Palantirion

Hello. I am, in effect, now officially a first-time Corvette owner. I put down the deposit for my ZR1 today and will have it as soon as GM sees fit. As a first-timer I had many questions prior to purchase, and this forum has been a godsend of advice. So a heartfelt thanks to all of you who have guided me in this purchase!

Special thanks to forum members Outlaw Joe, Mike@Criswell and LoveTwoFly for helping me source excellent dealers and learn more about the ZR1 ordering process. And definitely thanks to Tommy at MacMulkin Chevrolet in NH. Tommy's a good guy, very responsive and went out of his way to make sure I got information about ZR1 allocation mechanics that I otherwise would have been naive to. I would happily refer potential customers to his dealership. I didn't purchase mine with him only because his policy is to not rely on other dealers for courtesy delivery (at least for ZR1s). A small thing in the whole, but it mattered in my case. If that isn't a factor for you go give him a call. Tommy still has a few ZR1 allocations left.

And a super-special thanks goes out to Andy at Barker Chevrolet. I was refered to him by a forum member and he was immediately responsive, helpful, courteous and Johny-on-the-spot with regards to communication. I live in Orange County CA, and the dealers around me all want $20k over MSRP for their ZR1 allocation spots. Andy was fine with MSRP and then did all the legwork to find me a courtesy delivery not too far from my house for $500 (many local dealers wanted a lot more) So aside from getting it done he made things as hassel-free as possible and saved me a little money vs. my next-best out-of-state alternative. I would strongly lean toward going back to Andy for any future Chevy purchase, even something as benign as a Colorado to replace my old F-150.

Thanks again to the forum and its members. To my surprise I have felt immediately right at home here, and I look forward to sharing pics once I get my car.
-Earl

Vet Interested

Congrats and enjoy your rocket ship!

B&BVettes

Pretty cool! First Corvette a ZR1. Remember the rules....shiney side up and rubber side down. Just kidding . Enjoy your ride! Congrats!

rmorin1249

A ZR1 at MSRP is a fair deal. Let us know how the delivery goes. Be careful with 755 HP.

FunDriver

Glad you've found the Forum useful. Congrats on your new car. Pretty impressive to get a ZR1 for your first Corvette.

Kevin A Jones

Congrats, and welcome to the Corvette community.

Skid Row Joe

That's great! Hope the car comes in perfect. Is Andy @ Barker Chev. in California? If so, then you're in effect buying in-State, versus out-of-State. Which is always a plus+++.

dvilin

Congratulations enjoy the beast.

Always Red Dave

Congrats and enjoy the 755HP!

HAD2HAV2

We want photos when you pick your ZR1 up.

Bigfoot16

Congratulations.. that is one heck of a first Vette. Post some pics when you get it ,please.

bigblock427

gbjerke

Earl--congrats on your purchase. However you mentioned this forum being a "godsend". I can only state that this is the best Vette site ever. Am a super senior and very tech challenged. Whenever I have had an issue with my last 5 Vettes I merely post my issue here and I IMMEDIATELY get meaningful responses. Incredible members here.

John Micheal Henry

Welcome and congrats..

Palantirion

-No, Barker is in Illinois. Andy made the courtesy delivery painless.

-Hehe, of course. My mom has always told me to "drive safe" or "don't get hurt" especially when she knows I'm going to the track. I always tell her that I don't really care about protecting myself, I care about protecting my car(s). Which by extension means I'll be fine too. She doesn't go in for the logic.

-Absolutely! In the past I've been a nut with that sort of thing. I have a huge thread on Bimmerfest.com forum on the evolution of my Z4 M Coupe - 150+ pages. Unfortunately I lost my URL to a squatter so all my pic links are broken now, but I hope the thread still serves as a resource for that community. I have no plans to sell my Z, but I won't really know how the family fits together until after I get to know my Vette.

It occurs to me that I probably should copy/paste from my "hello" thread since that's in a less frequented forum section. So you have a little background on me and why I am suddenly a soon-to-be Corvette owner:

Quote:

Hello. My name is Earl.

I am in Orange County CA. My love of cars started when I "Ferris Beuller'd" my dad's '64 Avanti, which porompted me to re-engined my (previously my mom's) old straight-6 '66 Mustang, and through some coincidences later in life led to my becoming a BMW owner with a 2003 E39 M5, and later a E86 Z4 M Coupe (since heavily modified and tracked). I still have all my cars, and my '97 F-150. And I do not plan to sell any for the foreseable future. The M5 is my go-to-grave car, it is the perfect automobile.

I have been tracking since I bought the M5, mostly in the Z4. But I've driven quite a few BMWs (including someone else's 600rwhp blown/stroked E90 M3 on PS2s, lol) - and even tracked my wife's X3 once when my Z4 sprung an oil leak the night before the event. My most surprisingly enjoyable experience was in a 3-gen-old Miata which I tracked after driving a Gallardo Balboni edition - LOVED the Miata, so playful and communicative. The Lambo was just fast but numb, like the newest BMWs. There is always a faster car, so as I get older I care much more about the feel of driving than the paper statistics. Oddly I've never tracked a Porche or a Ferrari - it's just not been a high priority for some reason.

My unobtainable dream car would be a MacLaren F1 short tail...

HOWEVER...that may not matter as much any more. I just found out yesterday that at a certain dealership I was the first to put my name down for a ZR1 allocation. So what I thought was perhaps a distant concept has suddenly morphed into serious consideration. I will move on to the C7 section with my specific questions. Here I will explain why I have a sudden urge to own this particular Corvette.

I have never wanted a Corvette (except maybe a '67 L71 convertible), but always respected the designs. The few (C5 and C6) I have driven or ridden in at the track did not seem particularly well tuned to driver involvment and I didn't think much of the factory suspension. But things change. The mag (real word is too damn long and hard to pronounce!) shocks are a game-changer. GM's choice to target the E46-gen M3 for it's last CTS and ATS dynamics is exactly the mentality I want to see in a performance car division. And from what I've read that level of detail has been applied to the C7 as well. But the primary impetus for my potential puchase came from C&D - yeah you know the article. In it congealed several aspects that separated resonated with me.
- A shaker hood that is illegal in EU because the French can't drive safely and ruined car shapes for everyone. 'MERICA! Seriously. I really dig that a company would set a performance goal ahead of sales numbers.
- The last (check me on this) car EVER MADE that will be front mid-engined, V8, and manual (meaning the clutch). Which is exactly how I want my ideal fun/fast car to be laid out. (Another dream car for me is a Cobra Daytona Coupe for this reason)
- 755hp. My Z4 is lighter than the ZR1, and now puts out 500hp with a supercharger and some other mods. It's fast, damn fast. But I could have fun with more. And there is a distinct appeal to owning a vehicle SO powerful and balanced that it slightly exceeds my own driving ambitions. No more modding, wife will be happier, less stress...just get in a drive.
- Pushrods. Even though the in-block can has been technically obsolete for decades Chevy still manages to coax efficiency out of it. Props for that. I also appreciate the significant packaging benefit of an in-block cam and how this is used in the Corvette.
- It looks GOOD, really good. I have had some issues with styling details on the last three generations of Corvette (I'm an artist and can't help noticing imbalances and details). But many cars can suddenly look great with just one or two changes. Late-model Mustangs are this way to a remarkable degree. While I will say that the Z06 looks much better in person than in pics, there is a still an oddness to the rear proportioning that I don't care for in certain colors. The ZTK package transforms the look of the car, past the point where it is acceptable to the point where I think it is a beautiful balance of angles and shape weight.
- American! After buying German cars that suited my American tastes for practicality and freedom to communicate with the road there is finally an American car with the same/similar goal and quality.
- The C8. I do not want a mid-engined Corvette - ever! Build it to compete with Ferrari in the HP wars, sure, but call it something else! Respect the history of America's only surviving sports car!

If front engine/RWD and direct driver involvement go away I want to hold on to what's important even if no one else cares. And the ZR1 seems like the pinnacle of this idea in automotive history.

I am self-employed as an artist and investor. One having little to do with the other. My websites are www.ebsart.com and www.myartcar.com, although both are quite stripped-down from their older non-smartphone-era html forms.

My other cars:
Tiamat, a 2003 E39 M5 Dinan S2 that I will never sell.



Scatha, an extensively-modified 2007 Z4 M Coupe:




...which was also my first Art Car project:





And Tribute, a '64 Studebaker Avanti, the car that started it all for me, and 2nd Art Car project:



-That has definitely been my experience thus far.

-Definitely!

On a side note, when I test drove a local Z06 last week I mentioned to the saleman that technically this wasn't the most powerful car I've ever driven. Of course he wanted to know what that other car was and I told him it was a BMW. Then I had to elaborate: An E90 M3 stripped and caged with a stroker S65 plus an ESS supercharger. If memory serves it weighed in around 3000lbs and had a little over 600rwhp. This was a customer car for ESS when I was also a customer and well known for my forum posting regarding installation and further development of their CFR500 kit for the Z4 Ms.

So...Iceland blows up (volcano) and I get a call while driving to Vegas for a BMW meet and track day that ESS is a sponsor at...their factory test driver was from Finland (ESS is based in Norway) and his flight, along with every other one crossing the Atlantic, was cancelled due to ash going up over 30k feet. So I was asked if I was willing to fill in for him, test out a couple cars with new kits and/or software updates and basically show this M3 customer and the other couple hundred potential customers what ESS's kits could do. SUUUURE, I can drive anything, right? Never mind that at this point I was seasoned with track events but had yet to be in the then-new M3 or even a car with a full harness. I don't race or intend to race, I just enjoy honing my drving skills and testing out mods.

So...as it turns out this monster M3 was set up with ambitions for the Texas mile, and not LVMS's outside road course - by along shot. The owner drove it the first few sessions while did lead-follow with the beginner HPDE groups in my Z4 (having woken up that morning with strep throat and a 100+ fever). Then it was my turn to shake down the M3 and I realized 1) It was on PS2s and no one had aired them down 2) Owner didn't know the setup of the coilovers that a shop had put on the night before and 3) Street pads on his new BBK. So, yeah, interesting. I forced him to air down the tires (he got pretty wheels with interior valve stems that were a PITA to reach) and took it out. As it turns out it was the most fun I've had in a car up to that point in my life - maybe still. It would kick out the tail at anything more than 1/4 throttle, but being a BMW it was predicable and easy to catch. I had to brake quite early and smoothly to keep the pads from heating up too much - I really didn't want to return his car with pad transfer. After a couple laps feeling out the car I could get it to squat coming out of the last tight turn and could go WOT and do the 3-4 shift right in front of the start/finish crowd. So that was a nice set of sounds for them, and ESS liked it. I don't know what ever became of that car, but I have fond if quirky memories of it. The other duties that day were dirivng a new Z4M kit and software in a Roadster, and taking potential customers for ride-a-longs in my 500hp Z4. I made it through the day, barely, via my brother-in-law's bag of pretzels and lots of water, then drove 4 hours home alternating pretzel/water/throat lozenge, hit the shower and collapsed in bed 21 hours after the strep woke me up that morning. I consider it my best driving day.

mdolandese

Congrats and enjoy your ZR1 post pics when you get it

Palantirion

I was told today that it has been offloaded from the train. So waiting on a super short truck ride to the dealership, 2-4 days ETA...

Parcival

MHE-Plex

Vetteman Jack