I'm just weird....I quickly got tired quickly of people oggling....
...and mine *IS* ugly!!! (needs paint, needs my lazy coward butt to put on the top I bought two Novembers ago for it....)
I have never gotten the "that thing's ugly [or common]" despite what to me are hellish cosmetic issues.
I bought the car after a fairly long search simply as a platform for an all out monster displacement mill. I deliberately picked one that had been altered some, but was seemingly in decent shape. In Texas it needed to be 25 years old so I wouldn't have to find someone to bribe every year for inspection stickers and I was damned if I was spending $20K for yet another 4000 pound DEAD axle non-handling heap - that meant a C3 vette.
I never had had an "in" car before, never had a new car, never spent over $10K in even a five year upgrade and here I got a red on black ragtop that's just shy of $75K in 3 years (still without the motor that started the whole project...)
I really, Really, REALLY did NOT want red, yellow, white, lime green or any other high vis color simply to avoid the revenuers. (No, they don't "pick" on red cars - I was just concerned any bright color could be SEEN further away.) I really considered kryloning the whole thing flat, pavement gray the first week I had it, but now am of course glad I didn't bubba it that badly.
At first the car load of college chicks leaning out yelling "we love your car!" was neat, odd and weird. I really assumed they were screwing with me and blew it off. Until the next time.....and the next time....and the next time....
After a while it got a little old - all the kids, chicks, old ladies, other mid forties fat guys like me, young punks - WHOEVER - who constantly asked me about my car. (Most frequently asked question: What year is it?) Amazing how when I tell them it's a worthless parts car, some of it is still '75 but most is '01+, and the nose and tail are '81 style a fair number actually say "yeah, I wondered about the rear spoiler on that year.") I thought THAT was standard BS, but now suspect a lot of these people actually watched these things for years!
I occassionally do get an idiotic remark like from your new found buddy there (Hey - he's <100 miles from VetteMecca? Well THAT explains a lot!)
The most irritating of those is a variation of "yeah, I had one of those - lots of power (mid '70's? please!), but I'll bet you found the ass gets away from ya' in the rain, right?" That INSTANTLY tells me I'm talking to some idiot who's never even driven anything but a low-end FWD ricer. I gave up trying to explain to them "yeah, the first American car to rival Europe's best, and of course a pickup truck or econobox handles better in the rain, yeah, of course, you bet, sure...THAT'S reasonable...."
Look at it this way - that little freak and his more worthless buddies who can't even hold down the fast food career might not try to "key" one nice side of your car, slash the tires or stupidly try to steal it if they think it's an ugly stupid car, saving you sending out an expensive hail of 10mm and maybe missing and hitting your own car! They'll go for the "cool" primered CRX down the street that's "rad" with 24" wheels and one 7" muffler with 6 outlets, repleat with peeling limo-tint (that is, if the x'ed out nintendo set ever got out of the gubm't subsidized apartment long enough to do old fashioned pranks!)
