[The Wind Breezes]

No because I understood that you need a quiet car driven with brain at full attention to enjoy speed and handling on the street. But that is far from typical. Most car enthusiasts find themselves in your situation.

[Efthreeoh]

OP, so what does this actually mean? "Briefly for a year, before it was wrecked..."

Did a tree fall on it or something?

[LuvMyE92]

My very first corvette... I remember driving it to work one day, and a guy I worked with (who also had a Corvette) said "why are you driving it in the rain"? I said, "it came with windshield wipers, I'm sure it will be fine."

Same car, I was at the gas station filling up, and it's covered in pollen, and this idjit walks up and says "man, if I had a car this nice, I'd never drive it, I'd just keep it in the front yard" in front of his trailer, I presume.

The only cars that I've been "afraid" of were my 911s, which get a disturbing amount of attention, random road rage and racer boys. Corvettes just really aren't that big of a deal any more. I don't (didn't) treat any of them special, other than I'm always careful with all of my cars, regardless.

And none of my cars, ever, go to a car wash. Hand wash, by me and no one else, only. When they go in for service, I tell them not to wash it.

[King Rudi]

Originally Posted by GenXer

Briefly for a year, before it was wrecked, I went and bought a new C7 Corvette Z51 Stingray. It wasn't the most expensive Corvette you can buy but it was up there just around $70K

It was the most enjoyable and most horrifying experience in anything I've owned.

In that year, it had to be hand wash since it didn't actually fit most car washes, even touchless one. I always worried about dings and scratches, bird drops and tree sap, etc.

It goes like a bat out of hell but I would get anxious from the Fast and Furious crowd trying to out race me at every turn.

I ruined a set of tires at 500 miles showing off by burning rubbers for no good reason.

I was afraid to take it to work and always parked far away.

In winter time, it sits in the garage, covered up wasting payment and insurance.

It was near impossible to drive fast without getting legal attention.

Anyone else experienced sports car angst and never got to really enjoy their ride?

My father always said that at one point in his life he would own a Corvette. It was his dream car since he was a teen. Ten years before he died he bought a C5. He loved it, honestly I wasn't all that impressed with it until I drove it. After a few years of owning it he complained that it mostly sat in his garage, cost him a fortune in tires (flat spots from sitting) general maintenance (from sitting) and insurance.

Originally Posted by natahoa

So I got my car yesterday. Tonight we had family over to pick crabs, and i took two of them out for a spin. I live in a rural area, so can drive lots of back roads. Every chance I get on a visible straightaway I put the hammer down.

So so fun

Scares people to death.
My brother-in-law was screaming STOP STOP!
We didn’t even hit 80.

My husband has only been in the car once, and he was driving. We are taking a short road trip tomorrow, and I believe I’ll do the driving. I have to find some back roads.

He is in for a treat.

Congrats on the car! You sound a lot like me in regards to driving. I'm safe and mindful of other drivers but what's the point in having a fast car if you don't enjoy it.

[Soterios]

The key is appreciating that, with a few exceptions, your insured vehicle can be brought back to life.

If you had the money to buy the car, you should have the money to maintain and fix the car.

Once you let that go, you can enjoy your car without worrying about the occasional rogue rock chip or door ding.

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by Run Silent

With respect to the OP's comments about others trying to race him, man I just don't know, unless you live in a very unique area. I've got a heavily modified Cooper S, an E93 BMW, and a red Ferrari, and I've not had one person try to race me - ever.

Just my two cents.

I never understood this mass of people wanting to race ... i never see them either.

[G35POPPEDMYCHERRY]

ebbs and flows man. Ever since someone put a license plate hole in my bumper its been liberating. Someone just scrapped my bumper. whatever. imperfection is beauty i guess

[Soterios]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

I never understood this mass of people wanting to race ... i never see them either.

I find that a lot of the time racing on the street is initiated by eye contact, behavior, or an obvious modification to the car.

People don't come after my car that often because it looks stock. I usually have to 'ask' for it, so to speak.

In the past, my more 'modified' looking cars got picked on all the damn time.

[wdb]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

the deer and black bear population is quite robust

My buddy just tweaked the front of his restored '71 Challenger this morning on his way to work because he hit a deer. :-/

He's hoping to fix it in time for the Carlisle MOPAR meet in July. :thumbup:

They're made to be driven. Drive them!

[GenXer]

Originally Posted by Humdizzle

It is more of a worry. But you can drive it often. I drive my ferrari in winter as long as the streets are clean. I dont drive a nice car to work. Mainly because I don't want to be pulled over in the small town I work in for no front plates and tint.

You do burnouts and blow through tires every 500 miles ... Yet don't want attention ? Ok.

There are plenty of secluded roads where you can drive fast. Just have to find them. Or floor it on a section of road where no cops are hiding.

Why were you worried. You bought a new Corvette with a warranty. Its an LS based car.

The burnout was on semi-official showoff on a remote rural road with a bunch of other muscle cars at a charity event. The said officials were told this might be happening and they look the other way. It was fun but not worth ruining a set of Michelins.

[GenXer]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

OP, so what does this actually mean? "Briefly for a year, before it was wrecked..."

Did a tree fall on it or something?

No I hit a manhole shaft that stuck out over 5 inches in the middle lane of the interstate expressway I-94 and basically gutted the bottom of the car. It took out the floor pan, transmission, suspension, exhaust, and gas tank. They took almost 3 months to repair it and when I got it back a lot of the electronic touch panel didn't work. They took it in again and kept replacing parts and it was still not working. So I got rid of it.

[GenXer]

Originally Posted by JamesNoBrakes

You are definitely not a candidate for a sports car/sporty car.

You are right. I'm happy now with my new X1 and an old Mazda Miata which I can beat the crap out of it and never have to worry.
I guess I wanted one as a kid and when I was finally able to get one, all the mystique was replaced by reality of actually owning one.

[natahoa]

Originally Posted by wdb

Bird droppings yes, the rest not so much; I like them to look clean but I'm not OCD about it.I only ever had one incident like that in the Z cars. The STi was another story. I just wave and smile.Not my style so, no.Guilty, sorta. I enjoy the drive to work then obsess about where to park when I get there. I've also had it happen where the car is parked way out in the boondocks of the lot and I come out to find some jokester in a ratty Kia parked beside me. That was just mean.Downgrade the insurance in winter and save yourself some money.I'm rural enough to be able to enjoy a performance car in the right situation, and I don't get 'enthusiastic' in other situations. Could be an age thing. But it is true that modern performance cars are impossible to drive at their full potential on public roads, lest one wants to risk serious jail time.

I was behind a very slow “student driver” in an 18-wheeler. Subaru in front of me. As soon as I saw dots I started passing, and the Subaru jerk pulled in front of me. So after Subaru pulled over, I just kept going by. Didn’t take long.

Looked in my rear view and driver was giving me the salute. Love it.

[GenXer]

Originally Posted by Run Silent

I'm not sure I understand the OP's issues? This is going to come across as a bit douchy, even though I'm not trying to sound like that, but the OP either couldn't really afford the car, and as such, was constantly worried about costs to repair any damage or consumables, or he looks at a car as an asset instead of an expense.

I drive my Ferrari to work almost every week. It sits in an open parking lot and my office is on MLK Blvd and an area of town that could best be described as 'in process of gentrification'. Could someone damage it? Yup. But that's what insurance is for and what is the point of moving that much capital into a vehicle if not to enjoy it.

With a few exceptions, cars we own are not museum pieces, they are meant to enjoy by driving.

With respect to the OP's comments about others trying to race him, man I just don't know, unless you live in a very unique area. I've got a heavily modified Cooper S, an E93 BMW, and a red Ferrari, and I've not had one person try to race me - ever.

Just my two cents.

Don't you know Corvette and BMW owners are douchbags?

[natahoa]

Congrats on the car! You sound a lot like me in regards to driving. I'm safe and mindful of other drivers but what's the point in having a fast car if you don't enjoy it. [/QUOTE]

Genau (which means exactly in German).

[GenXer]

Gone are the days of the inexpensive sports car like the Datsun 280Z, the Mazda RX7 (pre-90's) and the Porsche 924 to a lesser extent. Now we have these high performance 4 sedans and station wagons. They may be impressive on paper and the race track but they just don't have the looks and feel of a sports car.

[Lucky1]

Originally Posted by GenXer

Gone are the days of the inexpensive sports car like the Datsun 280Z, the Mazda RX7 (pre-90's) and the Porsche 924 to a lesser extent. Now we have these high performance 4 sedans and station wagons. They may be impressive on paper and the race track but they just don't have the looks and feel of a sports car.

That's why I'm hoarding older BMW ///M cars. If ///M applied the same overall engineering philosophy pre-current gen turbo M motors with today's engineering and technology plus free of the burden of emissions regulations the amount of awesomeness in terms of driving experience would be further ahead than it is today (notice I said experience and not outright performance; HP/torque wars are over and everyone has won at this point).

[New2Roundel]

Originally Posted by GenXer

Briefly for a year, before it was wrecked, I went and bought a new C7 Corvette Z51 Stingray. It wasn't the most expensive Corvette you can buy but it was up there just around $70K

It was the most enjoyable and most horrifying experience in anything I've owned.

In that year, it had to be hand wash since it didn't actually fit most car washes, even touchless one. I always worried about dings and scratches, bird drops and tree sap, etc.

It goes like a bat out of hell but I would get anxious from the Fast and Furious crowd trying to out race me at every turn.

I ruined a set of tires at 500 miles showing off by burning rubbers for no good reason.

I was afraid to take it to work and always parked far away.

In winter time, it sits in the garage, covered up wasting payment and insurance.

It was near impossible to drive fast without getting legal attention.

Anyone else experienced sports car angst and never got to really enjoy their ride?

This is pretty much every car I own and I will tell you why. My very first car, which was a hand me down, was an 86 Peugeot 505 wagon. The car had like 50-60k miles. It was not fast at all, though it was fairly comfortable. That's the best I could say about it. The paint was faded and peeling after 6 years. Pretty much everything mechanical except the transmission fell apart on it. It was a truly terrible car.

After 2 years of not really driving, my parents very generously bought me a 93 (in '96) VW Fox. To me, that car was a high-end, high-precision piece of driving equipment. That paint was good. It had a manual transmission. Working A/C, glove box, and fuel gauge. Over the 4 yrs I owned it, it always worked. Because the paint was nice, I always kept it clean as I really hated the terrible Peugeot paint. I wasn't super cautious where I parked (as I didn't always have a choice), but I was aware of my surroundings and would be deliberate in where I parked when I could.

Time went on and I got to a point where I could buy my own cars. I haven't owned anything legit awesome, but I liked everything I bought. Starting with an 06 GTI and then moving to: 08 Crossfire w/ manual, '12 Mustang GT, '11 m3, and most recently an '18 Jeep SRT, I have always taken great care to keep the cars clean, adhere to various maintenance intervals, and part far, far away.

The only difference is that I drove most of the cars in the winter, at least to some degree since I had nothing else. So in the end, I am not someone who reserves good care of his cars to nice cars.

[DETRoadster]

I feel this way about the custom motorcycle I built. I spent 2 years, a ton of money, and obsessed over every single detail. The look of every bolt, every inch of wiring hidden, the proportions, the function. Everything. I bought a TIG welder and taught myself to TIG because I wasn't satisfied with how a MIG bead looked on the frame connections. When I had a vision for a couple parts I wanted and couldn't find them I build a small furnace and cast them myself to get exactly what I wanted. It's the most terrifying, amazing, bad-ass, smile inducing bike I've ever ridden. it's the only thing I've ever made where I didnt think "I wish I had done that." Or "why did I cut that corner?" I would literally break down sobbing if anything ever happened to it. That's how much of myself I've put into it. As a result, it sits in the garage, unused, with less than 100 miles on it in 4 years. My wife keeps bugging me to just drain the fluids and roll it into the living room as an art piece.

So yea, I get it.

Never felt that way about a production car or bike I just bought though. I like them just fine but they are just machines that someone else built. Use them, enjoy them, trade them in, repeat.

[RM7]

Life with a sports car is whatever you want it to be.

[c1pher]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

Me too. I live rural too with great, I mean really great roads just at the end of my driveway. Police presence is very low in my county, although recently they've found me a few times; however the deer and black bear population is quite robust (go ahead and try to see a black bear at night...). I regularly park my BMWs wet and steaming of burning odors that makes me re-think my sanity. The wildlife keep my speeds in check, but I have found that any car above 250 HP and a good suspension is more than enough for killing yourself should a moment of driving error arise.

When I bought my C7, at the time, it was the most expensive car I ever bought. It took a little while for the psychology of that to pass. Meaning, always worried about something happening or damaging it. But after that passed and I got more comfortable with how it drove etc, it’s really just another car. Yes a pretty special car, but just a car I am fortunate enough to enjoy. I have averaged about 1,000 miles a month. I do avoid crappy winter weather but drive it at least three times a week right now. It’s a plastic, carbon fiber and aluminum car, it’s not going to rust.

[48Laws]

Originally Posted by JamesNoBrakes

Life with a sports car is whatever you want it to be.

Damn. You should’ve considered the Sea Sucker lol