No more tinted lenses?

Naw, took them off. I replaced the rear markers, tail lights and 3rd brake light with brand new from GM.

These picts are making me itch for a Z06! I saw a blue one in carmax for $46K, 2007 with under 20Kmiles on it.

One of Jeff Gordon's Chevy dealerships is in Wilmington, NC which is about an 1 1/2 from me. They always have several used C6 ZO6's. A guy that I used to work with was looking for a 2008 ZO6 so I always kept my eye open. Autotrader is also a good place to look.

I like the certification warranty GM gives with their certified used cars. It's much better than Car Max's. CM has a 30 day return policy but only has 60 days on their warranty. GM is 12K/1 year with, I think, a 50Kmile power train warranty. Their cars a a bit pricier, but I think the extra protection is worthwhile.

The Z06 really interests me because it's like a Ferrari F430 for about 27% of the price. The interior won't be as jewel like as the Ferrari's and it won't be a revy, but it's like 95+ of the F430 in just about all aspects of overall performance. The Z06 also will get MUCH better gas mileage one doesn't have to rev the crap out of the engine to get it to move out at slow speeds. It's also amazing the Z06 engine can still rev to 7K. Amazing for a Detroit engine with the old OHV design.

The other fascinating aspect is if one orders a Z06 new, and pays another $5500, one is invited to the Michigan plant to build one's own engine! Imagine building you're own super car engine right at the factory with the help of master engine builders!!! What a great education that would be!!

They also come with a 427! That's a lot of car for the money. My neighbor has a black 2008 ZO6 with less than 2k miles on it. He asked me one day to trade him even up. Of course he was joking but it won't be so funny when he sees his car parked in my driveway and mine in his! They are very, very nice cars.

That would be worth a YouTube video if you ever did that...lol..Yeah..a Z06 is pretty much now my dream car. The next car I'd like to own. Or, a Factory Five Shelby AC/Ace Cobra replica....

Been watching the Mecum and Barrett Jackson auctions and there have been a lot of FINE cars being sold for extremely reasonable prices.

I'm wondering if gas goes to $5-7 a gallon, if a lot of these cars will drop in value. Just like I saw happen in the 70s with the first OPEC embargo. Within a year or so, there were a lot of super fine muscle cars going for near spit on the pavement prices....Hmmm....

Possibly prices will drop on new cars and used cars that are considered "gas guzzlers." I doubt that it will have any effect on the collector car market. How many of those muscle cars sold at Barrett-Jackson are driven more than token mileage? Those guys buying cars at Barrett-Jackson are probably not financing them. There is nothing to stop them from financing their purchases, if they have pre-approval and guarantees from a bank, but I doubt any bank is going to loan high dollars on the collector car market. Many of the cars sold at B-J are "trailer queens" that are started up only to drive from the guy's garage into his trailer to go to a car show, and then started again when they come out of or go back into the trailer. Most of those cars that are driven are probably weekend cars taken out on cruises or for an outing on Saturday or Sunday. I doubt if most of those cars are driven more than 2,500 miles per year after bought at a B-J auction. If you only drive your gas guzzler 2500 miles per year or less, $5.00 per gallon gas isn't an issue. It might be an issue for your daily driver.

Higher gas prices won't affect my wallet too much with the Corvette because I rarely drive it. I'd have to check, but I think I put less than 2k miles on it in 2010. But as far as my daily driver...thank God I no longer have to commute 115+ miles per day to work. Was doing that for 2.5 years but now I only have to commute 12 miles. Huge, huge difference in gas savings, not to mention my time on the road, wear and tear on my car and wasted time sitting in traffic. I don't miss that commute for anything. I was paying $400± /month on gas just for work compared to $40-60/month for all my driving now.

Russ-
My friend and I were talking about also that the recent drop in the markets may have cause financial problems among some of the owners. I'm thinking if their portfolios dropped some 40-50% as many did during the 2007-2009 period, and if they had to sell assets at rock bottom prices, this may have made a decision to sell their cars for less than market values. I've seen some absolutely nice cars I'd like to own for the prices they're asking.

Al-
That drop in commuting mileage will certainly save you a lot of $$$ even with the higher gas prices. Plus, I was regularly getting over 30 mpg in my 3iT. You probably do better if there are few hills in your area. So that'll save a bundle there, too. When gas prices were hitting $4.50 here, it cost me $60 to fill my mazda's tank. $70 or so for the iroc's tank.

It's completely flat around here. No hills other than the occasional bridge to go over a sound or something. But that doesn't really count I guess.

They're predicting that by summer for gas prices to be back upwards of $4+ /gal. Luckily my wife and I both work on the same base so neither of us have much driving. But of course on the few days off that I get, I like to get in the car and go somewhere, even if just 20 miles down the to get coffee etc. Gotta have coffee no matter WHAT!

COFFEE!!!!! The industrial lubricant of working society. I can't get along without it...lol...A friend from your general area just bought a Dodge SRT-8 Charger and only has to drive 3 miles to work. Guess he gas prices won't affect him much either. Then again, he's pretty over weight and I told him he should consider buying a bicycle and pedal to work on nice days. He insists the roads around him are too narrow. And I said, "yeah, the roads around me are pretty narrow as well. Just get a rear view mirror like I did so you can see whose going to squash you like a bug at least before it happens...HAHAHAHAHA"

Coffee is what keeps me going day and night at work. Without it, I'd have nothing to look forward to at work. haha

Where does your friend live? The roads in your area of CT of very narrow and windy. How many times did I get lost trying get out of that crazy maze of roads to get back up to Buckland Hills? Every time, that's how many.

Reminds me of the company that I used to work for. It was home based out of the Netherlands. Each year we would have company meetings held in Florida and the owner, Maarten, (he was very hands-on & involved) would come over for the week.

One night all of us were standing outside of our hotel talking with him. Well, I worked with an older lady who was somewhat overweight and she decided she wanted to head up to her room so she went inside and was waiting for the elevator. Maarten went inside that hotel and told her that she needed to take the stairs instead of the elevator because she needed to lose weight! Not quite as subtle as the suggestion to your friend to buy a bike and peddle the short 3 mile commute to work.

That's okay because that ol' wheel keeps on turning. The Dutch are known for being "tight" with money which is something they're proud of. Ever heard of going "Dutch" on a date? That's where it originated from.

One day with everyone gathered at the hotel pool, somebody tossed a nickle into it. Maarten just stood there and watched it slowly weave and wobble as it sank to the bottom. Almost like he was thinking, "stupid Americans tossing good money away." A co-worker and good friend of mine said to him, "Well, aren't you going to jump in after it?" hahahaha He found the humor in it but knew exactly why it was said. He had a great sense of humor and could take jokes very well but man, sure was direct and no beating around the bush with that guy.

If I have too much, I'll get too much acid indigestion and have real problems like massive heartburn.

My friend works for Phillips, which, I believe is in Norway? He works on their CAT and other imaging machines. Where in SC he resides I'm not sure. I don't keep in touch with him that often.

Yeah...I think the Dutch are known to be a lot stingier than even the Scots....lol...