<VV> Corvettes and Corvairs - Seth Emerson

[Sethracer at aol.com]

I have always owned Corvairs since early 1967. In addition I have owned 3  
Corvetttes.
I bought my Corvettes for different reasons, as I did the Corvairs I have  
owned. My first Corvette, 1965 365HP 327, was purchased for me (borrowed  money 
from my folks) to drive in Oklahoma, while in AIT training before  going to 
Vietnam. I got my first Autocross FTD in this car, and won three drag  racing 
trophies at Southwest Speedway in Lawton, OK. Fun car, pretty  un-refined (as 
was I in 1968), enjoyed driving to Norman to troll  for college girls. (Did you 
know that 6 people can fit in a Corvette  Convertible with the rear cover 
removed? I swear! After my return, sold it, and  after paying the car off, almost 
20 years went by driving various Corvairs. In  1989, my Mom died, leaving me a 
little bit of Money. My wife said "Spend it  anyway you like", so I bought an 
86 pewter hardtop. A bit more refined than the  65, but a lot less powerful 
and with an Automatic, it wasn't a lot of fun to  drive, and a real pig to 
autocross. (In truth, I might have to classify that car  as a mid-life Crisis 
car.) I traded it on an SHO Taurus. Fun, but  fragile. After more years with other 
cars, Camaros mostly, I scoped out the new  C6 Corvette in 2005. My Camaro 
daily driver was getting a little long in the  tooth (100K miles) and I was 
between street Corvairs.  I bought my 2005  Precision Red Corvette Coupe (6-speed) 
in December 2005. I am still amazed by  the performance. It does get a little 
light at 120 MPH, though. With better than  stock tires, it is faster than 
almost any car I have ever autocrossed, street  car or race car. It still gets 
high 20's MPG on the highway.  But it  does lack stealth. Running the Corvairs 
at autocrosses still impresses the  "great unwashed". We know how much fun 
they are to drive and how well they  perform.  It is constantly fun to show 
others!  I hope to be able to  afford to own and drive both for many years. And - 
believe me - I know  how to drive them!  - Seth Emerson