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This is my third, Third Gen. I’ve only owned cars with Chevy V8s in my life and only Camaros, Tahoes and one Corvette.

This car took me about 4 years to find. I decided I wanted to find an IROC again and see what was out there. After a decade of not owning one and working a side job to save up some money, I decided I wanted a convertible. My drag racing days were over, my driving record was clean as a whistle, and I always envied how awesome the convertibles looked. It had lines like an exotic and to me, one of the most beautiful cars of all time.

I searched every day for years all local sources for IROC convertibles and never had much luck. There was always something “off”. I didn’t want one with swapped out wheels, wood grain interior, and a grant steering wheel. I loved how these cars were brand new and that’s what I wanted.

I had to expand the search and consider buying sight unseen. The convertible I bought I had seen for sale on eBay years before I bought it and it was ridiculously over-priced for back then. I used to just look through the pictures and wished I could have it. As I saved more money I noticed the car didn’t sell and was listed again. Once again it didn’t sell. I messaged the owner and got some information about the car.

He was a police chief in Southern Illinois. He is retired now and had barely been using the car since his wife wasn’t too keen on driving with the top down these days. He stored it in a heated garage with his motor cycles and never got the car wet in two decades. No winter and no rain ever. He was the second owner and as far as he knew the first owner had it in storage with other cars and had only put a few thousand miles on it.

I got tons of videos and pictures of the car and even got a signed agreement on the condition of the car mechanically. I was told up and down the car needed nothing and was meticulously maintained. I was told the front end had chips and spider cracks and he basically said for about $2000 in paint and PDR the car would be showroom condition.

I got $5000 off the original price of the car since I pulled the trigger in Winter and was able to make the argument that the asking price would be more for a low mile showroom car. We agreed it was a very good condition, low mile unrestored car but not showroom.

When the car showed up it looked better than I expected. Underneath was spotless and all it needed was an alignment. The car drives great, everything works (even cruise control!), and even 80 MPH on the highway is as smooth as my 2012 Tahoe. It doesn’t feel like a 30 year old car.

I had the car painted because it looked really good until the sun hit the front end. I decided I wanted this car to look good from 1 inch away. This wouldn’t be a 20 footer, 10 footer or “looks good in photos”. My goal for this car is to have every inch look brand new from up close in the sunlight.

The painter was an award winning restorer of Concourse and Show Quality Cars that I used to know when I was detailing high end cars in college. When I brought him the car he looked it over in all the door jams and lines and said, “This thing is mint and no rust anywhere, where did you find this?” I told him it didn’t need to be a $20k paint job.. I just want it to look factory original. He said, “You won’t be disappointed, I don’t just paint cars, I restore them..”

He saved all the original emblems that you can’t get anywhere and he left all the jams with the factory decals untouched. The paint matches so perfectly, you’d never know..

The car is all original, untouched and stock. The previous owner had some generic aftermarket exhaust I had changed to Magnaflow and I changed the tips to smaller ones that didn’t stick out as much. I am going back this fall to get factory style tail pipes back on.

Other than the exhaust, the tires had to be changed out and the previous owner had swapped out the radio and speakers with an Alpine system that had an iPod cable. He gave me the original speakers and radio in the Alpine boxes. The battery was also changed out to an Interstate, but that’s about it.

I get the comment, “It looks brand new”. All the time, so I guess I am achieving my goals with this car. I know I am very happy with it!

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