KenSchuster
New member
Seduced by Stingray! - Just as GM marketing predicted
I'm so old that this is being written with a chunk of coal on a Commodore 64 computer monitor ... well, okay not quite, but if you know what a Commodore 64 is, you know what I'm talking about. So here I am at the age where it's "do it now or file it in the 'shoulda' basket". I try to keep that basket as vacant as possible. First thing I did was to set my sights on the 2014 Porsche Boxster, great car. Then the Cayman came out... a little extra storage space, and the somewhat more security and build integrity of a coupe. It's beautiful inside, outside and mechanically. It would cost me almost my life's savings, but one of the very few advantages of old age is a better idea of how much further your savings have go. I built the Cayman online, down to the steering wheel cover, and got "this close" to slapping down my deposit at the dealership.
Becoming a teenager in the mid-1950s, I was captivated by the new all-fiberglass Corvette. The TV show Route 66 was the only show that I had to be home to watch... couldn't care less about the actors or plot. It was all about the 'vette for me. However, I was raised on the wrong side of the wrong side of the tracks in inner-city Philadelphia, so ANY car for me was just a daydream. While I was stationed in Eritrea (part of Ethiopia at that time), my friend Phil Piazza taught me to drive a stick on his Austin-Healey Sprite. A month later, we set the unofficial record for the Masawa (Red Sea port) to Asmara (capitol of Eritrea at 8000 feet) run. Phil was navigating. I was hooked on sports cars from then on. I have owned an Austin-Healey 3000 MkIII ('63), Jaguar XK-E ('64), Datsun 280Z ('78) and currently drive my fantastic little Miata MX-5 ('07). But, my eye always locks-on to every 'vette that I see on the road... usually in front of me.
Throughout my life, I have been keenly aware of all the "coincidences" that I have experienced... things that just seemed so improbable to occur, but did. A case in point is that my mother married Chip Miller's dad, so Chip became my stepbrother. If you're "vette-centric" you probably know who Chip was. He and I talked on the phone a few of times, but we never met. I was in California and he was in Pennsylvania. So here I am, approaching dodderhood, minutes from buying a Cayman, and Chip's name came up in different conversations that I was having and reading by others online. Couldn't get him out of my mind and wham... I see the new Stingray announcement! My Cayman deposit is safe, at least for the time being.
I'm so old that this is being written with a chunk of coal on a Commodore 64 computer monitor ... well, okay not quite, but if you know what a Commodore 64 is, you know what I'm talking about. So here I am at the age where it's "do it now or file it in the 'shoulda' basket". I try to keep that basket as vacant as possible. First thing I did was to set my sights on the 2014 Porsche Boxster, great car. Then the Cayman came out... a little extra storage space, and the somewhat more security and build integrity of a coupe. It's beautiful inside, outside and mechanically. It would cost me almost my life's savings, but one of the very few advantages of old age is a better idea of how much further your savings have go. I built the Cayman online, down to the steering wheel cover, and got "this close" to slapping down my deposit at the dealership.
Becoming a teenager in the mid-1950s, I was captivated by the new all-fiberglass Corvette. The TV show Route 66 was the only show that I had to be home to watch... couldn't care less about the actors or plot. It was all about the 'vette for me. However, I was raised on the wrong side of the wrong side of the tracks in inner-city Philadelphia, so ANY car for me was just a daydream. While I was stationed in Eritrea (part of Ethiopia at that time), my friend Phil Piazza taught me to drive a stick on his Austin-Healey Sprite. A month later, we set the unofficial record for the Masawa (Red Sea port) to Asmara (capitol of Eritrea at 8000 feet) run. Phil was navigating. I was hooked on sports cars from then on. I have owned an Austin-Healey 3000 MkIII ('63), Jaguar XK-E ('64), Datsun 280Z ('78) and currently drive my fantastic little Miata MX-5 ('07). But, my eye always locks-on to every 'vette that I see on the road... usually in front of me.
Throughout my life, I have been keenly aware of all the "coincidences" that I have experienced... things that just seemed so improbable to occur, but did. A case in point is that my mother married Chip Miller's dad, so Chip became my stepbrother. If you're "vette-centric" you probably know who Chip was. He and I talked on the phone a few of times, but we never met. I was in California and he was in Pennsylvania. So here I am, approaching dodderhood, minutes from buying a Cayman, and Chip's name came up in different conversations that I was having and reading by others online. Couldn't get him out of my mind and wham... I see the new Stingray announcement! My Cayman deposit is safe, at least for the time being.
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