've been into Corvettes for pretty much my whole life,” Crean said.

One of the biggest reasons the 1970 Daytona Yellow Corvette has remained in Crean's ownership is because of his parents. In 1973, Crean went to work for Eastern Airlines in Chicago. However, he would spend the next 16 years in various cities, including Seattle, Miami and Los Angeles, before ending up in Charlotte, North Carolina, working for Piedmont Airlines.

In those 16 years, the stewardship of his beloved Corvette fell to his parents.

“If it (weren't) for my folks (keeping) that car for me when I did my early days at the airlines, I would have never been able to keep it,” Crean said.

Thanks to some helpful parents and a passion for car preservation, fans who visit the April 2-5 Pennzoil AutoFair at Charlotte Motor Speedway will get to see Crean's coveted Corvette - with its original paint and interior intact. Other than new tires, a new battery and an accent stripe over the top, the Corvette looks as it did when it rolled off the lot 50 years ago.

Crean recognizes how rare it is for a classic car owner to possess the same car and keep it in pristine condition for five decades. Many vintage Corvette owners maintained their cars for as long as possible, but circumstances required them to sell them at some point.

“I hear a thousand stories like that,” said Crean, who still lives in North Carolina. “That's where I feel I've been very fortunate.”

Car enthusiasts will be equally fortunate when they visit AutoFair and gaze upon Crean's 1970 Corvette Stingray, displayed among other Carolina Classic Corvettes throughout the four-day spectacle of colorful cars, classics and hot rods.

The Pennzoil AutoFair will bring together thousands of collectors, fans, muscle cars, classic automobiles and more than 10,000 automotive vendor displays. In addition to the exhibit of Carolina Corvettes, AutoFair will feature Elvis Presley's pink-and-white 1955 Cadillac, an exhibit celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Plymouth Superbird (with some rare examples featuring cars from NASCAR racers Richard Petty and Bobby Allison) and 1985 Modena Spyder California Ferrari as seen in the Chicago-filmed motion picture “Ferris Bueller's Day Off.”