x88

Hey guys! Names Anton from NJ and I'm a Z06 owner. I am seriously considering getting out of this state for multiple reasons, but mainly due to how overcrowded and assbackwards it is. I was wondering if some of you corvette owners could chime in and let me know the heads up about the best place to live down there.

Cars are my life and an area that has a lot of nice, clean, open roads would be my top priority. Some tracks nearby would be nice (road courses), and an active corvette community would be the icing on top. I am 25 yrs old so I would also want to be around somewhere where this is nightlife and young, intelligent people.

Lastly the cops are very corrupt here and a place where the police actually respect the rights of an American Citizen would be preferred, however, I know that is a lot to ask for.

I've been to Charlotte and I love it. I'm mainly considering the Carolinas, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Georgia. I appreciate any advice you guys have.

harleyreg

I moved to Georgia 40 years ago from Rhode Island. It is a terrific place to live with nice people, plenty of car activity, good housing values, and great weather.

Another great spot is around Charlotte. Not to far to the mountains or the beach.

Give me a call sometime and I can fill you in. (678)488-5461
Reggie Martin

bonecrrusher

Moved to Charlotte from Chicago - you can drive your Vette 11 out of the 12 months here - and very close access to VIR, Road Atlanta, CMP, and the Nascar big oval @ CMS.

Awesome roads that are mostly paved pretty well - that lead to the mountains, to the beach.

Your along 2 main corridors - 77 to head north up to Ohio - or 85/95 that leads to the NE or down to Florida.

What else do you want to know?

What do you do for work?

Charlotte is a banking hub - lots of finance to IT jobs, we've got 98% of all the Nascar motorsport organizations in the area.

2 or 3 Vette friendly dealers in Charlotte.

simplegto

Sorry but you are too young for Florida. Check back in about 50 years. Ga. mountains are very nice.

x88

Georgia seems pretty awesome. I've been researching Alpharetta and it seems to suit me so far. Reggie I will give you a call sometime this week!

I'm hoping there will be people my age to make some friends with for some weekly BBQs and throwing around a football, meeting up to wrench on cars, single women all that good stuff.

I am a software engineer and likely would be working remotely for my job in NJ.

I also would like to know how the cops are in terms of leniency. Do they care about petty offenses such as tinted windows, loud exhaust, driving 5-10 over the speed limit?

Haha yes I'm aware of that, wouldn't retire in the states anyway.


Thanks guys for the responses it helps a lot!

bonecrrusher

NC has a nuance in there law called prayer for judgement - its basically like getting allowed to take driving classes back up north to lower/reduce speeding fines.

You can do 10 over usually without getting busted.

Tint - never been pulled over for it.

Exhaust - never have been bothered - the Corsa's and Kooks Long tubes are way louder then stock.

If your allowed to work remote - do it!

Otherwise a lot of IT jobs in Charlotte.

You know the thing about owning a Vette - is that the average Vette owner is like 55 and basically retired.

Checkout the Official Charlotte NC thread - a few younger guys over there - I think a number of us are in there late 20's/30's.

FAUEE

Charlotte has nice parts, and not so nice parts. Tint is handled like it is in FL if they pull you over for something else and notice it, you're getting that too, but they won't stop you JUST for that. In NC, you do have to get your car inspected yearly, and so tint can fail you for it.

Exhaust will depend on where you are. You'll get more attention, but there's only a few places where they'll pull you over for it. But that said, you're more likely to get pulled over by having it.

Charlotte's car culture isn't one of sports cars IMO - they like their NASCAR style stuff. You get that pretty much until you hit Florida. Not that there's not nice cars or anything like that, but the culture isn't nearly the same. And if you're outside of Charlotte, you may as well forget about it.

Other things about the area, Charlotte home prices are high(er than the rest of the state), and NC taxes the crap out of you. They hate Yankees, so being from NJ you'll be pretty much immediately outcast. Charlotte is younger than the surrounding area but it's not what I would call a "youthful" city. It's nothing like say, Austin. There's a few nice areas in Charlotte, and a lot of ****** areas too. Charlotte's nightlife is better than the surrounding areas, but nothing impressive. You basically end up with college kids or alcoholics.

The beauty in the area is the ability to go do a lot of different stuff. The nature you can get to in 2-3 hours from it is incredible. There's some very technical roads out in the mountains too, but they're not race tracks. IMO, if you're not an outdoorsy fishing, hunting, hiking sort of person, you'll get bored in the area. Raleigh might be a little better for that or Asheville (though their car culture is more of one of Prius love).

x88

Wow thanks for that info.

Right now I am pretty sure with Alpharetta, Georgia. It seems to be a good location for car activity, proximity to race tracks, hookah and bars in town, whole foods, golds gym, vengeance racing is next door in Cumming. Atlanta 30 min away and if I decide to switch jobs a quick search on monster shows 20+ openings for a Software Engineer, some positions even in Alpharetta.

Sounds like NC is out of the picture and Georgia is the clear winner as I'm not into NASCAR at all, or priuses. Looks like houses are 3x cheaper in this area than here in Ridgewood NJ. 4 bedroom houses here go for 1.2 mil and 400k in Georgia, not that I need 4, prob just 2br2ba

I am thinking about coming down for a few days to experience one of the C&O meets and a weekend out on the town as the next step.

PS FAUEE I don't follow sports so it's ok. I could not care less about the Yankees

simplegto

Ga window tint thread.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/off-...e-drivers.html

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66181

FAUEE

When I say they hate yankees, its nothing to do with sports. Its people from the northeast. Pretty much everywhere in the southeast except parts of florida is like that. You get a sizeable number of people still fighting the civil war down here.

GA isn't bad, traffic is worse but Atlanta has lots to do as its a massive city.

Honestly, you would probably really like austin texas.

x88

Awesome at least they allow 35%, NJ allows none at all.

x88

Geez well I was born in Moscow, Russia and don't have much "north east pride."

My buddy moved to TX from my area and he loves it. Although he is black and ok with hotter climates, as I said my bloodline is from way up north so I wouldn't survive down there. Visited Miami and Orlando in early spring before and nearly passed out in a puddle of sweat, not for me.

I doubt I'd be paid the same amount as I am now in NJ but I suspect cost of living is a lot less.

Still need to research availablity of mountian driving roads, how the point system works for licenses, inspection regulations.

I'm sure I also will be paying less than the 600 a month I''m paying now for full coverage on both my Z06 and C240, will get a quote this week.

FAUEE

If you're Russian and not a northeasterner you'll be fine. It does get hot in GA and NC, but not nearly as humid as FL. It also gets much colder there than FL.

The mountain roads are just roads, in mountains. If you go hiking or tubing or something you will drive on them to get there. There's big name ones like tail of the dragon, but lots of better ones with less cops. And they are literally everywhere.

I realized my comments earlier came off more condemning than they were intended. There are lots of sports cars in NC. People on average are more into NASCAR than F1 though. You see more drag cars than road course cars. It's not like FL where you can go to a car related event every weekend. There are plenty of events to go to, you just have to go farther to be busy every weekend, and overall the area is more muscle cars than sports cars.

Costs of living is very cheap down here, its half what it was for me in FL. I pay like 1300 a year for my GS and my daily driver. No tickets, single, and 27. I paid 1.5x as much for just the dd in florida.

It's really not a bad place to live, but it's nothing like South FL where I grew up if you're looking for nightlife.

LFZ

I would stay away from Charlotte...too many crazy bitches that want to latch on to young single guys and squeeze you dry in all ways possible.

x88

Sounds like just like any other woman?

Another question: how are the gun laws? Have a firearms permit and one handgun. Not allowed to carry(not even in the car) in public here, what about GA? Allowed to keep it in the car?
EDIT: looks like you can own/carry in personal property without paperwork. Need a seperate carry license for public use. That's beyond what I'd want it for (personal protection in car/house) so thats' awesome

Seems to me the mountian roads are a blast. Not only do I love driving through them and taking some vids, I also love hiking and camping/fishing.

How is the shopping situation? I'm nextdoor to Paramus, we have many malls and sell more shiz than any other zip code in the USA. I don't want 10 malls but one or two would be nice.

LFZ

You will have to take a concealed carry class and you can carry and/or keep in your car. *Looks like you already know the answer here so you're good there.

The Tail of the Dragon is about 3.5 hours away and you can make a day out of it...Great driving up there and back. You also have the BlueRidge Parkway within close proximity; however, not a road you want to take aggressively, but a nice cruise with good scenery indeed. As for outdoor stuff, there is a WhiteWater center that has everything you want when it comes to camping, hiking, all that other bullchit.

Shopping is very good here...IMO, there are a ton of malls, but nowhere near what you have up there in Jersey. They are opening a new gigantic outlet mall on the southside of Charlotte, near the SC border. I am not sure what a Paramus is, although we do have everything from ghetto hoodrat malls to stuck up yuppie white people malls with Burberry, Lou Vitton, Tiffanys, and all that other rich white people stuff. So, if you're into those things, Charlotte could be the place for you.

I live in Charlotte, been through all of it and back. I am a young professional myself, and it is definitely a place that I now call home. Nightlife is great, activities are great, most of the car people are great , and there are tons of events from car shows to concerts to beer festivals, etc...everything a young guy like yourself would enjoy. I run into Russians all the time down here, and you guys party about as hard as Mexicans.

BTW...if I could live anywhere else down South, it would be Greenville, SC or Savannah, GA. Both excellent places to consider, especially if you take into consideration the warning I gave you about Charlotte girls.

x88

Don't think I could do SC, everyone I've talked to complains about the cops being d***s and I'm fed up with that already. Cops can't handle a young guy in a sports car here, something inside them flares up. All my friends have simular issues.

Savannah I've heard good things, but I'd need to be closer to ATL if I get a local job eventually I would need to be real close to the city for my line of work.

Russians do work hard.. and party harder...

I'm not so concerned about money sucking women, used to them, know how to handle them. Not even sure if I'm ever getting married but who knows.

I'm hearing a lot of bug problems in GA?

Did some research on club life in ATL and it seems to be pretty sweet.

Also did research on insurance and it's the same as I'm paying in NJ ($600 a month). However, by next spring it'll half itself because an accident and a careless driving offense will fall off the 3yr period.

LFZ you make Charlotte sound like a love hate relationship.
I met this cool bartender chick at 4Churchs when I was down there, both her and her friend slipped their numbers to me. Think her name was Mandy. Both cute blondes. Wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that I had about 4 Macallan 12s?

Bill McCassey

In GA you can carry a hand gun on you, as long as it is in plain sight, without a concealed carry permit. Your vehicle is considered an extension of your home! You may carry in your vehicle without a permit.

LFZ

Haha...I guess it kind of is a "love hate relationship" I have with this area. I don't plan on moving though... BTW...I love 12 year old Macallan...I'll have to check that place out.

FAUEE

I've never had issues with cops in SC. IME, GA is way more problematic. The cops will be super nice, but you will be getting huge fines regardless. The super speeder law in GA is borderline robbery.

SC isn't bad, Greenville Spartanburg is nice, decent number of young professionals due to bmw and all the other stuff it brings. The state isn't very wealthy overall, but that city ain't bad.

Charlotte is much wealthier. If you like shopping, South Park mall is nice. It's not super fancy, but you can get nice stuff there. Concord Mills isn't bad, but not great either. It is decently sized though.

I like it here, and id I was from anywhere else I'd probably stay. But being from South FL, it just doesn't compare here. So I woukd leave if it meant going back to FL.