In 2006, I was bit by the Corvette bug. And while I've always been interested in cars (and worked on 'em as best I could), the Corvette bug bit me hard!

It all started with my wife! When she was a teen, she owned a 1962 Fawn Beige (gold) convertable Corvette. She always regretted selling it and she would speak about it every now and again.

1995 Coupe

So......in 2006, I bought my wife a 1995 C4 (4th Generation) Corvette as an anniversary present (click on any pic for a larger view).

Having a chance to drive this Vette did it for me! I just had to have one of my own so I went looking for one (I had bought a new Mustang in 2006 and figured I'd have no problem selling it. Man, was I wrong! Took me 3 months and I had to take a $2000 hit in order to do so - and it only had 13,000 miles on it and was still under factory warranty!

2002 ZO6

But I digress....

I went looking for a Vette of my very own and found an '02 Z06 (5th Generation or "C5") on a Ford lot! It was a trade in and they really didn't know what they had. I bought it for $10,000 below Blue Book and was thrilled!

Yes, that is a Yaesu FT-8900 you see installed in the center console. Ham radio from a Corvette! Nothing like combining the two!

2007 Coupe

In 2009, there was going to be a national caravan (road trip!) to the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green Kentucky (right across the street from where Corvettes are born) to celebrate the museum's 15th Anniversary. Here's a link to the one next year for their 20th Anniversary

As it turns out, a buddy of mine knew of a very clean, low mileage 2007 (6th Generation or "C6") coupe available. It had a few upgrades and modifications. As we were going on a cross-country trip in 2009, I bought this Vette 2 days before Christmas, 2008:

And yep, you're seeing what you think! The Yaesu and antenna are now installed in my new Corvette! My wife - after having a chance to drive the ZO6 home after I picked up the new car - kept the ZO6 for herself and we sold her C4. Ain't life great?!

We did the National Corvette Caravan in August/September of 2009 over 2 weeks and had a blast! The car was flawless, comfortable and fun! Click here to see many photos of our trip with our Corvette Club

Well... as fortune would have it, I grew tired of taking care of a black car and lucky me! GM introduced a new color called JetStream Blue, which is a very special paint with metal flake and, depending on the angle you look at it, a slight green to turquoise hue to it. I had to have that color! And, as I bought this car with the widebody modification done to the rear (fender flares and 12" wide tires!), it seemed I needed to finish the widebody conversion and do the front.

I opted to go with the Grand Sport front and repaint the entire car. Why go through all this instead of just buying a new one? Well, remember those modifications I mentioned when I talked about buying the car? The car was equipped pretty much as I wanted with:

• F55 suspension
• Selectable Magnetic Ride
• Professionally done Grand Sport body conversion (done by DB Custom in Newberg, Oregon)
• Painted to match fuel rail covers
• Coastaltech Lockpick Ipod interface with control from Navigation touch screen
• Rear Cargo area mat
• Cargo shade/cover w/emblem
• American flag inserts for front/rear exterior emblems
• Comp grey rims
• Hawk HPS brake pads
• Custom covered center console bezel
• Windows tinted
• Bose Sound system upgraded with Polk speakers and amplifier (sounds killer!)
• Upgraded Z51 front and rear sway bars
• New end links – front & rear
• Upgraded brakes front and rear painted red (cross drilled rotors)
• Ported throttle body and intake manifold
• Elite Engineering Oil Catch Can
• Halltech Venom Cold Air Intake
• Carbon fiber shifter and e-brake handle
• Down South Vettes shifter boot and e-brake boot
• Painted hoodliner
• HID fog lamps
• NPP exhaust
• Aftermarket billet aluminum pedals and side dead pedal

It didn't make sense to me to take a major depreciation hit only to have to do the upgrades to a new one. So I opted to upgrade this one!

Photos of the entire conversion job can be seen in the Photos section of this website or you can simply click here!

2014 Z51 Stingray

In November 2013, I sold my beautiful 2007 C6 to a buyer in New Orleans. He flew out here in Oregon to pick it up and drive it home. Why sell it you ask?

After I heard about them, I decided I wanted one of the new 2014 C7 Corvette Stingrays. They were rumored to be totally redesigned inside and out and sported very modern electronics. Of course they were also to be the high performance sport car they always were.

So when they were first announced in early spring of 2013, I thought I would wait a year or two to allow them to work the 1st year bugs out. So I made sure to follow the various Corvette forums on the web and the issues were all small ones. And those issues were getting ironed out rather quickly.

On my birthday in October, a local dealer had one on the lot and after having a chance to not only see one in person (pictures really don't do it justice) and sitting in it, I just had to have one! I knew I would have to sell my beloved C6 in order to do this, yet I saw that there were more and more used C6s appearing on the market, seemingly every day! This, coupled with the very obvious interest the C7 was getting from the Corvette Community that I'd have to forgo the idea of waiting, sell my C6 NOW and get a new Stingray on order.

So I sold my C6 and on November 21st, 2013, special ordered my Stingray through a dealer in Idaho (one of the few dealers selling them for below MSRP). Funny how we can remember dates such as these, eh?

After 3 months of waiting, anticipating and reading, reading and more reading every article I could find about the new Stingrays, I had her sitting warm and safe in my garage.

Some stats:

Here are some pics but many more may be found here

2019 Grand Sport

One aspect of my new Corvette that I REALLY loved was the color. While I had toyed with the idea of upgrading, the choices I had for color really didn't appeal to me all that much so I didn't. Now I know some of you may think that color isn't that big a deal but as you see from my history with Corvettes, I'm partial to blue. And the C7 Corvette looks REALLY GOOD in blue!

But Laguna Blue was discontinued in 2016 and the only other offering of a blue was much too dark for my taste. So I stuck with my Laguna Blue 2014 until late Summer of 2018, when GM decided to introduce a new color called Elkhart Lake Blue Metallic, which turned out to be VERY VERY close to Laguna Blue so I decided to sell my 2014 Z51 Stingray and order a new Grand Sport in August. It took only 2 weeks to sell my 2014 but as it turned out, all orders for the new color couldn't be placed until September 1st and GM would not start building the new color car until October 1st. So I placed my order with the #2 dealer in the country (MacMulkin Chevy in New Hampshire) and waited (and waited and waited!). On Oct. 5th, I received word that my car would be built the week of Oct. 15th. At the end of that week, I received word my car was built and was being shipped (I had chosen to do a Courtesy Delivery through my local Chevy Dealer). On November 6th, I took delivery of my new Grand Sport C7 Corvette.

In addition to the standard features of the car, I opted for the following options:

Full set of pics may be found here

My wife and I belong to 2 Corvette clubs:

Mt Hood Corvettes, Portland Oregon ( I am currently Webmaster)

Willamette Valley Corvettes Salem Oregon (I am currently Webmaster)