Bulldozer – Second Corvette. L98 V8 (240hp) with 4-speed auto and Z52 suspension, targa coupe in black with teak woodgrain and saddle leather interior. The name came from the massive, stump-pulling torque of the L98 engine. Just tapping the gas pedal would result in it jumping forward, like it had been poked with a cattle prod. Acquired May 1998 at Quality Corvettes in Quantico VA under the condition that its stock 16″ wheels be swapped with the 17″ Dymag wheels from a 1992 on their lot. I kept both sets of wheels. It had only 43,000 miles and was intended to be a “rental” during the summer of ’98 while Excalibur was repaired from the wreck, which took six months. By September it was un-sellable for the winter, proven by sitting back on the same lot on consignment for a month, so I was stuck with it. But a fellow enthusiast friend Josh wanted it badly and rented it from me in October 1998. I kept the 17″ Dymags as racing wheels for Excalibur and put the 16-inchers back on, which had dry-rotted 11-year-old Eagle VR-50 Gatorback tires on them. Josh failed to heed my warning to drive carefully until he replaced them, and promptly spun the back end of it into a guardrail in McLean VA while I looked on with great dismay from the passenger seat. Josh later bought some 1990 wheels and put Bridgestone RE-730’s on it, which restored its cornering capabilities. During the summer of 2001 when I was reworking its massive stereo at my friend Ron Nielsen’s house, we were testing it with Crystal Method’s “Come On Baby” remix. A little girl on her bicycle yelled at me as she rode past, “Hey Mister! Can you turn it UP?!?!”
I paid it off and moved it to Illinois in May 2002, and sold it in October 2002 on eBay to a guy in Michigan to finish paying for the ZZ430 Fiero project.
UPDATE 12/30/08: A CarFax report shows that he kept it for three years and sold it in March of 2005 to a new owner in Saginaw, MI, who still has it.