Long Island Vettes - Membership Profile

	I’ve got Corvette Fever Rich Fingerhut Ever since childhood, two of my favorite things were vehicles, and my cousin, Robert, who was 13 years older than me. He got me my first go –cart, and introduced me to the automobile called the Corvette. I will never forget when after constantly telling me about this really cool sports car he was going to buy, one day he came out from Merrick with this really pretty girl that was his fiance, Renee, and this really pretty car, which turned out to be a 1961 Corvette convertible. Even though the car was probably painted incorrectly (it was white with red coves), wouldn’t go in reverse, and only could make right turns without a major hasssle due to linkage issues, it was the most awesome car I had ever seen!!! That’s the day the fever took hold of me....
My cousin had to sell the car when he went to ‘Nam, but after his return, purchased a ’63 blue SWC (which got stolen), then a ’65 which never ran right, then another ’65 green w/ 327/365 HP. Man, did I love that car. He actually let me (try to) drive it when I was 13 years old. He was a great cousin.... Of course, my shifting skills sucked pretty bad, and I could hardly see out of the windshield. After I graduated from college and got my first decent paying job, I decided I needed a Corvette of my own. One of my customers had a 1980 with about 8000 miles on it. I believe this was in 1981. It turned out this was probably not the fastest car in the world. It had the L-48 motor and in those days the speedometer only showed 85 MPH. I also found out later that the car had been in a pretty bad accident and was starting to show stress cracks in the hood. Lesson learned – buyer beware !!! It was still a fun car though.	Ever since I was a kid, I loved anything with four wheels and a motor. My go-cart came from Ghost Motorcycles in Port Washington and cost a whopping $178.00 back in the day.
In 1982, I decided that a brand new Corvette was in order. I traded in the ’80 for a black 1982 at Kinney Chevrolet in Riverhead. In those days, the ‘Vette was my daily driver and I racked up about 40,000 miles in 1-1/2 years. I then got married to wife #1 and the Corvette had to go, but I knew that Corvettes would not be out of my life forever.	The boys in the band abusing my 1980 ‘Vette. I still remember that my butt was killing me from sitting on the windshield!
My cousin’s 1965 Stingray 327 / 365 w/ sidepipes. Check out the Motion Performance round sticker in the vent window. He later sold this car for $1600.00 – Man if I only would have known how the value would go up in the future.....	Fast forward to 1998, when I received a letter stating that one of my Dad’s distant cousins had passed away, and for some strange reason ( I had only met the guy maybe five times) he was leaving a portion of his estate to me. I figured it would be maybe $500.00. Well, I was pleasantly surprised when I received a real nice check early in 1999. I always dreamed of having a C2, so I went straight to Unique Corvettes, where I soon realized that these cars are almost too nice to drive, AND they were out of my price range.
My cousin Robert (same cousin) talked me into narrowing my search to a Big Block. A couple of days later, he called me up and said he saw an ad for a 1966 427 Convertible. It was two towns away from me. The owner told me right away it was NOT numbers matching, and when I went to look at it the first time, he said it was “winterized” (Well, it was in February) and the engine wasn’t running, and that he not going to start it up for everybody that comes to look, etc. etc. I figured that the engine wouldn’t work, and he was full of crap. I made another date to hear the car run, and when I went back, lo and behold, the thing fired right up, and I had a grin from ear to ear.
	He had me hook, line and sinker. Thus began my adventures with “INCORECT” You folks pretty much know the rest of the story. Met Richie Shields, became active in club, secretly signed Marty up for membership in LIV, convinced her that since she was a member, she NEEDED a new Corvette for herself, talked her into going half & half on a 2004 Convertible, and lived happily ever after. Well.... hopefully.............