My interest in cars began in 1951, when I was ten years old. My father passed on his interest to me. When I first saw a picture of the Motorama Corvette, I was hooked.
Six years later, when I was sixteen, the best I could do was a 1951 Ford convertible, but by then I was a "car guy", and always owned a sporty, top-down auto. I bought a 1987 Camaro convertible in 1989 and I still own it. I also bought a new 2002 Camaro Z28 convertible, but always had a Corvette in my heart and mind.
In 1992, I moved to Florida and semi-retired. I took a job with a company that manufactured automobile sensors in 1995. Long story short, I ended up hand-building prototype parts to try and get contracts with the car factories. One of these parts was called the "Corvette", a fluid-level fluid-temperature sensor that was scheduled to go on the next-generation (C6) Corvette. I hand-built, tested, packed, and shipped at least 500 of these parts for the factory. As a company, we got the contract.
I am now the proud owner of a 2007 Corvette that I purchased in 2009, that has this sensor in the oil pan. My wife and I LOVE this car, and are driving it to Bowling Green in May, to visit the factory and museum.