A father, his son and a very special car.

[VetteVet]

I just thought that I would post a little background on why the ZR-1 has special meaning to me.

My father was an outboard technician, a boating guy and an all-around motor-head. He was fascinated with all things mechanical and passed that on to me.

Back in 1993, when I left active duty in the Navy, I purchased my first Corvette; a 1986 coupe. It was nothing special, but it was my first Corvette and was special to me. My dad liked that car and would never miss an opportunity to borrow it from me so he could go tooling around.

One day shortly after my purchase, my dad contacted me and asked me to come see something. When I hooked up with him, he had one of the Corvette magazines in hand and said "Are you aware of the ZR-1 Corvettes?" He proceeded to go over all of the details with a gleam in his eye. He was absolutely fascinated with the engineering put into the LT5 engine. He continued to learn more and more about the ZR-1's and it was a constant topic of discussion between us, but both of us knew that we could never actually afford one.

Several years later, dad was diagnosed with cancer and battled it valiantly until an undiscovered brain tumor took him away from us in 2000 due to bleeding in the skull after a fall.

Fast forward to late 2008. While perusing ads on E-bay late one evening, I came across an ad for a 1991 Corvette with a buy it now price of $10,000.00. That seemed too high and I was intrigued. I clicked on the link. Lo and behold, it was a ZR-1. The paint was not great and the interior needed work, but it had "THE LT5 ENGINE!!!" After a good bit of research, I took the plunge and purchased that car.

I got the interior changed out and fixed all of the gremlins. While the car was disassembled for paint and engine work, Hurricane Isaac struck and the car took water. My insurance company totalled it out and to this day I am still battling with them since they are trying to low-ball me due to the condition of the car at the time of the loss.

I was distraught over the possibility of the loss of my ZR-1 and the inability to replace it due to a low settlement. It took a lot for me to purchase that car and I didn't have the funds to make up the difference.

In stepped my mom (she's very practical, but she's also a saint). She saw how depressed I was and offered to front the money for a replacement car and was willing to cover whatever difference there was between the purchase price and the settlement. That led to the purchase of the 1991 Steel Blue Metallic ZR-1 that I have now.

When I reached the point in my Navy career that I was selected for Chief Petty Officer, I underwent an initiation that brought me into the "Brotherhood of Chiefs". For those of you that may not understand, all Navy Chiefs have a bond. If I'm in a bind, no matter where I am on this planet, all I have to due is link up with a fellow Chief and he/she will do everything in their power to get me whatever help that I need. That other Chief may have never met me before, but that doesn't matter because I'm a Chief. It's about the bond and the networking and it's very powerful. I thought that it was the greatest thing I had ever witnessed and there was nothing else like it.

I was wrong. I bought my first Z and discovered this forum. Hmmm, they have a "Brotherhood" and call themselves "Brothers". I wonder if they know what that really means? Through the years, I have had the pleasure of interacting with you folks and can honestly say that you guys do know what it means. I am blessed to be a member of two great "Brotherhoods". What we have in our community is a rarity and it's up to us to uphold the tradition.


It feels good to be back in a Z and to have reconnected with the "Brotherhood". It IS the car AND the people. We have very special cars and a very special group of people.


Mom, I love you and thank you for stepping in to help me out.

Dad, I know you're up there enjoying your twin turbo ZR-1.

I know that I'm enjoying my Z.

Jep