Long Island Vettes - Membership Profile

Hi, my name is Margaret Hermanek and I’m the proud owner of modified 1997 black on black coupe.

Before I get to tell you about the car I’ll tell you a little about myself. I’m a Native American Indian with 22 year old twin boys, married 25 years . I’m also a Registered Nurse and live in Smithtown.

I belong to 4 Corvette clubs here on Long Island and I’m Co-Chairman of the Metro-Long Island Chapter of the NCRS along with my husband who is Chairman. We are both Vette fanatics with a collection of over 1300 miniature Corvettes ranging from 1/84 scale to 1/12 scale. We are constantly buying miniature Corvettes at various toy stores, hobby shops, e-bay and mail order. I got interested in Corvettes because of my husband.

He had wanted one since he was a kid. He finally got one and then got the bug and wanted to buy another one. I said when am I going to get my own, so for Valentines Day he bought me a ’73 L82, blue coupe with P/S, P/B Tilt steering, A/C and automatic tranny. I did the local show scene and took either first or second in every show I entered. I had a great time with the car but I wanted to make it custom but my husband said it was too original. The car was going to need paint soon so let’s sell it and buy a car you can hop-up and not feel guilty about it.

One Saturday morning while looking thru the classified he found a ’97 coupe in our price range. That afternoon I was the proud owner and was glad we sold the’73. Since I’ve owned the car we have made extensive cosmetic alterations to her.The list is as follows: carbon fiber intake manifold cover, carbon fiber intake with chrome dual snorkel air cleaner, chrome hinges, battery cover, fuse cover, wheel well covers, radiator cover, door latches as well as chrome ZO6 wheels. I am going with accents of red throughout the car. As a Christmas present one year my husband surprised me with the ZO6 wheels and painted the calipers and rotors red in our 3 car garage.

My Valentines Day Present - a 1973 Coupe

My current ride - 1997 Coupe.

The following items were also painted torch red inside the engine compartment: fuel rail covers, radiator filler tank and windshield washer tank.

The interior also has red accents added on the passenger side grab bar, door handles and reupholstered seats done by Al Knoch.

The most outstanding modification to the car was the red, white and blue angel I had added to the hood. Angels are one of my favorite items when it comes to artwork so I decided to have one put on the hood.

Since I live in NY and my father was an ironworker who worked on the World Trade Center I decided to have “Remember 9-11” painted on the collar of the angel.

Angel in remembrance of 9-11-2001

Custom interior and seats by Al Knoch.

My husband and I drove in the 50th Anniversary Caravan to Tennessee and Kentucky in this car and have taken it to the NCRS National Convention in Windsor Canada last year. This car gets 27 miles to the gallon on the highway and is just a joy to drive. See you at the next
Long Island Vettes' show.

Custom painted engine components.