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Hello all. I've been a member of this forum for quite some time now but I figure it's time to get more involved with my vette than I have been. My name is Rob and I'm an Air Force AGR with 140th Wing @ Buckley SFB. I've spent the last 10 years as a crew chief on the F-16 and recently returned from just shy of 4 months in the sandbox where we are still making sure our friends and fellow boots on the ground safe. I have a small story to explain my absence on the board to this point so bear with me.
Roll the clocks back about 8 years and we start with where my father found what he believed to be an absolute steal on his 2nd C6 (his 4th Vette overall). It was a 2010 Jetstream Blue Base 6pd with a hair of 5000 miles on the clock owned by an older woman who wanted out of her post divorce toy. At a couple grand under $40K, who the hell wouldn't jump at the opportunity right? Apart from being smoked in, it was perfect. 3LT, NPP, gray on black interior, dual top, etc. In the 7 years my dad owned this car, he managed to swap wheels, add CF ground effects, M2W switch, upgrade the lights, add more chrome, and D1SC procharge the stock LS3. All of this while barely cracking the 8K mile mark on the odometer. I drove it on rare occasion and was very familiar with the car, but I had my own set of machines I was playing with. During this period I went from a single turbo swapped 335Xi coupe to a '99 Porsche 911 6spd as my weekend toys along with rotating through a Scat Pack Charger and 2 Hellcat Chargers as well.
Fast forward to last year when my folks made the decision to leave CO and move to a warmer climate. I had just sold the 911 and was looking for my first Vette, a 2001-2004 Z06. I was all but dead set on my purchase when my dad decided to throw me a curve ball and offer to sell me his Vette instead. He figured it was time to let his beast go after battling back pain from a previous accident that getting in and out of a low slung sports car wasn't helping. At first, I had to step back and think about it. I was already convinced the C5 Z was perfect for me (who doesn't love those curves or the pop up headlights?). I weighed the pros and cons and decided to keep his Vette in the family. It was too perfect to pass on and I already knew the history of the car. As much as I wanted to start from scratch, there is just too much untapped potential still left to really hone this build in on a direction I was looking to go from the start.
Some of you at this point might have figured out why 707 is in my profile name by now. I loved my Hellcat and having 2 supercharged V8's in similar colors was something of a wild coincidence. Anyway, the Vette was gorgeous and fun to drive, but it wasn't truly mine yet. It needed some personal touches and changes to really feel like my car. In some ways it still doesn't feel truly 'me' influencing it yet, but I'm already on a warpath to dial it in (swapping much of the chrome for black or carbon has been at the forefront of this). As most of the rocky mountain region members will tell you, last year really hammered us in terms of snow and made my Hellcat daily feel like I would be stranded during the worst CO can throw at us in winter (you'd be amazed at how many snow storms that car could actually handle without a fuss on proper snow tires). So I made the adult decision to let her go (replaced by a Rubicon 4xe that I recently put on a lift and 37's).
The vette on the other hand isn't going anywhere. My LS knowledge is fairly limited as the only other LS I've owned in the past was a '99 Trans Am in high school. I've since made it a priority to focusing on getting this car exactly the way I want it and I can't do that without the wealth of knowledge that this board and it's members possess. I look forward to being an active part of the community and shifting from my focus in mopar builds over to GM once again. Thank you for humoring my post and look forward to my time here.
Long time lurker
Great looking rides enjoy your stay on here
