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New Corvette Becomes Dining Room Art

Rob

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What do you think about displaying your brand new Z06 Corvette as a piece of art?
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New Corvette is dining room art for Lewes couple

<img src="/images/design/front/c6z06_07.jpg" width="175" height="129" hspace="5" vspace="5" border="1" alt="2007 Z06 Corvette" align="left" />By Molly Albertson, Cape Gazette Staff

It sits in the driveway, shiny, black and still in its plastic covering. The new 2007 Corvette Z06 is a GI Joe still in his box or a limited edition comic book that will never be read. It’s a toy that won’t come out of its wrapper. The car hasn’t even been washed.

Owners Jim and Carla Martin were at the dealership when their car came off the truck. They wiped down the hood and cleaned smudges off the mirrors, put it inside a trailer and took it home. “It’s a day everybody will remember,” Carla said.

Anticipating the car

Jim said he’s not waiting for life to be over to buy what he wants, but he’s not about to abuse his new baby by driving her. He’ll probably put a few miles on it, he said, but no more than 1,000. The $100,000 super car is part investment and part toy.

“I didn’t want to wait to own one of the fastest cars on the road,” he said. The car is known to be what Jim called a street-legal racing car.

“You should live your life to the fullest, like today was your last, and hopefully we’ll enjoy this car,” Carla said. There was only one thing that kept the couple from buying the car last year, when it was released on the market. “You never want to buy the first year of a car, and this is one of the first 2007 models,” he said. Waiting one year lets the company work out all the kinks to improve the car, Jim said. He had been dreaming of owning this car for an entire year when he called the C.P. Diver dealership in Lewes to see if they could order it for him. “I called J.B. [Barbarulo, salesman] and told him what I wanted, he said they could do it, and I took him the deposit that day,” he said. Jim’s first car was a Corvette, and he plans to always park one in the garage. “Once you have a Corvette, you continue to have one,” he said.

Fully loaded

According to Jim, there’s not much that could be improved on this Corvette. “It comes standard with the newest technology available, including a meter that reads G-force, a navigation system that shows up on the flat-screen monitor in the console, a DVD player and much more. “We’re not technology people,” Jim said. But they can both appreciate the bells and whistles that came with their new toy.

Although the car comes with all the tricks, the Z06 is hardly standard. It has a new body type that is wider than the typical Corvette. “It’s an extremely rare car to be on production. It’s also the best for the buck compared to other cars on the market,” Jim said. He said the car’s is comparable in horsepower to a Ferrari or Lamborghini. “We like American cars,” Carla said. And the vehicles are more than just cars. “They all have women’s names,” Jim said. The Corvette, aka Madison, joins another car, Suicide Blonde, Jim said.

More toys in the garage

Although the couple likes American cars, and they have a few foreign strays in the collection of sports cars. They also have a thing for motorcycles. Besides the new Corvette, there’s the Mercedes convertible and a few Italian scooters.

Carla has a collection of retro-vintage Vespas. For her birthday one year Jim had several imported from Italy. “She wanted a scooter so I had a Vespa sent from Italy,” he said. Just one wasn’t enough, so she now has four scooters from the 1960s and 1970s. Other than Carla’s colorful Vespas, the couple’s toys are all black. “Nothing looks better than a clean, black car,” Jim said. Or a shiny, black, fast bike.

Jim also loves Harley-Davidsons. “We have various high-performance bikes,” he said.

“I enjoy building bikes,” he said. He builds two or three bikes each year and sells them at bike shows in Florida, where the couple lives during the winter.

Racing town

Where else would the Martins live, except the birthplace of speed? They bought a new home in Daytona Beach, Fla., last year. When they went home shopping, the couple kept their hobby and passion in mind. “The garage was the first priority,” Carla said. The house has a climate-controlled garage with one glass wall. “You can sit in the dining room and see the cars, the motorcycles and the Vespas,” Carla said. Their collection is the center of their lives.

“We’re living the no-fear life on the edge of destruction,” Jim said about driving his fast bikes and cars. But that life doesn’t always come easily.

Cuddly toys

The couple always has a stuffed animal with them that reminds them of hard times. “Carla had a major accident where she broke her back,” Jim said. When she got out of the hospital he gave her a little stuffed cow named Tex. “It was a security blanket and now it’s grown into something more,” Carla said. They are well known for dragging Tex with them everywhere – in all their worldwide travels. “He’s sat on biker bars in Key West, been in a race in Daytona, and even overseas,” Carla said. At Christmas time the couple turns their attention away from buying fast toys, to their tiny stuffed good luck charm.

“We shop for him, he has a little remote control Hummer he rides around in, and a tiny Vespa that actually moves,” Carla said. They get a kick out of sharing their love for fast toys with Tex, and with their friends. Jim and Carla bring some of their cars and bikes to Delaware each summer to play with while they’re here, but some stay in the heated and cooled garage in Florida, waiting to be broken in.

Source: http://www.capegazette.com/storiescurrent/200610/corvette101706.html
 
If you have the money to buy a car simply for collectability, that's fine, to each his own. However, I've never been a fan of letting a car sit for years with little movement. If they plan on keeping it a long time, is 1000 miles realistic for maintaining the car? They are going to have to cycle the gas in it or something, along with the all the other fluids that are prone to composition change over the years (if that's still an isue with today's fluid technologies.)
I suppose if they did 10 miles per month, for the next 10 years, that would be 1200 miles, but geeze, 10 miles per month?!?!? (or much less to keep it at or around 1000 miles)

I couldn't do that...But I am glad there's people out there preserving the cars "as they left the factory".
 
Apparently someone must have a large amount of money. I could probably purchase a $100,000.00 if I was going to live in it, I cannot do both ,afford a place to live and the car. From the sounds it must be a very large garage also, a four car garage is large to some folks, but theirs must be much larger.
 
Booo, Hisssss.

$100 grand for an investment on a $70 grand car, he needs to talk to Chuck Schwab.

"Might put a 1,000 miles on it"?? Don't bother, let it rot in peace.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Didn't buy the first year because they need to work the bugs out??? Why? If you never drive it you never have any problems, don't you think? Some un-enlightened souls that live in the dark ages still think that is true and need to get in this century at the very least. Beside that is an old wives tale started when Studebaker chose the wrong wood for the prairie schooners. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
That thing will gain value just about as fast as it did for those that paid $50 grand for the ’98 pace car or the ZR1 that people paid double the list to get. I always get a kick out of the ’78 pace car that is still in it’s packing and 8 miles on it, what a fun thing to drag around for all these years. Had you put that money in anything other than a tin can it would be worth double the money spent to keep and the present value of that effort.

Everyone has their own way of enjoying life but you shouldn't be able to lock up wild life for any reason. :eyerole

 
ah..........

its hard to write a comment without it sounding as if we are ripping on this guy....good luck to him....its not art though...its a carrrrrr drive the damn thing
 
Didn't buy the first year because they need to work the bugs out??? Why? If you never drive it you never have any problems.
Wow...I hadn't even thought about that. The purchase makes even less sense now! Sounds like this guys logic would've been to buy a '54 instead of a '53. Which one has the greater value? (The exception being the '84 vette) :D
Ah well, congrats to him for being more or less a loyal vette guy and for having the bankroll to be able to have his collection.

Another thing I noticed when re-reading it...
(She said) “You should live your life to the fullest, like today was your last, and hopefully we’ll enjoy this car,” Carla said.
(He said) "He’ll probably put a few miles on it, he said, but no more than 1,000."

Sounds like two different game plans. That or "living life to the fullest and enjoying the car" means something completely different to them as it does to me. Maybe it's the age difference... :D
 
Good for them. At least we won't see this one on Wrecked Exotics.
 
How is it dining room art, when it's sitting in their garage? When I read the topic title, I thought it was going to be something different, not somebodys ode to their lifestyle. If they wanted an investment, they should have bought a rare classic, like a 67 big block, or a 63 split window. This thing will never make them any money (at least not for another 20-30 years, if ever), when they could have been making money every year by buying an already appreciating classic. They lost 40% right off the bat by paying way over sticker price, and getting hit with immediate depreciation, which they may never get back. Also, it's usually the first and last years of production that appreciate the most, so they screwed up on that too. But hey, at least they're Corvette people. I say drive it and enjoy it, because it's not worth anything as an investment, and who knows; The earth could end tomorrow, for one or both of them, or all of us, and it would have just been a big waste.
 
They'll never know that vehicle......................to drive is to LIVE!!

My 2006 Z06 IS a daily driver...................AND well taken care of.

He must be vey rich!
 
Jim said he’s not waiting for life to be over to buy what he wants, but he’s not about to abuse his new baby by driving her. He’ll probably put a few miles on it, he said, but no more than 1,000. The $100,000 super car is part investment and part toy.

That's what I said when I bought my Z06 in 2002.... ;LOL

I'm glad I came around ;)

There is nothing wrong with taking good care of it, but to put it in figurative shrink wrap and wait (what, 15? 20 years?) on it to be a collector's item... I don't think so. Not me.

To each his own.

Tammy
 
At 100K it should have come with the garage and living room to place the Vette into. I bought three 1976 Eldorado Convertibles and between them was less than 600 miles with the lowest at it`s sale of only 47. I finally got them all out of sight nearly two years ago. If I would have invested the money I would have been way ahead and i`m not even a Caddie person. I do not think any new Vette as an investment. The next year Vette will be more HP again, and with a few more do-dads. As another has posted, other duds were the 78 Pace car and the real big bust is the ZR1`s. A college room mate was one of the suckers that paid double plus for one. He finally got smart and bought a NCRS 62 FI piece a few months ago and likewise a 67 435 roadster. Not very cheap at well over 1/4 mil, but relative secure in the pocketbook. :D
 
...and the real big bust is the ZR1`s.
I think the ZR-1 will come back around. The LT5 is still, in terms of vette history, a one-of-a-kind engine due to it being (essentially) a 3rd party design AND an overhead cam design. No other production vettes can claim either of those labels yet. Not to mention the world record that held for how many years before VW finally beat it with their W12 engine.
Now, whether it was worth double the base price? I don't know. How long before the L88's became the big money item? It was also a double-base price option.
 
What a strange piece of reading.
I congratulate the couple on buying a Vette. Buuuuut...., $100k!?!!! 'Cause even if I Bill Gates billions, I just couldn't bring myself to shell out that kinda green for a $70k car. If it had say..., a 900+hp V-12 like the Enzo or a 1000hp like the Bugatti Veyron w/ 900-some lb. ft. of torque--maybe.
And then to say he'll put no more than 1000 miles on it!?!!! HUH?!! Why?!
'Cause he bought it because he could. There's no Corvette mystique here.
This is just another ludicrous example of what some people can do when they maybe have too much money and no imagination as to what to do with it when imagining the possibilities.
Umph, umph, umph.
 
Most likely he will drive it for the first ten miles, grin ear to ear, next week drive another ten miles, same Corvette grin, next thing you know its his DD. We all know that these cars are more addictive than crack. I mean just look at poor Remo.
 
There is a steering wheel and a motor in these vehicles for a reason. Drive it!! I bought a '90 coupe off of the show-room floor and sold it a few years ago with 192,000 miles on it. I now have an '05 coupe and am just about ready to turn 30,000 miles. To have a Corvette and not drive it?? I just don't understand.
 
its hard to write a comment without it sounding as if we are ripping on this guy....good luck to him....its not art though...its a carrrrrr drive the damn thing

Exactly my thought... Remember Dennis Hopper in Speed? The bomb's only reason for being is to explode. (or something like that, right?) Same with the 'vette.

ITS A CAR for crying out loud. DRIVE IT! No, I'm not ripping the guy, but sheesh!
 
Call me a little confused...but $100K for a $70K car? I like the part where the salesman said that he could do that. Wow...ya think?? While I do applaud their love of classic/performance vehicles, I just don't get this at all. I think some see the value of an '67 L-88, a '69 ZL-1, etc, and try to assign that to a modern car. Its just a different ballgame now. But hey, its their money and their dream...live and let live. Me??? I'll just struggle to get my '85 back on the road after sitting for the past five years. (Coming along nicely, thank you). :)

Cheers,

Joe

PS. One more thought, what do Harley Davidsons and high performance machines have in common??? Just curious about that one.
 
One more thought, what do Harley Davidsons and high performance machines have in common??? Just curious about that one.
Referring to American hi-perf machines... they and Harley's are considered distinctly American idols or representations or (some other word I can't think of right now).(and "no", my bike is not a Harley, thankyouverymuch. Although it is all American. :D)
 

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