Corvette C3 of the Week
Larry writes: Greetings from Hamilton, Ontario! A very nice site you've put together indeed. I'd love it if you would add my 1981 beige/bronze beauty to your line up. I read your bio and broke out laughing a couple times, either I'd been there too, or you were just darn funny. I could tell you many stories about the '64 289/4sp Mustang, '66 Mercury Maurader 390 convertible, '69 Firebird 400 and many more that I had in those young crazy days when we drove like we knew we would never die. Luckily for us, well me anyways, I believed it because there were times....ah forget about it. In 1971 our steel making plant here in Hamilton hired me at 19 years of age and I was there up to 2007 when I thought enough was enough and I retired. Like you, the muscle cars were traded in for Dodge caravans and such because life and mortgages and kids got in the way. Not that I minded, it's been a great life. But in 1978 when the Corvette pace car came out, I just about crapped my pants. I needed that car more then anything in this world. Of course, the closest I ever got was posters and magazines out in the garage I shared with a 3-4 year old son. As life got easier (money wise in the mid 80's I picked up a '70 Buick GS /ram air, a gorgeous '74 Monte Carlo landau which I custom painted with Kenny Kay. But the car that was not the fastest, nor the most comfortable was the 1979 corvette I 'stole' from a guy who was broke. That car did the same to me, it stole away my soul. Never before did I ever drive a car that drove like that. The virus caught my now 10-11 year old son and he's been addicted ever since. BUT...life gets in the way again, a daughter arrived, a brand new house apparently was more important to the wife then a 'hot rod' so, from about 1989 till 2007, the pace car posters went back up in the new garage and SUVs and 4x4's were the cars of the day once more. The kids, now adults in 2007, and my wife encouraged me to get the 1978 pace car I had always wanted when I retired. Believe me or not, I just wasn't that crazy about going after one anymore. But then, my good buddy and neighbour brought home his C4 crossfire. I told him what I thought of it (looks like a pregnant Mazda RX7 to me!). I now have come to respect the C4's upon closer observation.
Binnie writes: Larry is a member of the Stoney Creek Corvette Club in Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada |