Went to MI to Pick Up Our Daughter's Birthday Present
 

Need to thank CammerJeff for picking me up at the Detroit airport and working with me on a special surprise 50th birthday present for our daughter.

Our daughter has been going to car shows with me and Mrs. Champ for well over 30 years. At first it was just looking at other people's cars, but in 1992 I purchased a 1964 GTO convertible (for $600) and in 1995 showed it for the first time. She was there to help detail the car, even though she was 4 months pregnant.

About 5 years ago, we decided we wanted to surprise her on her 50th birthday with a collectible car of her own that she doesn't have to wait for us to pass on (our cars go to her in our will).

Back in 1995, at the Iola Old Car show, our daughter mentioned that a '65 Corvair convertible would be cool for "her" to have. That's what we were originally looking for, but we couldn't find anything decent with a manual transmission that was in our budget.

This past Iola, I found a real nice clean '65 in the for sale area, but once again it was about $8-10,000 overpriced.

Then I remembered Jeff had his '09 Solstice for sale. It's a Brazen Orange Coupe, with both the hardtop and the soft top. I PM'd him and it was still available.

Last Thursday I went and picked it up.

The first pick is of Jeff and the car. The next 4 are taken at the DoubleTree Inn in Grand Rapids, MI.

Why spend the night in Grand Rapids rather than driving on and getting closer to home?

Well, I didn't really want to drive in, around or through Chicago, so I elected to take the ferry from Muskegon to Milwaukee....

These photos show the me waiting in line to drive on board, actually on board and then a parting shot of the Lake Express ferry through the windshield after getting back on dry land in Milwaukee.

From there, a relatively short drive to Madison to store the car in our daughter's best friend's garage until February.

It was a fun trip. The car is everything Jeff said it would be and is a blast to drive.

Can hardly wait for February to come.

Thats going to be a nice collector someday. They didn't make very many.

From what I understand, there were only 1,152 coupes built in 2009. This is one of only a few built in Brazen Orange (which happens to be our daughter's favorite color) with a manual transmission.

She loves driving with the wind in her hair, so I expect that the hardtop will be stored most of the time.

My son has made that trip between Michigan and Wisconsin may times and obviously you
knew it would be a very easy trip that way vs going thru Chicago. He lived in Sheboygan
for 4 years. Congrats on the car for your daughter, a very pretty vehicle.

Tom V.

Very cool dad...

This was a joint decision with my wife. We're a "cool" car couple - the '64 GTO is my car and the '72 Camaro is Mrs. Champ's car.

We both appreciate all the help our daughter has given both of us in showing our cars. We're both can hardly wait for February 8th to come!

Amazing...the girl has been helping me big time as well...I guess I'll have to come-across eventually after I'm no longer car poor lol

Glad I could help, I hope your daughter enjoys it for many years, it is a nice driving car. It was nice meeting you Mike, and thanks for posting the pictures of the trip, I have always wanted to take the ferry across lake Michigan, but it never worked out.
As far as I know your daughters car is 1 of 2 Brazen Orange Manual Transmission Base model Coupes built. I had alot of fun with the car, and learned quite a bit about more modern cars working on it.

The birthday isn't until late this week, but she actually left for Nashville to celebrate her birthday yesterday morning.

So, we did the reveal a few days early.

This link is to a video one of her friends took on Saturday afternoon:

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1Q...dpTHFOMU1PMk53

Quick videos of her first drive:

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1Q...FxR1gzMFpqSFd3

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1Q...E3Vm81Y1FvNjNR

Hope the links work!

It's now safely stowed away in her garage. I'll need to go down when the weather warms up to go over how to take the top off, put the convertible top on and a few other things.

For those of you in the midwest and are familiar with the Iola Old Car Show (a very large 3 day car show), my wife and daughter will be 2 of the first women to be be invited to participate in the "Women With Wheels" class. Mrs. Champ with her '72 Camaro and our daughter with the '09 Solstice Coupe.

Very fun emotional weekend.

Beautiful response from the recipient for the very generous gift from a loving family. Well done, very well done. Plenty of good people left in this world.

Tim john---

Love the surprise video! I guess my wife must have been cutting onions in the kitchen

Now that's a birthday present!

That's awesome...

Our daughter's reaction was worth every penny.

When we go to the Iola Car Show this summer, it will be a true family show. In the past our daughter would join us and help detail our cars and enjoy going through the swap area looking for parts and then checking out the other show cars and cars for sale.

This year, Lil Champ will be showing a car too!

I am glad she is happy with my old Solstice coupe, makes me glad I saved it from being parted out a few years ago! It was and should be a very reliable and fun car, just don't think you can fill it up with gas without at least 1 person wanting to know what it is!

Great story, thanks for sharing.

Good job “wait…what” ing her! :)

What a great reaction! Well done on all accounts.

Everyone there was giving her a hard time about the "wait, what" line she kept repeating.

She was struggling with the concept that she just got a Solstice (and yes, as a good Pontiac girl she knew what one was) when my wife told her the car was in the parking lot of the restaurant. The gal that led her out is one of the restaurant manager's that is a very good friend of my daughter's.

There were a lot of smiles and tears on Saturday - and I'll admit to having done both.

She still has her Fusion Orange Aztek that she calls the "Pumpkin". I suggested the Solstice should get plates "LIL PKN".

She's a very special young lady that has brought more joy to her mom and I than we have a right to expect.