Lets talk Vette

Ok.
Wife and I got back to Phoenix a few years ago, had been drivin a Durango.. my first 4wd, it was an awesome vehicle in the snow back east and regularly pissed off the neighbors.
They'd be diggin their cars out of the snows of Massachusettes (I was a 3d artist for Papyrus on their NASCAR 2002 & 2003 back then) ..and I would go out, wipe off a spot to see out of, get in, fire that 360 Magnum up, slide it into 4wd and just blow thru the snow berm the plow had left at the end of the driveway.

However, once we settled in Phoenix (Papyrus got bought by Vivendi and they laid off a huge pack o people that had built Papyrus) ..we did not need a 4wd.
Got tired of bein pegged for airport runs, picking up people here an there basically because we had a big bloo bus.
And the gas mileage sucked.

So .. we had never owned a Corvette. I had laughed at them all the time I was growin up because the cars I drove back then were faster.
The '67 Hemi GTX 4-gear .. and the tunnel-rammed L-88 '64 Malibu .. and the 6-pac 440 stuffed into the Duster ..Vette's of the eras had a hard time hookin up, tires sucked back then.
Useda tell friends I would get a Vette when I was old and slow enough to appreciate a boulevard cruiser.

Well :)

Wife and I found CnV corvettes here in Phoenix area, they have every era of corvette covered, from C-1 to C-6 ..and some good examples to choose from. I initially was drawn to a nice '68 roadster, remembered drivin a new 427 version one fine afternoon .. scared the *crap* out of the salesman grabbin second and havin the back end step out a bit and the tach showin 6k rpm in a heartbeat as the tires fried.
Yanno .. it was a *long* time ago .. I got into it, but .. gettin out, man I just dont bend and stretch nearly as well as I did back in '68!!
So we looked at a nice red '84 coupe ..when Jack (our guide) opened the door ..and I saw that 5" frame rail, I shook my head. I am not short coupled enough to fold up enough to stuff into a C-4.

So we walked over to a black C-5 .. swoopy, looked like it was flowing through the air just sitting there, the roof was about the height of my belt buckle.
It just reached out and grabbed me, yanno? It looked like sex on wheels.
Jack opened the door, gettin in and out was cake, I can wear my *hat* even!
I was completely sold. It is a '98 ..black on black.

Now we have had the car for a few years.
It still makes me smile every time I walk out to drive it.
I have added some chrome Halibrands, a B&B exhaust (absolutely love howling up thru the gears onto an onramp an such) ..stickier, slightly bigger tires in back, and learned a lot about this black beauty. I owned it for 2 weeks before I found out the top came off .. LOL .. RTFM!!
Thru Corvetteforum.com, I found out it's a Z-51, been lowered, and has the 3.15 gears in back.
No wonder it's like drivin a go-cart :)

Ran it out at Speedworld a few times now .. I am still learnin the car, but it has run 13's and is amazingly consistent.
Gets 30mpg at 70, 24mpg around town, insurance costs within a dollar a month of what the Durango was costin us, wife says its the most comfortable car she has ever ridden in on the hi-way.. it feels glued to the road and never changes even up past 150mph -evil grin-.
Bein a black car, it taught me how to wash a car. I thought I knew .. LOL.. boy was I wrong!

This is our '98 Z-51 coupe, automatic, more fun than I expected, and cost less than a Honda Civic even. Photo was taken up top of Mt. Lemmon durin one of our ACE Corvette club runs :)