I think I finally found it. I finally found the way to get my wife to approve a new C7 Corvette.
You see, she has an affinity for station wagons and other utilitarian vehicles. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in 25 years of marriage, it’s that you gotta make momma happy if you’re gonna be happy, and the recipe for that in my household is a wagon.
That’s where Reeves Callaway’s company steps in to make it easier to explain to your better half why you have a tire-shredding beast like the C7 in the garage. Callaway, known for their hyper-powerful modified cars, teased us three years ago with renderings of a long-roofed Stingray and said they were throwing the images out there to judge interest. Auto journalists and enthusiasts alike went nuts, asking when it was going to happen.
Apparently Callaway was listening to the clamor, because they’ve announced they will be producing the AeroWagen conversion, which takes the already exotic-looking C7 Corvette and turns it into a dead sexy grocery hauler. I admit when I first heard the news I had to check the date on the original announcement to make sure it wasn’t April Fools, and I was giddy when I saw that it wasn’t.
Technically the AeroWagen isn’t really a station wagon or a hatchback in the strictest terms. It’s a Shooting Brake. Originally this meant a conveyance that could carry hunters and all their stuff, like dogs and guns, to and from the field. Later on it came to mean any high-end coupe that had been customized into a wagon configuration.
Callaway takes all the original hardware from the stock hatch, attaches it to a single piece of carbon fiber for the new roof, bolts it all down and bingo, you have a Shooting Brake. It doesn’t compromise the Targa top, so you still have the wind in your hair, which is important, and since all the stock bits are used you can convert it back to its original form whenever you want. Callaway expects that it will reduce drag and give a significant bump in interior volume for when you need to pick up a bale of hay or two on the way home from the country club, or need to bring your dog and Ruger Red Label home from a day of grouse hunting.
Callaway is saying that the cost of the conversion should be less than $15k and will be available in the fourth quarter of 2016. I don’t know about you, but I think 15 grand is a cheap price to pay for peace on the home front, especially if it means you get to put a Stingray in the stable.
