Car Clubs

road trip: scenic route through my mind

Having driven a classic corvette for almost 20 years many times I had contemplated joining a Corvette Club. Mostly because it is so cool to see all those Vettes lined up some place. When I moved from Southern California to Georgia I considered it because I left all of my car connections 3000 miles away. Tire Shop, Alignment Shop, Mechanic, Electrical Guy, Body Shop, Race Shop, and so on. In other words, if it broke, I knew where to take it. When I moved to Knoxville 7 years later again, I meant to join a Corvette Club. Even looked them up on the web … I never got around to it.

All these years of meaning to and never joining. Why? First it was a testosterone thing. Arguably one sees more men driving pre-1982 corvettes than women. That’s not to say there aren’t female owners, there just aren’t as many. I have a theory on this. Have you ever tried to open up a C3 door with long fingernails? Ain’t gonna happen. Anyway, I always figured a car club would be a bunch of guys talking about how to fix their cars. Not that it’s a bad thing … but I don’t really fix my own. I figured it would just be an extension of my mechanic’s shop.

By the time I moved to Knoxville and was SOL in the mechanic department, I thought “sure why not.” However now my Vette looks like crap (though for some reason people still drool over it.) A friend I once worked with recently asked if my Vette was still painted “flat stealth gray”. I had to laugh, but he correctly assessed the state of my paint. Though he didn’t mention the black spots where the once silver paint has come completely off. Now my excuse is I can’t join a Vette club where all of the classics ones are going to be show ready … way too embarrassing!

My MINI was a whole different animal. It’s new, and it’s cool. Before it even arrived I decided I was going to check out the local Mini Club I hoped joining this group would help be get a little familiar with the town as well as make some connections for shops to get work done. (Granted the corvette needs tons of work and the Mr. Q needs none, it might!) As a group they go on drives and to various events. I’ve not been able to join in on a drive yet, but my first one is coming up this weekend.