Drove a 'vette for the 1st time

[coldstart]

My Dad still has his 1968 Stingray that he bought new in 1968-9.

Original engine, original tranny and pretty much everything else. Only one clutch and the engine has never been apart. 300K miles. Pretty impressive but he hasn't driven the car much in the past 20 years. It was repainted and the chasis was restored 5-6 years ago. I have been pushing him to get it out of the garage without success.

[mikeferg75]

My brothers 70 in rare Laguna Grey, color and car are fantastic.

[J P Stein]

I had a 58 Vette (it was not an imrpovement over the 57) back in the early 70s. It had the "competition" suspension & a hot 327...... rode fairly well.....but I was younger then. It was just the right size. Drove some later ones they got boat like. The 69(?) w/427 was gawd awful.
Them bulgy front fenders effed up the sight lines.

[yel911]

I also grew up in the muscle car world, with an older brother that was a huge influence. I used to drive his 71 Vette with a 427 4 speed to hight school!!! My first car was a 1970 Nova SS 396. But, like most here, the first 911 experience was a ride I would never forget. My bro-in-law today has a 1982 collector's edition with 17K miles and my other bro-in-law has a 2003 50th, 14k miles.

[KTL]

Have to admit Vettes always get a look from me. I grew up a Chevy guy having a dad and brother that wrenched on them. Always liked the early C3 since that's what I saw most of as a kid. Guy next door to me has a burnt orange C3 that eventually he'll have to get rid of and i'll snag it from him on the cheap I hope. Runs like crap every one time per year he brings it out......

The C4 was and still is a pile. Not until '96 did they finally make it decent- right before the changeover to the C5. Why does GM do that on so many models?

C5 and C6 are a lot of bang for your buck.

Originally Posted by yel911

My bro-in-law today has a 1982 collector's edition with 17K miles .

Tell him i'm sorry............... Sharp car but oh the humanity that crossfire-injected 350. What an abomination of engine management.

[johnsjmc]

I had a 1964 roadster while my brother had a 1964 coupe. My mother drove a 1975 vette then too. Today I have a 1972 454 sitting in the driveway in pieces next to my 993. My 1966 Mustang fastback gets the garage space for the time being.
With all these sports cars around what do I end up driving most often ? A new F150.

[BernieP]

I sold my 65 roadster 2 yeas ago. 327 that would rev forever, pretty good brakes and that V8 made great sounds. Handling was good for 1965. I have never owned a car that got more thumbs up when driving. The best part was cheap Chevy parts.

Bernie P

[yel911]

Tell him i'm sorry............... Sharp car but oh the humanity that crossfire-injected 350. What an abomination of engine management.

A couple of things with that car, the gas in it is so old, yet every year, it starts right up!!! The other thing is, my bro-in-law keeps the receipt for the battery on the battery, because every year the battery goes dead (no tender) and he goes back to Walmart (yup) and gets a new one!!! It also leaks everywhere, transmission seal, calipers...

[KTL]

Its funny how people take advantage of warranties in various ways. I know guys who buy cheap lifetime brake pads and put them on their LeMons shiatboxes. Pads wear out after a few races, they go back to AutoZone and get some more. Can't fault them. That's a smart way to run your "racing team!"




Dam, that's a gooooooood looking car. Some day i'll have one a lot like that. Thanks for sharing!

Funny aside story about Vette encounters. I used to have a '98 Mustache Cobra before I bought the 911. It was a magnet for "hey wanna race" guys on the street. I guess the blinding chrome yellow color was the cause of that?

Anyhow, one night i'm out for a drive and an old loud cammy, lopey big block C3 comes alongside at a stoplight. Give him the hey-nice-car-dude nod and I leave the light normally like a fine upstanding citizen. He comes flying by me after he lets me get out in front of him a bit, I watch him go. We then end up alongside each other at the next light.

Well my buddy Mark sitting next to me sez, "You better throw down and race that schleprock, otherwise I have no idea why you bought this car!" So I give the guy no indication i'm going to launch it on green. Green comes and i'm gone like a fart in the wind and leave him smelling it. Windows down, I can here the Vette coming IN A HURRY and gets even with me. Then he has to upshift, falls way back. I keep my foot in it, he's still coming & gets a nose on me. Then he has to upshift, falls back again. I shut it down before we reached completely stupid speed.

The Vette was fast as a mofo but apparently the guy could not shift to save his life. Funniest "race" i've ever encountered. I found it odd that shifting was his problem. My brother used to have a really nice '65 Nova with a M21 Muncie 4 speed. Boy that thing shifted nice. I know the early C3s also had really tough Muncie 4 speeds as well. After driving the Nova, made me wish I had a Muncie in my 911 (incidentally a G50)!

[speeder]

Yep, that's one beautiful car Mikeferg. That's equal to the best looking C3 'vette I've ever seen. While the C2 is my favorite, I have a couple of childhood memories involving that model. One was a ride in a 427 4-speed in about '69, (I would have been 10 years old), he plastered my little body against the back of the seat with the throttle with a 1-2 upshift.

The other was at a party in HS with one of my best friends and his older brother in early '70s. They were a big NAVY family, Dad was a reserve commander and sons in military school. They were also rich. When we arrived at the party, (friend of his older bro), there was a C2 'vette with 427 badges on hood in driveway. Older bro said to younger bro, "that's what you get when you go to the Naval Academy."

[techweenie]

I bought a '57 in college on impulse and sold it the next day.

It had a big section of the right front fender sitting in the passenger seat and a leaking radiator. My experience driving it was limited to about 3 miles. It was one of those things where you wake up the next day and realize you can't possibly make it a driveable car and pay tuition, lodging, etc. Luckily while I was washing it, a kid drove by and offered me 4X what I paid for it. I think my total time of ownership was 18 hours.

It was not terribly impressive to drive. I took my profits and bought a rusty '58 Impala with a 348.

I've helped people shop for Vettes and found that from C4 on, the vast majority are automatics.

[KTL]

Originally Posted by techweenie

C4 on, the vast majority are automatics.

Very true. C4 had an AWFUL 4+3 Doug Nash 4 speed weirdo gearbox until '89 when they decided a better gearbox was needed. They installed a ZF 6 speed until the Borg Warner/Tremec T56 finally was lifted from the Camaro and put into the C5 for 1997? Even with a nice 6 speed trans, the C4 manual is pretty rare unless you bought a ZR-1.

I think the C5 manuals are much less rare when people started realizing that only guys named Sally should be driving an automatic "sports car?"