Ronnie, Lee's boss, after winning hundreds of trophies racing the quarter mile at New England Dragway, in 1980 decided to retire the car from racing. He placed it in storage for one year and decided to do a frame off restoration and brought the car back to its original stock specifications. Three years later and a lot of money, the car was completed, but he never drove it. So Lee got the opportunity to drive the car for the summer, but like a lot of other people back then, we were starting a family and a Corvette just wasn't practical for us. So we had to put our dreams on hold for awhile.
In 2002 we decided that it was time to start looking for our own Corvette. Our first Corvette was a 1987 white roadster. We spent many hours driving around and enjoying the ride. Lee's cousin Emile talked us into joining GCCC. We went to our first cruise in October 2003. Our destination was the Corvette Museum in Springfield Vt. That was the first time that we had met the club members.
In 2004, we found a 1999 Triple Black Roadster for sale. A friend of Lee's decided to sell it and told us to take it for the weekend to see if it was what we were looking for. I immediately fell in love with it. It had much more leg room then the 87 and a much more smoother ride. That's when I bugged my husband for a week telling him I had to have that car. He gave in and we became the proud parents of our '99 roadster. One month later, after hearing certain people's car exhaust we had to change ours. But it didn't stop there. The car already had Z06 wheels, a 12 CD changer and a blackwing air intake and extra chrome. Lee changed the stock exhaust to Borla Stingers.
Our first summer of owning the car we participated in Spindle City, Corvettes United and North Shore's show-n-shine and points shows. We received 1st, 2nd and 3rd place trophies in Street and Super Street. But we didn't want to own a corvette just for the shows. We enjoy driving her all summer and in late November, she's put to bed for the winter. Maybe someday in the future, we may trade our girl in for a C-6. It would be very difficult to go without a Corvette now that we've owned two. I think that our initial plate says it all. 4-CRUZN.
Lee & Paulette Scarlett
