15 years ago
Thread Starter
Team Owner
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 23,283
Likes: 906
From: Lake Elsinore, CA
Hey Patches. Followed many of your posts but first time to see a face and a car to your posts. I bought my "used" 2001 C5 the weekend after 9/11. It had a born date of 9/8/2000 and was a one year lease return. Looked just like your Torch Red coupe. Vette-less now but still follow CF. Also gave up a 35-year smoking habit the same weekend (had already been taking cessation classes and was on my last few nicotine "patches").
Thread Starter
Team Owner
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 23,283
Likes: 906
From: Lake Elsinore, CA
The very first thing I did when I got it home was lower it. I had been reading about how on here while I was waiting for it to be built and also had intake, exhaust and other mods waiting to go on before it was even delivered.
Thread Starter
Team Owner
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 23,283
Likes: 906
From: Lake Elsinore, CA
Now, is the avatar meant to balance out the name of your town?
Le Mans Master
Joined: Sep 2016
Posts: 6,480
Likes: 556
Thanks to my special friend, Bill. It was you and your design team that brought this awesome machine to us. No other car manufacturer on earth has ever been able to deliver this level of design, performance and affordability in the same package. AEI and SAE validated that:
Best Engineered Car of the 20th Century
Readers of Automotive Engineering International voted on the best engineered cars of each decade of the 20th Century. An overall winner was chosen from among the entries.
by Daniel J. Holt, Editor-in-Chief
First of all, AEI would like to thank the SAE Historical Committee for its assistance in completing this project. Also, we would like to thank the thousands of readers who submitted their choices for the best engineered cars in each of the ten decades of the 20th Century both via mail and over the SAE website at www.sae.org. The readers were asked to vote on the car and check the following criteria that fit their choice:
• The car successfully introduced a new engineering system and/or solution that was subsequently adopted by others, either wholly or in part.
• The car enjoyed exceptional longevity in the marketplace, thereby indicating and validating sound initial engineering capable of further development.
• The car achieved better performance than its contemporaries by virtue of the excellence of its engineering. Performance is defined as any combination of the following attributes — accommoda- tion of people and/or luggage, comfort, durability, economy of operation, environmental responsi- bility, handling and stability, production cost, quality, safety, and/or speed.
The following are the winners for each decade. There was a clear winner for each decade except for the last and the overall winner, where there was a tie. Since both vehicles for that decade are shining examples of engineering excellence we decided to award both vehicles the honor.
• 1900 - 1909: 1908 Ford Model T
• 1910 - 1919: 1910 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost
• 1920 - 1929: 1924 Chrysler Six
• 1930 - 1939: 1930 Cadillac V16
• 1940 - 1949: 1949 Volkswagen Beetle
• 1950 - 1959: 1955 Mercedes Benz 300 SL
• 1960 - 1969: 1964 Porsche 911
• 1970 - 1979: 1974 Honda Civic CVCC
• 1980 - 1989: 1984 Plymouth Voyager
• 1990 - 1999: 1999 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible and 1999 Mercedes-Benz S500
Best Engineered Car of the 20th Century
After reviewing all the votes for the winners of each decade and carefully reviewing the vehicles, the overall winner turned out to be a tie between the 1999 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible and 1999 Mercedes-Benz S500. Both vehicles have a long heritage of engineering excellence and these two cars are fine examples of the engineering technology that developed over the past 100 years. Each is a winner in its own right — the Corvette as a two seat convertible and the Mercedes-Benz S500 as a sedan. Our congratulations to both companies!
Best Engineered Car of the 20th Century
Readers of Automotive Engineering International voted on the best engineered cars of each decade of the 20th Century. An overall winner was chosen from among the entries.
by Daniel J. Holt, Editor-in-Chief
First of all, AEI would like to thank the SAE Historical Committee for its assistance in completing this project. Also, we would like to thank the thousands of readers who submitted their choices for the best engineered cars in each of the ten decades of the 20th Century both via mail and over the SAE website at www.sae.org. The readers were asked to vote on the car and check the following criteria that fit their choice:
• The car successfully introduced a new engineering system and/or solution that was subsequently adopted by others, either wholly or in part.
• The car enjoyed exceptional longevity in the marketplace, thereby indicating and validating sound initial engineering capable of further development.
• The car achieved better performance than its contemporaries by virtue of the excellence of its engineering. Performance is defined as any combination of the following attributes — accommoda- tion of people and/or luggage, comfort, durability, economy of operation, environmental responsi- bility, handling and stability, production cost, quality, safety, and/or speed.
The following are the winners for each decade. There was a clear winner for each decade except for the last and the overall winner, where there was a tie. Since both vehicles for that decade are shining examples of engineering excellence we decided to award both vehicles the honor.
• 1900 - 1909: 1908 Ford Model T
• 1910 - 1919: 1910 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost
• 1920 - 1929: 1924 Chrysler Six
• 1930 - 1939: 1930 Cadillac V16
• 1940 - 1949: 1949 Volkswagen Beetle
• 1950 - 1959: 1955 Mercedes Benz 300 SL
• 1960 - 1969: 1964 Porsche 911
• 1970 - 1979: 1974 Honda Civic CVCC
• 1980 - 1989: 1984 Plymouth Voyager
• 1990 - 1999: 1999 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible and 1999 Mercedes-Benz S500
Best Engineered Car of the 20th Century
After reviewing all the votes for the winners of each decade and carefully reviewing the vehicles, the overall winner turned out to be a tie between the 1999 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible and 1999 Mercedes-Benz S500. Both vehicles have a long heritage of engineering excellence and these two cars are fine examples of the engineering technology that developed over the past 100 years. Each is a winner in its own right — the Corvette as a two seat convertible and the Mercedes-Benz S500 as a sedan. Our congratulations to both companies!
Thread Starter
Team Owner
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 23,283
Likes: 906
From: Lake Elsinore, CA
Dunno - maybe they were restricted to a single model in a line. When the C5 was developed, it was designed in a way that the convertible needed no additional support fortification than the coupe which is an amazing engineering achievement.
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Burning Brakes
Joined: Aug 2006
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From: Cancer Sucks - please donate to Corvettes Conquer Cancer
Cruise-In X Veteran
St. Jude Donor '08-'09
Congrats Ed and a great post !! I'll always be in your debt for all the help you gave me on my headlites when i flew out to LA to drive my Vette home to NH !!! Wasn't aware that you picked up a C7 Z51 AWESOME !!! - i got a chance to drive a buddies and absolutely loved it !!!
Bob in Nh
Bob in Nh
Last edited by Bobd207s; Oct 25, 2016 at 09:39 PM.
Thread Starter
Team Owner
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 23,283
Likes: 906
From: Lake Elsinore, CA
Congrats Ed and a great post !! I'll always be in your debt for all the help you gave me on my headlites when i flew out to LA to drive my Vette home to NH !!! Wasn't aware that you picked up a C7 Z51 AWESOME !!! - i got a chance to drive a buddies and absolutely loved it !!!
Bob in Nh
Bob in Nh
Hope all's well with you and yours!
Team Owner
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 25,058
Likes: 1,265
From: Virginia
St. Jude Donor '11
Congrats Ed...thanks for sharing........April 17, 2017 will mark my 12th anniversary with my 2004 TR convertible...had it delivered right to me from Kerbeck Corvette in N.J.....
Thread Starter
Team Owner
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 23,283
Likes: 906
From: Lake Elsinore, CA
Team Owner
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 25,058
Likes: 1,265
From: Virginia
St. Jude Donor '11
Racer
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 384
Likes: 36
From: Huntsville AL
Hi Patches
I always enjoy reading your posts
I ordered my 2002 vert in may of 2001,it was built on Aug.20 and delivered to the dealer on the 29th.
The dealership showroom could only hold 2 cars and the other car parked next to mine was a torch red vert bought by the wife of a 70 year old as a birthday present to him;the wife told the dealer if mine had been an auto instead of the 6 speed she wanted mine because she LOVED the magnetic red over the torch red.
9-11 shook up the financial world as well. Remember when you could earn 6% interest on savings? Well we wrote a check for the car and less than 3 weeks later GM was offering 0% financing.
By the way,the dealer said when the transport truck showed up with my vette there were SEVEN new F-150s keeping mine company.
Take care and heres to another 15 years Patches!!!
I always enjoy reading your posts
I ordered my 2002 vert in may of 2001,it was built on Aug.20 and delivered to the dealer on the 29th.
The dealership showroom could only hold 2 cars and the other car parked next to mine was a torch red vert bought by the wife of a 70 year old as a birthday present to him;the wife told the dealer if mine had been an auto instead of the 6 speed she wanted mine because she LOVED the magnetic red over the torch red.
9-11 shook up the financial world as well. Remember when you could earn 6% interest on savings? Well we wrote a check for the car and less than 3 weeks later GM was offering 0% financing.
By the way,the dealer said when the transport truck showed up with my vette there were SEVEN new F-150s keeping mine company.
Take care and heres to another 15 years Patches!!!