2005 c6 Corvette

c6 corvette

2005 c6 corvette

This is a hard one to write about. It is such a great car, many people would think i’m crazy to have sold it. And I think i was. 

Back in 2005 i was ready for another sports car. I was convinced I was going to get a Porsche, a Boxster in fact. Used. There was no doubt in my mind. I test drove a few boxsters and they were ok, not much power but fun and they made a nice noise. I knew Porsches were expensive to fix and at that point in my life i wasn’t ready to fix it myself or pay someone else to fix it.

Now the corvette. Through work i get a discount on chevys, so i called all of the local chevy dealerships and asked if they would accept my employee discount. They all said no of course, but the last one I called said that they would give me a discount, not as much as the employee discount, but close enough. So I drove over there. Being a chevy dealership, they wouldn’t let me test drive or even touch the car, I was after all only in my 30’s and for sure, I wouldn’t be able to handle the power. But they did let me order one. 6-speed, red, tan leather, Z51. Pretty sweet. $43k. I waited. And I waited. I read the forums and how much people were enjoying there new corvettes. Then came a post, “Just saw a new red corvette arrive at classic chevrolt”. I posted, “It’s mine!”.

the next i got the call and the car was mine.

Now if I’m a Porsche guy, through and though, why did i buy the corvette? well for two reasons at the time. It had an awesome power to weight ratio and a 3 year warranty. Now that i’m older and wiser, power to weight isn’t as important, but it’s the experience of driving your dream.

My ride home was in stop and go traffic. and then I spent the next few weeks passing the break-in period. I did an oil change after the break-in period and the oil was black. 

Now I was ready to experience that awesome power-to-weight for my self. I let it rip. It sounded great and of course threw me back into my seat.

I had to track it. 

I signed up for a PCA track day. It was great. I was about to catch up to the 996 Turbos on the straight. Very impressive. I loved my car.

Were there things I didn’t like? Sure, there always are. The thing that bothered me the most was the Chevy Tahoe steering wheel the car car with. But that was easily fixed. The 2006 car had a new three spoke wheel. I bought one of those and I was happy.

The car did squeak from that day i got it. But that didn’t bother me. In fact it had more squeaks then my 1999 911 does. And I had a few problems with it. Everyone once in a while the battery would die. I finally figured out that sometimes I wasn’t closing the driver’s door all the way and the alarm system was draining the battery. The other problem I had was the radio. I think I had three radios put in the car and they all didn’t work right. Something to do with the RDS system is i remember correctly. Software problem that was never fixed.

I had my one and only street race in the Corvette. A Lotus Esprit Turbo. I won of course. It was fun. First time i hit the rev limiter. I went the fastest I’ve been in a car too. 125. Felt like i was going 60. 

It was a great car and I prefer it to the new c7. To me it was like driving a GT1 car at LeMans. I loved seeing the tops of the fenders through the windshield. And the sound was just wonderful, as was the thrust.

Is my 1999 911 better? Of Course it is. But I’m a biased Porsche guy. Is the 911 slower? Yes. But it has a certain quality about it. It’s being at 4,000 rpm, with the wonderful sound behind you. It doesn;t have the thrust of the corvette, but it has alot of personality that the corvette was missing. It’s not that the corvette isn’t an awesome car, it is, it’s just that the Porsche is better.