When You Find Out A Car You Used To Own Was Used As A Benchmark For The New Corvette: COTD

If you love your car, you may find it hard to let it go to certain buyers. You might try to make sure your ride has the greatest chance of going to someone who will love it, not dishonest flippers or wannabe WhistlinDiesel types. Life doesn’t always work that way, but it’s great when it does.

Last week, Steve Balistreri wrote about how he bought a high-mileage Acura NSX right before it exploded in value. He doesn’t own the car anymore, but there’s good news, from Michael Tung:

Hi Steve,

So you might appreciate this, but I own this same car now. I bought it from our mutual painter friend.

I was living in Ann Arbor at the time and had been on the NSX hunt for a while. He posted it on Facebook to raise funds for a business opportunity and I showed up the same day. This was I think 2019, right before the 30th anniversary of the NSX unveiling.

You know when you’ve lived with a car so long they feel like part of the family? For me that’s this car. Today it’s got around 193k miles, it’s my daily and I use it quite often. It got me through covid driving from Michigan to Knoxville monthly during lockdown to see my wife. I was able to sneak in a couple visits to the Tale of the Dragon and surrounding hidden gems, and I’d agree the experience is sublime. We moved West in 2021 and it came with us on our move out to California. It drove my wife to the hospital to give birth to our first child. We’ve gone to 5 track days (Laguna/Streets of Willow/Chuckwalla). It gets to stretch its legs on the magnificent backroads of Southern California (Angeles Crest, Malibu, Ortega Hwy, GMR). I even took it to a drift day!

This was a great read, learning a little more of the origin story of the car. It was like learning more about where your parents grew up. It’s still got the painted interior trim you did, the typeR shift knob and the same silicone sealed tail lights.

Some things have changed however. After a couple years it was time to add my own style to it. Installed KW v3 to lower the ride height and sharpen an already sharp weapon. Went through 4 different sets of wheels until I landed on NS01/TE37 double staggered in white. Now it’s got some carbon accent bits. Lip, skirts, Marga hills gt wing. In the end it’s become a physical manifestation of my ideal car styling. I smile every time I see it.

Like you, it’s the most exotic thing I’ve ever owned and likely ever will. It gives joy to random passersby and myself alike. Now I’ve created so many memories with the car, with my family, with friends. It’s truly a special machine. I’m glad you were lucky enough to experience it and I’m thankful I’m lucky enough too.

Cheers!
-Michael

Also another cool fact about this car. I was working at GM performance cars while in Michigan. The B-line intake you installed sounded so good we used it as a C8 Z06 intake noise benchmark.

What a heartwarming tale! For a second nomination for today, we have a great one from David’s weekend post about procrastinating so long he gave up $1,000 in free money. From AlterId:

As someone diagnosed with both depression and ADHD, I know the dangers of procrastination and absentmindedness very well and have often had to drive on to a state of acceptance myself. But I have found that one thing to help in these situations and in many others is outright fraud. Yes, it’s extra work that you may not want to do, but with a little planning to pull it off well and a complete lack of any ethical sense, it can be not just compensatory but fun and profitable in its own right.

…That’s an interesting sense of humor, there! And one last one from Anoos:

Why is David writing about headlights and Torch writing about Jeeps?

Have a great evening, everyone!