I love all the Corvettes, actually I love most American cars, but my favorites are the 1974-1979 models. Although the chrome bumpers on …-1973 cars are nice, I like the Stingray without them even more. I was mostly looking for a …-1977 car which means that it comes with the straight rear window, but I’ve began to adore even more the 1978-79 models. In 78 the Vette got an upgrade in the looks to celebrate its 25th anniversary and one of the biggest distinguishing features from the earlier models is the more modern Coupé-style rear window which is mainly an advantage aerodynamics-wise. The interior got updated and the 79 car already features nice and comfortable sport-seats.

Actually I never thought I would be able to even think about buying myself a car like this within the next year or two. But once I get an idea in my mind, I simply start working for it and as unbelievable as it sounds, I am probably going to make the purchase within one month! I know it’s a quite odd time for buying a sportscar cause it will probably start snowing around here soon and the winter is coming. Still, I want to buy the car now and do the necessary maintenance to ensure that it’s going to be in good condition for the Spring. Then I can hopefully begin to enjoy it right away and not waste valuable warm weather for fixing issues that I could have done over the winter.

At the beginning of this week me and my friend drove to southern Estonia to look at two Stingrays currently up for sale. First one was a really cool looking ’78 with lots of 3rd party accessories to make it look cooler. And it did look very good. The overall condition was quite fine, but the AC system and blower didn’t work, the roof panels were missing upholstery and there were two remarkable paint issues. It was the first time I could ever drive a Stingray and I really loved it. Still, the steering felt floating around which certainly isn’t supposed to be like this. With the help of guys from Corvette Forum we found that there might also be rust issues on the metal frame. This is a big no-no with Stingrays, hence the car is off my list. Another Vette we went to see was a ’77 hence with the straight rear window. The paint was odd (beige and worn out), it had a broken water pump, the engine was smoking and it was just in a rather bad overall condition. The pricetag was quite good but I don’t want to take such a risk – it might need at least the same amount of money just to get it running and driving properly.

I then called someone who I knew was selling his ’79 Corvette but I wasn’t sure it was up for sale anymore – he doesn’t have any ads published about it. Fortunately, it was still available and yesterday I went to look at it. I had seen it before, actually that owner even gave me a ride during an US car meeting some months ago. Now I was able to inspect the car better and I had a good friend with me who is restoring his 75 Stingray. The car has a really neat black paint with just two minor cracks on the edges of the hood. Barely noticeable. There are brand-new looking leather seats in it and the transmission is the 4-speed manual. I used to want an automatic but quite recently I began to consider also a stick shifter because if it’s a toy car anyway, why not have even more fun? The Vette started up fine, warmed up at high idle and then lowered the RPM to normal level. We backed it out from the yard and I was given the chance to drive it around the block. And how much fun this was! The manual transmission felt extremely good and I got the hang of it quickly. Well, in such meaning that I was able to shift it smooth and feel the gears; probably needs a lot more time to become a pro on it. The brakes were very good, the steering felt even better than on my Jeep – no floating. The owner has taken pretty good care of it, he replaced the radiator, part of the coolant pipe, driver side window motor, roof panel rubber seals, new KONI-brand suspension, steering damper and more. Things which need fixing are speedometer and dash + license plate lights. All in all, this is a very nice car and I am pretty sure I am going to buy it. The owner is currently getting the inspection and insurance done cause he had already put the car away for winter. Then we will drive some more on Wednesday and unless any big problems pop out, I will try to get the transaction done as soon as possible.

Oh, the car looks almost exactly like this: