I am Brian Hartmann, and here is my Corvette story. I am the middle child of three boys. I inherited my love for anything with wheels, especially cars, from my Dad. My love for Corvette cars started when I was just a year and a half old. My Dad had a 1966 Corvette Coupe, which was our family car, and my Dad had made seat belts for my older brother and myself, as well as a belt to hold my younger brother’s pumpkin seat in the back of the car. My parents and all three of us kids went grocery shopping, and this was way before there were plastic grocery bags, so it was my parents, a fold up playpen, a fold up stroller, us three kids, and fourteen paper bags of groceries jammed in this 1966 Corvette coupe. So, we got home from shopping, my Mom put all the groceries away, then proceeded to have a talk with my Dad, and how we needed a bigger family car. My Dad understood, and proceeded to cry for two weeks. He then contacted several people that might be interested in buying the Corvette. He then purchased a 1964 Chevelle Station Wagon, and installed a hi performance 327 V8 engine, with a 4 speed manual transmission, and dual exhaust. So, “technically “ he had a Corvette in station wagon form. My Dad always wanted another Corvette, but life happens, and what was best for the family, always took priority over getting a Corvette. I purchased my first Corvette in 2005. It was a 1969 Corvette Coupe. It was Orange in color, but was originally Fathom Green, and had a 427 V8 engine with a 4 speed transmission, and was a factory side pipe car, even though the factory side pipes were no longer on the car. I stripped the car to bare fiberglass, and painted it Cortez Silver, replaced the worn out interior and weather strips, as well as installed new side pipe exhaust and made the car a L-88 Tribute car right down to the decal on the console and the radio delete plate. I had a whole lot of fun with the car, but in 2009 when the recession doing what it did, and I lost my job, as well as ended up going through a divorce, the car had to go. A very nice gentleman from California now owns the car and is enjoying it. It took several years to get back to the point of being able to own another Corvette, and in 2017, I purchased what was the first of a long list of C4 Corvettes. It was number 33 of the only 1000 produced 1996 Corvette Grand Sports. It is a Coupe with Black Interior. After that, I have been in the right place, at the right time, a whole lot of times. I currently own (6) C4 Corvettes. Besides the 1996 Grand Sport, I own a 1994 Arctic White with Gray Interior Coupe that has a 6 speed manual transmission, a 1995 Corvette Indy Pace Car (number 389 of the 527 produced), a 1996 Collector Edition Convertible with Black interior that has the factory removable hardtop, a 1996 Bright Red with Black Interior Coupe with an automatic transmission, and a 1994 Arctic White Coupe with Gray Interior that has an automatic transmission, and is very special, since it is a “LAST C4” Tribute car. Ever since I heard about Mr. Mike Yager purchasing the LAST C4, I wanted to have one of my own. So, several years ago, I started the search for the right car to make into the LAST C4 Tribute Car, and it took me 4 years to find it. Along the way, I have acquired the necessary parts to make the car as close to the REAL DEAL car as possible. So, I finally found the car I needed to make the Tribute Car and picked it up on Memorial Day, May 27, 2024 in West Virginia. On our way back to Saint Louis Missouri, my wife and I hopped off the highway and buzzed up to see if Mike, along with his amazing staff at Mid America Motorworks, to see what they could do to help me complete the process of transforming the car into a Tribute/ Clone LAST C4 Car. We were greeted by Mr. Nick Rueter, and he was more than willing to help in any way possible to make the process and transformation possible. It was a lot of work, and although it is not totally completed yet, it is almost there. With the help of Mike and his team of amazing people including Nick and the fantastic social media coordinator Marlyn Koester, my family and I brought my Grand Sport and LAST C4 Tribute Car to the Corvette Funfest Event at the Mid America Motorworks location on September 21, 2024, and had a great time. They wanted to showcase my car with the REAL DEAL LAST C4 and it turned out more amazing than I expected. Mike seemed very impressed at how my car turned out and we had a great time. I am sure my family and myself will be returning to Mid America Motorworks for not only any restoration parts that we may need for our cars, but look forward to returning for more Corvette Funfest events in the future…. I am sure that I am not finished buying Corvettes, and I never know when the next deal of a lifetime will jump up in front of me.