In January of 2001 I bought my first Corvette, America's premiere sports car. The 2001 C5 model was, in my opinion, the first time in decades that Chevy had once again "gotten it right" after years of screwing up the Corvette. Every major automotive magazine, critic and road test agreed. The 2001 Z06 (the premium model of vette) beat every sports car on Earth in every performance test known to mankind and once again became one of the world's premiere sports cars and easily its' best value. When $60,000 buys you a car that blows a Ferrari off a test course, something is happening. Additionally, Chevy had finally fixed my major complaints with the car, the brakes, the rough ride and the crappy body style of the previous years' cars.

However, the C5 was not perfect. The interior creature comforts were lacking and the riding noise was less than acceptable.

Along came the new C6 model, available in a coupe (i.e. the poor man's chance to own a corvette), a convertible (cool looking but not a premiere sports car by any means) and the coveted, impossible to find and supremely loaded Z06. The Z06 demand is so high that despite a $70,000 sticker price, most dealers are getting $100,000 for the cars when they (the dealer) can even get one. A Chevy dealer has to sell a combined 11 coupes and convertibles to be able to order ONE Z06 from the Corvette factory. Customers are on waiting lists for months.

In June, I finally got my corvette and paid only sticker for it (a benefit bestowed upon me by the nature of what I do for a living). The car is an amazing piece of machinery. It boasts 505 horsepower, a manual 6 speed powering 7 liters, and 470 pounds of torque at 4800 RPM. Inside, the car is loaded as a luxury sports car should be and it's a blast to drive.

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No matter how good looking I am naturally, a car like this will ALWAYS make me hotter, as you can see

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No matter what angle you look at this car from, it shines and jumps at you.

Shiny rims, eh?

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This is a total "guy" picture. This is the "under the hood" shot. I have no idea what all this stuff is and I don't care.

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The true test of a Corvette is the front tire side of the exterior. If you want to know whether or not someone is driving the greatest American sports car on the road, look there and find the "Z06" logo. If the car is missing the logo, it's also missing its' balls.

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Here I am looking cool as the car itself, comfortable ensconced in the captain's chair. 

The interior is all leather and custom designed to my specifications with the red highlights, which were my wife's idea and look awesome

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One of the interesting features of this car is that just in case you forget what you are driving, there are numerous reminders throughout the vehicle, like this stitching in each of the seats letting me know that I am in a Z06

The view from the driver's seat includes the Corvette logo emblazoned on the steering wheel (which includes all of the remote controls for the stereo, navigation system and On-Star system).

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If the car has to, it yells at you via the instrument panel by telling you to buckle your damn seatbelt.

The screen actually folds out when you want to load CDs into the 6 disc

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Anytime you start the car and activate the navigation system, this stupid warning appears that you must acknowledge.

Here is my boney finger making the courageous decision to agree to the stupid terms of the navigation system

Now that the navigation system is activated, it appears that I am somewhere near I-80, East of San Francisco. That is very helpful

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The inside of the car also has no actual door handles, it is all push button. In the event that your corvette winds up submerged in water, there is a manual over-ride lever to open the door.

Oh yeah, even at the base of each door, is the damn car's name. Good Lord, a little narcissistic don't ya think?

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Look closely at these photos, it is not enhanced in any way. One of the unique features of the Corvette is what they call the "heads-up" display which is a real-time summary of your speed, oil pressure, RPM and fuel level, which is projected basically into the air in front of the driver. While driving, it looks as though this digital information board is floating on the road right in front of your car's nose. It's both cool and distracting all at once.

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A lot of people are surprised by how much room the car's trunk/hatch area has.

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As they advertise, I can fit two entire golf bags and pairs of shoes with room to spare. I could drive Arnie and I to our golf rounds all the time, except for the fact that Arnie can't fit into the car himself.

There's so much room in the trunk/hatch area that even I can fit in their comfortably