I'd love to have an old stingray.

 

Hey guys just thought I would post in here. I just turned 19 and thought I could add what I have found out about being young(er) with a Vette. It is a VERY fun car to own and gets a LOT of attention. My car demands more maintenance than most so thats my hobby and my time is spent working on the car most of the time. The rest of the time I live to drive the car. Yes it would be very easy to get into trouble with it but I have learned to kind of respect that power. I try to take it to the track whenever possible. Once you spend soooooo much time on something doing it yourself I think you have a greater respect for it and care a lot more about how you could hurt it and how much things cost if you do hurt it. My parents are fine with me owning my own Vette since they know that I worked for it and that it's my hobby. I think my dad had fun with the build too since it was kind of a chance to do what he already did and try something he might have wanted to do to his car but never did. PS since he did help so much on the car I let him drive it if he wants and yes he has raced it too. Him and I both know it's always a work in progress drive it how it was meant to be driven and if something breaks we fix it and make the car faster. Here's a little history of me with the car:


I joined the Army Reserve in my Junior year of highschool at age 17. Before senior year went to Basic Training at Ft. Benning, GA. Came back and bought a 87 4+3 with 126,XXX miles for 4,100 after being 18 for less than 2 months. Drove it for a month and the clutch went out. I bought it intending on racing it since I had done more track events than I could count on 2 hands with my other car(winter car now). Let me say this right now my dad had me around Vettes since 6th grade when I went on my first Vette cruise. He than really laid into his car (seen here http://temp.corvetteforum.net/c5/bob86zz4/index2.shtml) and now his car is a 450hp 383 stroker with many mods. Since I had intended on racing we decided on getting rid of that 4+3 with a ZF-6 speed.

Long winter story condensed:More modding happened as one thing led to another and basically I now daily drive a 87 Vette with a 96 ZF 6 speed, C5 Z06 front brakes with Hawk HP+ pads(semi race pads), 1 3/4 inch 120 gauge steel mandrel bent roll bar, 2 6 point harnesses, Aluminum racing seat, B&M oil cooler, Spec Aluminum flywheel, Spec stage 2+clutch, Hurst Short Throw, TPIS 52mm TB, Hooker Super comp ceramic coated headers with 3" exhaust (no cats), Black chrome rims with 275 fronts and 315 rears, ect ect ect the list goes on and on.

Basically it was a GREAT winter project. I detailed it all at http://www.myspace.com/Git_Er_Dun_Racin and have a video of the first time I raced it. Clearly from the video I had too much fun. Yeah I know the spins were not fast but hey I wasn't there to win the first time in the Vette I just needed seat time.

I recently did my first road racing(non wheel to wheel) with the car and had a great weekend and ran 200 miles on track at 8mpg. No greater feeling than anti-lock at 115mph with those C5 Z06 brakes. I even managed to come home with a 3rd place in guest class plaque(I got beat out by a C6 Z06 and a 67 Vintage Vette with slicks and other mods).

To be able to drive the car to high school was great fun. It took at least 150+hours of long work on the car to get it to where it is. I attribute all the success to my dad because luckily he did a lot of it with his car and has a lot of mechanical knowledge and anything he didn't know Vette mechanic friends we know were able to answer our questions.


I now just got back from more Army training and turned 19. I have just about paid the whole car off. I was a little short of the original cost and as the mods started to build up we had a list of how much I owed my parents. I worked every day after school and after work would go and wrench on the car for a few hours and then come home and do it all again the next day. It was a great bonding experience between my dad and I and we even spent a few nights sleeping in the motorhome that was in the garage so we could sleep later(the garage where the car was stored was 1 hour round trip from my house.)


Here's some pictures of my car(I have a ton on http://www.myspace.com/Git_Er_Dun_Racin):


^^First Vette cruise in 6th grade


^^First race 3 days after I got my license


^^The garage


^^The transmission set up


^^Torn apart


^^Newely welded in roll bar















I think buying this car has been the best experience in life I have ever had and may be one of the best ones I will have. It has brought me way closer with my dad than I have ever been. I can truly say that because of this car my life has been changed. Good thing there are Corvettes in life I guess. Hope this post was informational. Sorry about how long of a post I made.

 

Cool post Erick

 

It isn't the length of a post that counts with me, it's the quality. Excellent !!

 

I was 18 when i bought my 87, i saved every spare bit of money i could to buy it and Corvettes are not cheap over here, i paid $23,000 for it back in 1999 (44,906 miles on it, factory perfect and pretty near faultless). I decided it would be a smarter move to pay it all off and own it outright before i converted it to right hand drive and started using it, had it all paid for in about 3.5 years, converted it to right hand drive, paid rego and insurance, and had it on the road. Always had alot of respect for it cause i worked very hard to get it, and just as hard to pay it off, and the last thing i ever wanted to do was lose it because i did something stupid with it.

Had it 6 years and 4 days, then moved up to the 94. The 87 stayed pretty near bone stock, the 94 doesnt look anything out of the ordinary, but its quite a long way from being stock, and it gets the same respect the 87 always did.

Its not so much the age of the owner, it comes down to the individual, how they control themselves, and how good they control their funds.

 

In 1969 When I was 17 and just out of high school the 1st thing I did was get a job. Then 2 weeks later I bought a 1967 Firebird 400. It was the biggest engine in the smallest car I could find for $2000.00 . Being 17 and essentially stupid I had no business having a muscle car but I talked my mother into it. It turned out to be one of the best things I have ever done car wise. It was broke so often, ( Motor mounts, timing gear, rear end etc) that it taught me not to be afraid of working on cars and that I could do 100mph on a side street and live. It also lead me to become an engineer.

As years passed I left cars behind and would open the hood annually nod my head and close it again. Its just recently that I have gotten back into the swing of things when I got my 90 coupe. It rekindled the spark that faded so long ago.

I guess my point that that the cheap C4s will help create a new generation of gear heads. Assuming they survive the 1st few years they will mature and come back to contribute to the sport.