11 Reasons People Fall in Love with Corvette
People Love Their Corvettes
Obviously we all love our our Corvettes, but we all have different reasons. For some people it is all about the performance, for some it is the looks, and for some it is just the ultimate expression of their patriotism. Scroll through and reminisce about falling in love with some of the best looking, best performing cars ever built.
1. The Cool Dad
When you were a kid your dad drove a truck, or a minivan, or a station wagon, or a boring old 4-door sedan, but not Tommy down the street. Tommy's dad was the cool dad, and he drove a Corvette, and one day he took you for a ride in it. You may have fallen in love with it the minute he started the motor and you heard that V8 roar to life, or it may have been when you first felt the power push you back in the seat. From that day forward, you always knew that eventually you would have to have one of your own.
2. The TV Show
The TV show "Route 66" debuted in 1960 and ran for four seasons, following the adventure of two young men who traveled around the country in their Corvette. With backing from Chevrolet, Tod Stiles and Buzz Murdock (later Lincoln Case) got a new Vette every season, though the show never explained how. In the pilot they had a 1960, switching to a 1961 for the rest of the 1st season (both light blue), then they got a Fawn Beige 1962 for the next season, and later, Saddle Tan Sting Rays in 1963 and 1964. For plenty of young baby boomers, this cemented a life long association of Corvettes and cool.
3. The Boss' Car
Maybe it was your dad's boss, or maybe it was your mom's. Maybe you were just starting out in sales and it belonged to a slightly older guy who was just constantly selling more than anyone and banking those fat commission checks. Maybe it was just your supervisor who had an older model Corvette. One thing was certain though, no matter where he went, when he stepped out of that car, he was in charge. The cool confidence that comes from being the boss is projected in the aggressive shape of the Corvette, and it is obvious to everyone. Are you cool because you drive a Corvette, or is it the other way around? You are cool, and so you drive a Corvette.
4. The Beach Boys, and Jan & Dean
For people of a certain age, the car culture songs of bands like the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, and others got stuck in your brain via AM radio waves and never left. When the Beach boys sang in Shut Down about a race between "Two cool shorts standing side by side, a fuel injected String Ray and a 413..." of course they meant the latest 327ci Corvette with 360hp. Jan & Dean had a similar Sting Ray going up against a Jaguar E-type, on the popular street racing/cruising stretch of Sunset Blvd. The latest C7 Corvette Stingray may not have quite the visual style of the old C2, but it would beat them in the drags or on the street, and dust the 413 Mopar and Jaguar XKE as well.
5. The Gleaming Prize on the Pedestal
A car is just transportation for most people, but when you park, walk into a casino and see a gleaming, glittering Corvette slowly rotating on a platform over the slot machines, there is no mistaking it for any other car. All the normal cars just sit in the parking lot, but this piece of automotive perfection is the prize for those lucky enough to win it. Or those good enough at life to make the money needed to buy one. Either way, the Corvette is the car for winners.
6. Father and Son Project
For some Corvette owners, the love of the car started young while working on a project with their dad. You hear stories all the time of a father dragging home a clapped out wreck of a car with a blown motor, collision damage, or parts missing from a theft recovery and working all winter, or all year, or even several years to restore it. Sure it is work, but some of the best memories are made in the garage handing dad tools, and helping him sand or fit parts. When it is all over, you may even have a family heirloom that can be passed down to your kids, years after your dad is gone.
7. The Hot Girl
Men are simple creatures. See one stunning woman get out of a Corvette when you are younger and forever more you are going to associate Corvettes and attractive women. The curves and Coke bottle shape that both often have makes it easy for them to hang out together in your mind. The mystery and danger of fast cars and all women when you are a young and impressionable boy make both very exciting. Seeing a beautiful woman behind the wheel, driving a beautiful car with the top down, is enough of a distraction to cause a traffic accident.
8. Working the Drive Thru
If you ever worked in fast food, and manned the drive thru window, you probably saw somebody drive up in their Corvette and wondered who this was, and how they got so cool. It really is hard to avoid. You are trapped inside, making minimum wage, and with your face all broken out from the constant oil all around you, meanwhile some dashing older dude and his hot lady friend are driving a car that looks like a mechanical shark. You may not have started saving for your first Vette on that day, but you certainly started thinking about it, and it became the car of your dreams.
9. The Performance Bargain
Sure, there are mad, passionate, irrational love affairs, and then there is the love born from cold, calculated, reason. Some may argue that loving the Corvette for the amount of performance you get for your money, doing a cost/benefit analysis, is actually the opposite of love. You may appreciate the value, you may be impressed by the speed and handling, but can you call it love? Yes, you can 100% be in love with a car for what it can do, and how much it cost you. After all, it is only a car, not a person. A Corvette is not going to get upset if it hears you talk about how little you had to pay for it, or how much better it is than your last car.
10. Get Hooked Young
Chevy and the toy companies have been colluding for decades to get small boys addicted to their cars. Hook them young with toys and model kits and you'll have customers for life. Customizable kits like this old MPC 3-in-1 are especially dangerous gateway kits, because not only do you get the shape of the car imprinted in your brain, you get addicted to modding the car, too. Years from now your bank account will show just how effective these kits are.
11. Dirk Diggler's 1977 Corvette
It may be a common joke that Corvette owners are over compensating for something, but Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights sure had no need to compensate. As a man there may not be any way for you to get the other things a successful 1970s porn star had, a girlfriend who looks like Heather Graham and a larger package, but you can drive the same car. The Corvette has always been a symbol of virility and sex appeal, and no matter who you are, driving one makes you more physically attractive.
This whole piece was inspired by a thread on the Corvette Forums, and you can read personal stories of their first love, or share your own here: What Made You Fall in Love with Corvette.
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