I never thought I’d be able to own a Vette. And couldn’t when I was younger, so I probably missed out on some because I had the thoughts they were over my raising. But as I got older, I realized, they were just cars, they got ragged out and rough, they broke down. I started to look around, and there were some deals out there. Most C3’s and earlier were still in the higher brackets, deals were fewer and farther between. Looked into the C4 generation, damn, you could get a decent driver cheaper than a similar era Mustang GT! So I bought an 84 that had been modded, just not properly. When it ran it was a rocket on rails, but a botched carb swap and and improperly adjusted and mounted TV cable fried the transmission, so my fun was over. Sold it and started looking for another. It came in the form of another C4, an 88. Its downfall was the electronic garbage. Still, it was fun. Fast forward to now. After a couple of years without a Vette, the bug bit again. This time I found the deal before everybody else and was able to seal it quickly. 82 C3 Collector Edition, the last of the C3 run. I grew up seeing C3’s everywhere, but the Collector Edition was one that I loved the first time I saw it and never figured I’d own one. The fade away stripes, tri tone interior, and hatch rear window made it the ultimate C3. Sure, the earlier cars in the 70’s had larger engines and more horsepower, but my little 350 is comfortable on the highway and in town. Gonna try to hang on to this one.
I have probably bought and sold over 200 Corvettes in my life. Always enjoyed driving them on weekends but enjoyed making money on them even more. Still rather drive a Hot Rod any day over them! Nothing like a 32 Roadster on a long drive.
“But in their haughty dismissal, they miss the point entirely. The Corvette embodies the raw, untamed spirit of American car culture. It’s not about precision—it’s about power, aggression, and the sheer joy of hooliganism. It’s about blasting down Main Street, the engine’s roar echoing through the night, a fiery testament to the wild, unapologetic heart of the American culture.” Hello, What to high priced European sporty car writers know about Corvette history and being a teenager in So Cal or elsewhere in the USA. The feeling of getting to drive any car was a vast turning point. What teenager did not look forward to, or over a steering wheel at the road ahead in anything that moved? If it was there, teenagers had a hand in it and were looking ahead for that DMV card that had an ID that said you were a legal driver… of any car or pickup truck. With all of the family cars available, very few were Corvettes. Unless, of course your dad was named Cormier and owned a huge Chevrolet dealership just blocks from our high school. The flurry of Corvettes we saw with a young driver was almost a weekly event. But, we knew it was privileged moment and everyday teenager did not have access to a bevy of Corvettes at their disposal. Jnaki My first encounter with a white 54 Corvette was with a friend who “borrowed” his dad’s new toy. A white Corvette was not the flashy all red one we saw in advertisements, but it was an American sporty car and it looked different than our Chevy and Ford sedans. The power from our modified Chevy sedans may have been more, but the white Corvette did its share of turning heads on the roads of So Cal and in the weekend drive-in restaurant cruise nights. early teenage high school memories… It was a 6 cylinder blast at every corner and the wind in our faces and hair was part of the mystique of a fast Corvette. It was the only one in our car driving teenage group and it was a “borrowed” one at that. So, through our experiences of having modified our sedans and various motors, it included a 1960 v8 Corvette with dual quads to a single quad for better drivability for the original owner. But, we certainly had fun test driving the dual quad 60 Corvette to see the power in a lightweight sporty car and when finished with our job of converting the carb set ups, the late night cruising was pure enjoyment. The v8 certainly made a difference and that led to todays version to keep up with the onslaught of high prices sporty cars in the field. In late 1960, our thoughts of that powerful 671 SBC motor sitting in our backyard garage covered up with a large canvas tarp certainly played in my mind. What if we installed it in my black 58 Impala with the C&O Stick Hydro? Or better yet, in my friend’s 57 Bel Air Hardtop Sedan that had the dual quad SBC modified motor… Then one final option was to install it in a lightweight 54 Corvette body and chassis for the super fast, local So Cal sporty car set up for the drags, but strictly for the weekend cruises all over… What a cool event that would have been if it had been approved. A lowered rake to accentuate the “mean” attitude for all to see and HEAR!
I owned three. A 68, and two from the 70s. It was very difficult to find a buyer for the 70s cars at any price. I would keep any from 1962 or older
Why wouldn’t you want everyone to enjoy???? Dumb ? If you don’t care for Vettes -not everyone does- why jump on a Vette Thread? Dan
The Jalopy Journal
