Your first memories of a Vette.

[ssrszz4]

Had a girl at school i liked every time the bus went by here house there it was her dad's Vette must of been a '64 or '65. Then there was this assistant manager at a gas station i worked at when i was 18 he had a brand new '68 he was like some kind of God! Back then what car you drive was a status symbol! Then i had a friend i must have been 23 he had a '63 split window!

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[Hog]

One of my Dads friends, Ross, had an L98/auto Corvette that he bought. I think it was a 1987 model. Ross took me for a ride, we drove at normal speed down this 2 mile straight paved road that runs through a forest area. At the store, he turned around and headed back and as we rounded a curve that entered the straightaway he nailed the throttle. He got it well over 200kph. I remember the way it pushed me back in my seat.


Another one of my Dads friends had an early C4. He told my Mom to take me for a ride in it and away we went through the same forest straight away and we stopped at the same store. Mom got out and bought a pack of smokes and came back out. There were a bunch of guys from school that were checking the car out. Well Mom gets in and fastens her seatbelts and starts the engine. Then she somehow engaged the windshield wipers and she didn't know how to shut them off. It felt like we sat there for way to long as she fumbled around trying to disengage the wipers. It felt like my face was on fire as I was blushing so hard.


So much for looking cool in a Vette.

[Dean Nelson]

1967, I was 16, my Uncle bought a new 67 he ordered. He would not let me drive it, but I could wash it all the time for him.
my first trip in it was from his home in Fargo N.D. back to Chicago with a stop over at Road America to see the Cam-Am race.
first time he let me drive it I was 28!
I had been trying to by it from him from 1975 and on.
than in 1980 he said I could buy it.
I still have it today, 40,200 miles on it, B.G. Benchmark car.....
Kind of a "one owner" car.....
He is now 87 years young.....
Dean Nelson

[RussMcB]

My swimming coach when I was 13 yo had a C3 Corvette. My strongest memory is from the passenger seat, looking through the "valley" over the hood between the high arching front fenders. Seemed like a space ship.

Then he sold it for a Monte Carlo. I (being a 13 yo) couldn't understand why anyone would sell a Vette to get a Monte Carlo ...

[Ccmano]

1970, one of my high school teachers (math I think) bought a 71 LT1 convertible in Brands Hatch Green. I was a sophomore and in awe.
H

[ssrszz4]

Great stories!!

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[Paul Workman]

T'waz a BLACK '63 SWC back when I was in HS. that set the hook!

Then in college there was a (I'll call it) metalic or mist blue 66 coupe BBC tri-power for sale for $3000. (I was essentially strapped w/ tuition, etc at the time...)

Then I went through my motorcycle phase. Then in '02 I fell in love with a 95 LT1/M6 coupe, and the Corvette ownership dream became reality! However, deep in my bones, I was intrigued by ZR-1.

Went to buy a part for the 95, and on the showroom floor was what was to be my ZR-1: my 1990 RED/RED-BLACK ZR-1. The permagrin hasn't worn off yet!


6481

[FU]

My first memory of a vette was watching Phil DeJohn driving a light colored maybe 62 that he worked on forever. He did a great job fixing that car up as I recall. That was a lifetime ago.

[MarkSS]

My first memory was of my dad putting the front spoiler on a 1978 Pace Car in our driveway. I grew up around my family's dealership and remember sitting in that silver interior with the plastic still on it... I was 5. I thought it was cool and the dealership held on to it for years, long enough that I eventually got to drive it (though it only had 600 miles on it when they finally sold it in the early 90s). Not a great performer, but there was still something about it.

[AnthonyGS]

When I was 5 one of dads friends picked me up from school one day in a 65 Vert. It was awesome. Next memory was being 10 or so and riding to the beach in a 78 with t tops off. My 78 is for sale too.... too many cars.

[Regimof]

I couldn't have been more than 10 or 11.

My parents had vettes before me but had since ridded themselves of them for more family sensible vehicles, i.e, a Chevy Sprint and a Dodge.... something. (These were dark times) I remember dad looking dozens of them trying to find the "right" one and he ended up with a black 85 with atrocious gold aftermarket rims. He showed me so much on car care and keeping it clean with that car. It didn't stay around long because randomly one day a teal green 91 convertible showed up in the garage. That was really exciting because at that time it was the current iteration of the Corvette body style, so even though it was a few years old, everyone thought it was new. I never corrected them.

From there came the ZR1. It took a lot of convincing and it actually ended being my mom who pulled the trigger. (This was mainly because she thought automatic convertibles were ridiculous and for posers) This ended up being the last car she ever bought before she took her life. She loved this car. Pretty sure that's why I fought so hard to keep it around and why I get so obsessed with getting it running right.

There's been Camaros and other vettes since, but none of them have what this one does as far as driving pleasure. Not even close.

[Z51JEFF]

When I was a kid back in the 60s my parents were friends with this couple and the husband had a Corvette. I was just a kid so I can't remember what year is was might have been a Midyear. I do remember it was blue and the frontend was all busted up,you could see the front tire fully exposed but he was still drivin it like that. One recent memory,there is a school down the street from my parents house and one of the teachers had a 67 Big Block Coupe,I would venture to say that SHE still has it today.

[tnova]

In the '60s my uncle Joe Cagianut (Diamond ZR1) had a '53-55 Vette. It had a SB instead of the 6 cylinder. I always thought the front headlight look should have been used on the '56 C1's too. I got a few rides in it as well my other uncle's (Ray Cagianut) Austin Healey with 327 SB-a Cobra killer. Now all three of us are ZR1 owners. My brother has my father's C3 that was updated with C4 suspension. All in the family!

[WARP TEN]

Always interested in cars and Corvettes as a kid, but the best was in 1965, when a high school buddy somehow got a new 65 396/425 roadster Milano Maroon 4 spd. The first big block. We went out on the NY state Thruway one summer night for a little drag racing and it was the most powerful car I had ever been in. Unbelievable torque for the era. The old 'Ten dollar bill on the dashboard that you couldn't reach' test applied. I still look for ads for 396 65s and smile. --Bob

[Young1]

I was probably 12 years old and a 19-year-old cousin gave me a ride it is 65 front and 66 rear for speed Corvette convertible. He built it out of two wrecks. Then just out of high school in 1976 my best friend bought a 1969 LT one for speed coupe. I have wanted a Corvette since.

[ssrszz4]

Another memory was listening to kiss'n radio they had a car dealer advertising on there. 800 dollar 54-55 Corvette's was the norm.

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[USAF Retired]

I was always interested in fast cars and Corvettes since I was a little kid.

[Bob Eyres]

My interest in Corvettes started at the very beginning.
In the early fifties I was seven years old when my Dad, who was a tool and die maker, came home from a business trip and brought me a plastic model Mercedes 125 racer, it was my favorite. I had never seen one race and quizzed him about the details. He told me about the Mercedes, but then he mentioned that he had just visited Bob Morrison's company in Ashtabula Ohio, MFG, where he saw molds of a real car made from plastic, full size. I was blown away.
He told me it was a "secret" car that nobody knew about, and maybe someday we could see one after it was all put together.
I don't know the date, but just before the first "plastic" Chevy came out, my Dad and I were down at the Chevy dealer's (who was one of my Dad's friends) garage. In the back was a white 53' they were getting ready for the showroom that week. I sat in it, looked at the "Three!" Carbs, and was sure it was the fastest thing ever.
No amount of pleading would get my Dad to consider buying one. "There's only two seats. Where would you Mom and Sister sit?". That settled it, it would be another twenty years before I got my first one, a Split Window coupe. But that's another story.


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[Mr.Yuck]

Both of my children and I were taken to the hospital in our mother's stomachs in the same 1963 Stingray to be born. When I was 17 years old in 1990 I went down and watched the anticipated ZR-1's be built with my father. To hear them fire up for the first time and see them tested then ran on the wheel dyno in the Factory was quite the experience for 17 year old kid. I never lived a day of my life without a Corvette then 25 years after seeing them built I finally bought my 93 ZR-1 and I'll pass it on to my kids like my father did with me.7453

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[ZRXMAX]

When I was about 12 or 13 I knew a local guy that had a service station and was really into his 60 to 62 Corvette. I can remember him getting on the local highway and just smoking those tires forever!

About 1972 one of my school buddies bought a 68 tri power big block. It was silver and had slotted aluminum wheels, off road finned and chrome factory side exhaust, headers, L88 doomed hood, 4 speed, 4.10 rear, and L60 15" Mickey Thompsons out back.

He let me drive it hard! That was it... I had to own a Corvette one day.

1989 was the year and I bought a 84 four plus 3 car. It was the suspension system that totally blew me away as compared to anything I had ever driven before.

The first ZR-1 didn't come until 2001... a 1990... #334 It was sweet! :)

[32valvZ]

I was 16 in 1984 working in a Honda, Suzuki, BMW motorcycle shop in the parts department. One of the owners bought a brand new Gold/Saddle 84. He was giving some rides to some of the employees.... I was a lucky contestant. That was the beginning of my Corvette infatuation.... Never went away and I've been lucky enough to own 9 total, 6 C4's and 2 ZR-1's of those 6.

[Hog]

One of my Dad friends had a brand new 1985 TPI Vette. He let my Mom take me for a ride to the small rural store. There were some of my friends from school on their bikes as Mom and I got back into the Gold coloured Corvette.
Mom starts it just fine, but somehow gets the windshield wipers turned on and cant get them turned off. We sat there for what felt like an eternity while she attempted to turn the wipers off.


2nd memory A different friend of my Dad named Ross was a district manager for Snap On tools. He had a brand new 1987 TPI Vette with the 700r4 trans, it was black with the plate that said Clyde-1. So Ross had me hop in the passenger seat and buckle up. We drove the same paved 80kph roadway from our shop to the same rural store. There is a straightaway that's about 2 miles long with a highly fences forest on either side. With no traffic its an ideal area for supervised acceleration runs.
On the way to the store he drove conservatively, I assumed he was warming her up. We turned around at the store and took the final lefthand curve before heading into the straightaway section. On the curve he had slowed down and then he nailed it, we got some 1st gear action, bark into 2nd and then the shift into 3rd. I remember seeing about 210kph from where I was sitting. The car sounded great and that ride was what got me hooked on GM performance. I was about 11 years old for that ride.


Fast forward to 1995 and I'm test driving a new 1995 dark red metallic auto convertible. IIRC the sticker was around $60,000 but my GM discount brought that down to just over $40,000. I remember that while the car was quicker and felt tighter, the 4l60e didn't have that wild 1-2 shift that the 1987 L98 car did. I'm so happy I didn't buy that car because a year or 2 later I was in the Infantry and certainly didn't need, nor could afford that car.

[Neat]

First memory of a vette was a 79 that my parents owned. The car was only a few years old in my earliest memories of it, and it was amazing looking. Two tone grey with the Rally wheels, it looked really sharp. Sometimes when I'd ride in it with my Dad he would say something to effect of, "Ready? It's time to turn on the turbo." Then he'd flip a switch on the dash, and a green light would come on. That meant it was time to party, and he'd floor the throttle. It turns out the "turbo" light was the rear window defroster, but as a kid that was the coolest thing.

Years later, when I was teenager, my Dad brought home the 91 ZR-1 I own now. Totally different kind of love affair to me. It was this amazing thing, nearly mythical in proportion. It was as if my Dad were Carl Denham and he had brought King Kong back from Skull island and stored him in the garage. The 8th wonder of the world resided in a medium sized garage in the middle of Nowhere, Montana. I'd try to talk about it to other kids, other kids who were into cars, and I just never could convey the absolute wonder that I felt the car deserved. In retrospect, my infatuation with the car was beyond what any reasonable person would have understood, but the immense stature of the car was absolutely real in my mind. To me, the ZR-1 in the garage was it, the Alpha and the Omega, this omnipotent thing of indescribable power and bravado. It was, without a doubt in my mind, the fastest car in the world. And God help you if you shared a class, a bus ride, a weekend, an evening, or any other amount of time with the 15 year old version of me and didn't wholeheartedly agree.

[MickeyD]

Summer of 90, I was a confirmed Mustang guy at 26. Owned a 83 Mustang GT and then an 86 SVO. Great car. Bought a Blk/Blk/Blk Convertible Cobra. So excited! Didn't make it out of the parking lot, brakes were grinding. Went and drove another one after getting my money back. Same problem. Vettes always seemed out of reach and I was a Ford guy. Went to Cal Worthington Chevy just to look. On show room floor was a 90 Red/Blk ZR1. I had heard the hype. But with my income and a $30k additional markup, I was done. However, sales guy showed me a Blk/Blk 90 LT1. Drove it and I was hooked. Salesman was great. Best I've ever dealt with. Gave me a great deal. No haggle, just gave me his rock bottom. Should have had women all over me, but alas not even a vette can make up for this much ugly. Oh well. I have owned 7 since, but my sights never left that showroom Z. I now have 3 Z's with one being the 90 Red/Blk. But even 3 Z's can't overcome the ugly!

Mike

[lfalzarano]

When I was a pup, every Sunday on nice days, there would be a C1 convertible parked. Each year thereafter, I saw next model in the church parking lot.

One day my brother showed up with a 62 Red on white. I was hooked after that on Corvettes.

My first was a beige on black 427 hurst 4-speed with line lock, scatter shield and Hooker side mount headers and white convertible top with s chrome roll bar. Awesome beast. Had to sell it before the kids got their licenses ($13K)

Found my ZR-1 at Rogers Corvettes in Orlando in 2000 with only 6K miles. It is Red on “Arrest Me” Red! It was all original.

I debated making it a garage queen, but decided to drive it everyday to work and enjoyment. She has done 18 laps at Daytona and 8 laps at VIR. Great car.

Working on replacing the 2nd water pump now. Marc rebuilt one and it’ll get installed next week.

Grandkids love to be picked up from school with the top off.


Lou