Being born in the early 1970’s my story is different from most. Corvette was already 20 years old when I was born, and the shark bodied Corvette was all I knew growing up. The first Vette I ever remember seeing was the 1978 Pace Car. I loved the looks of that shark, and at 5 years old that is all that mattered. Ten years later, my father was given a used 1986 Corvette coupe as a down payment on a house. The C4 was the first Corvette I ever rode in. I was 15 years old and anxious to drive it when I turned 17. My father sold the car 2 months before I got my learner’s permit. For the next 10 years a Corvette was a pipe dream. It seemed too expensive and too impractical. Right before I got married I decided I wanted a fun car for the weekends. At first I was looking for an F-Body from the late 70s.

Every day on my way to work I would drive past Madsen Corvette Restorations and see the different Vettes parked outside the shop. Suddenly a Corvette didn’t seem too far out of reach for some reason. Immediately I started looking for a 1978 Pace Car or Silver Anniversary. My girlfriend at the time (now wife) kept urging me to get an older one. She kept saying that if it didn’t have chrome bumpers it wasn’t a “real” Corvette. Finally I found a blue 1970 coupe. It was everything I wanted. It was a shark, it had power and it looked fantastic. After owning it for 3 years I found I hardly used it. I had made up my mind to sell it and went to a local Corvette Club meeting to find out how much it was worth. The members of the Natural Glass Corvette Association were so friendly that they convinced me to keep the car and join the club. While I’ve had a lifetime of encounters with Corvette it wasn’t until I became a member of NGCA that I became a fanatic. So much so that I had to buy an additional Corvette for my wife when we had kids so we could still participate in Corvette activities together. If not for the NGCA my Corvette would have simply been a nice car that I had at some point in my life instead of being a part of a lifestyle that I have grown to love.