I've been lurking on the forum for a little while, and since this is my first post, I thought I would take a moment to introduce myself, and my Corvette:





I've loved sports cars all my life, and corvettes in particular. No other chassis embodies aggressive beauty and power the way corvettes do, and I've always loved the idea of vehicles produced in the price range of middle class individuals, which can legitimately compete with hyper cars. The C5 in particular became cemented in my psyche for that reason. The history of the car as a racing platform captured my imagination as a teenager, and the styling is all kinds of gorgeous and intimidating all at once. In short, I always wanted one. I had to work my way up though. My first vehicle as a teenager was a 1991 Mazda Miata, which taught me a love for road trips, traveling up and down the west coast. My little red miata served as a faithful daily driver through penny pinching college days. Eventually mechanical issues forced me to sell the tiny roadster, and I ended up in your standard version of hell: Driving a Prius, because practicality and money saving... and significant others who are not car people and cannot drive stick...

Thankfully after an unfortunate period spent hating driving, and losing one of my main stress outlets, finances stabilized enough for me to maintain multiple cars. About five months ago, I got the cash together, I started looking and eventually found a 2001 6 speed, which looked very well maintained. The car had amazing options and fit my desires perfectly. I was initially a little put off by the idea of a dark green corvette, I tend to associate the color with sedans, being driven by older people. In person I loved it, I was genuinely surprised by how well the color suited the contours of the C5. The engine bay was beautiful, no signs of recent cleaning, but only minimal carbon build up. The drive train passed basic test drive fundamentals with flying colors and aside from very minor scratches here and there, the exterior and interior were in immaculate condition.

The previous owner was thrilled to sell to someone who was very enthusiastic about corvettes, knew a lot of their history and worked in the automotive industry. We settled on a great price and both walked away from the deal happy. My boss and a couple friends were very concerned I'd kill myself, based on the way I'd handled under-powered imports, but I accepted that what I was getting into was very different from the start. So I started out driving like well... a little girl. I live in the Santa Cruz area and my daily commute runs north through the mountains into San Jose. Learning to handle my vette over a mountain highway over the past few months has been one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life.

Learning to throttle to the limits of my traction by feel, refine my steering skills to suit a much larger platform than I initially learned with, and of course, kick out my rear and spin tires once in a while has been a total blast. From a technical driving point of view, I'm becoming more and more competent, but also less competitive, as I realize that many of the friends who I made as part of the miata community were humorously unaware of what an accessible and low skill cap platform the little roadster and others like it actually are.

That brings me to the title of my post: after work last night, I drove up to one of the intersections on my way out of the San Jose area, and pulled up next to a riced out Honda Prelude. I didn't make eye contact, but I could see out my peripheral vision, that he looked directly at me, so he clearly saw that I was a woman. My car's exterior is entirely stock at the moment, and the only modification I've done so far is an ignition upgrade. Nonetheless, his reaction was to rev his engine and start lurching forwards. I sat still at the intersection. When the turn signal turned green, he jumped the gun and got his bumper out over the crosswalk, before he slammed on his brakes. I calmly watched the stop light the whole time smirking.

As soon as the light turned green, I launched myself. All I really did was allow myself to wind out first gear, and got up to about 50, before clutching in and letting myself coast down to a "I'm in the city, don't be an idiot" 40 mph. I left him about a block and a half behind me within a couple seconds. Why someone in a Prelude would provoke a drag race with a chick in a corvette is a little beyond me, but then again, he might be laughing at what I did, just as much as I laughed at him. This little story seemed like a good way to stop lurking and say hi.

I've loved corvettes all my life, and I love my C5 like no other vehicle I've ever driven. The combination of power, handling and style are beyond compare. I'm hoping to install coilovers over the winter to play with during track season, I'll post more about that later!

 

Welcome to the forum!

Great story, and great looking C5 coupe!

 

Welcome to the CF!

 

Welcome to the Forum & Congrats on getting your first Corvette. Your green color is fairly rare for 2001 as out of about 35 thousand Vettes produced, only about 900 were that color.

I'm also in Santa Cruz, Boulder Creek actually. With the Winter season upon us, be careful driving Hwy 17 as the wet surface is prone to many spin outs to drivers going a little too fast.

Come Spring and Summer there are lots of Corvette cruises put on by the several Corvette clubs in the Bay Area.
I'll keep my eye out for your Green C5

 

Thanks for the replies! I've been using the forum for a little while for general maintenance advice, and to see feedback on different aftermarket options. There's a lot of information available and forum goers always seem to be very helpful when someone is running into issues. My only real problem so far has been a malfunctioning windshield wiper switch, which I found a replacement part number for here.

The C4 ZR1's are truly vicious cars, and they look amazing in black, so I hope I get the chance to check yours out at some point! I didn't realize the dark green C5's were quite that rare, it makes me feel lucky to have picked one up in great shape. I'll try and start making some local events this coming year

 

Welcome to the forum!

 

welcome to the forum!

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

Welcome to the forum!