The fall of 1995 was definitely the beginning of my love affair for the C3 Corvette. It was homecoming and my dad was kind enough to hand over the keys to his freshly painted and fixed-up 1976 Stingray so that I could pick my date up in style (though I’m sure her parents could not have been thrilled). When I picked the car up it was the view down that long hood that had me hooked with those sharp fenders jutting up on each side - it was a reminder that I was driving something special. So with the T-tops out and the music up, it was time to head to the dance - but all I wanted to do was drive! My date, however, wanted to dance. Pulling into the school parking lot, heads were turning and people wanted to check out the car. Little did I know that while we were inside the school one of my classmates decided to key the car, dragging a deep line down the entire passenger side of the freshly painted brown metallic. I didn’t discover this until the next morning and was admittedly terrified to return it to my dad. Luckily for me he knew I was not to blame and shrugged it off. The way he handled that situation has stuck with me for life, but not as strongly as that desire to own my very own C3 and live that cockpit view whenever I wanted! Fast forward to 2021 and very unexpected windfall that would change my life. My first purchase? My 1972 Stingray. Numbers matching LS5 and 4-speed with side pipes and 48,000 original miles. Having had this as my dream car for nearly 30 years, it had to be flawless. So I took this perfectly good C3 and tore it down to bare fiberglass and frame so I could build it up as perfectly as I had dreamed. Over 17 months and 1100 hours I did every bit of work myself aside from help carrying the windshield and the paint! It was the most satisfying and rewarding task I’ve ever taken on and I couldn’t be more proud of the final product. My dream car is now MY dream car.