In 1968, I was 10 years when the third generation of the Corvette, the Coke bottle shaped Corvette, was launched. I saw the car on TV and immediately was addicted to this special vehicle. All my friends talked about Porsche, Lamborghini and Ferrari, I just talked about Corvettes. They did not know the Corvette; therefore, we had some big arguments about what is the best car! You could not see any Corvettes on the roads in Germany at this time and the memories of this dream faded over the years.
But eight years later in 1976, there was a TV show launched in Germany where Bill Bixby was “The Magician” and worked as detective. I was fascinated from the beginning, because this guy flew a white jet and his jet contained his car: a bright white Corvette. All of a sudden this old dream was there, closer than ever, but obviously it would stay a dream. At this time I was thinking about life and others. The Corvette was just too expensive, too irrational, too flashy for me; simply light years away. Another six years later, destiny hit me: I met Inge for the first time.
Inge is the sister-in-law of a guy who owned a garage that specialized in American and Exotic cars. By the way, this connection to American cars was not the main driver when Inge and I married two years later! At this time, I was close to my dream car very often. I had the opportunity to see the car from every possible angle. I went along for test drives and there were several opportunities to listen to the marvelous sound of the V8 engines.
My addiction grew day by day. My enthusiasm was so big that I received 30 Corvette-related presents when I turned 30. There was just one final step missing: to buy this great car. Six months later, destiny hit me again.
I received a lot of money from an optimization proposal at my employer and decided immediately how to spend this money! I saw my dream car at a local dealer, did a test drive with my brother-in-law, who did not find any major problem, and I bought it right away. A couple of days later we picked up the Corvette. I was so excited that I could not drive it – Inge had to drive it to our home. We never ever regretted buying this great sports car. Over the years, our Corvette was built up and repainted in a bright red called Torch Red after a heavy accident. We made contact to the Bavarian Corvette Club and spent lots of days and weeks together with other Corvette addicts worldwide.
We are looking forward to many years with the Corvette and the spirit around it, and perhaps there will be a second one somewhere in the future. We are busy looking for a suitable garage.
I also want to share a very special story with you how the Corvette caused an ever-lasting friendship between Inge and me, and a couple named Cindi and Dave. Mid-August of 2004, our daughter Josie went to the USA. She started her year as an exchange student in the States and flew to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As sometime happens, she did not find the America she had imagined. Heavy homesickness and dissatisfaction during the first weeks of her stay made her and, of course, me very unhappy. Everybody who knows me will imagine that I could not sit around watching this situation without doing anything. I considered many ways how to support her from the long distance. (It is about 5,500 miles to fly from Munich to Milwaukee.) Finally, I had the idea to try it via our big hobby, the Corvette.
I started a Google search and entered “Corvette” and “Milwaukee.” The very first hit was, “Badger State Vettes,” a Corvette Club based in Milwaukee. I was very excited and clicked on the link. I surfed every detail of the homepage searching for a contact. The webmaster was blue highlighted. So I clicked this link and wrote an email where I told my story and asked for support. I thought there must be a girl of Josie’s age within the club to get in touch with her to make life a little bit easier. I thought having a contact where the Corvette is a kind of a common interest must be helpful.
A couple of days later, I received an email from Dave offering his immediate support. Another two days later Dave phoned me and we had a long chat about Josie’s situation and of course our Corvettes. Dave tried everything to get in contact with Josie and her host-mother. Unfortunately, the host-mother denied the contact because she did not know Dave and Cindi. Josie had to wait for several months until we came to Milwaukee to get in touch with Dave, Cindi and the BSV Club Members. Within one week, we had contact to some very special people on the other side of the world.
This contact was driven and made possible just by one very special thing: the one and only American Sports Car, the Corvette. Dave and I call this special relationship “Corvette Spirit.” All the best to all Corvette-friends worldwide!
– Inge & Klaus in Munich, Germany