A C5 Corvette Convertible with an American atmosphere

The “Chevrolet Fun Day 2024” at Fuji Speedway on June 1, 2024, attracted many Chevrolet cars nationwide, including successive generations of Corvettes and Camaros. At the event, we spotted a red convertible C5 Corvette with a truly American look. We interviewed the female owner, Ms. “Ari-chan”.

Fell in love with the Corvette at first sight in a parking area

Ms. “Arichan” first saw a Chevrolet Corvette when she was a student and fell in love at first sight.

“I saw a C5 Corvette in a parking area, and I fell in love with the styling. I didn’t know Corvettes well at the time, but I learned that it was a generation C5 and that it was the last car with retractable headlights. That made my admiration for the Corvette even stronger.”

She says this, but for a while after she became a working adult, the hurdles to a Corvette were high.

“At first, it was out of my reach in terms of money and maintenance costs. But I like sports cars, so at first I drove an S15 Silvia. I liked this car too.”

This is how she decided to buy the Nissan S15 Silvia

Although Ms. “Ari-chan” was enjoying her car life in a Nissan S15 Silvia in this way, the Corvette of her dreams was still on her mind. One day, while checking a used car website, she found a C5 Corvette for sale at a reasonable price.

“When I found it, I decided to go check out the car. I live in the Kanto area, but it wasn’t hard for me to go to Kobe.”

This is how she came to acquire her current car, a 1999 C5 Corvette Convertible. At first, she was not particular about a convertible, but first contact was the deciding factor.

“When I arrived at the store, I saw this Corvette in the open. That was one of the deciding factors. The other thing was the body color. The Corvette I fell in love with at first sight in a parking area was red.”

“Even if I can no longer drive it, I want to keep it with me”

This is how the C5 Corvette Convertible became Ms. “Ari-chan’s” car. She has owned the car for a little over two years, and the odometer, which had barely reached 100,000 km at the time of purchase, now has over 110,000 km on it. Since she said it was sold at a reasonable price, we asked her if she had any trouble with it, and she said it was appropriate for its age and she had no major problems with it.

She also had a wonderful encounter with the Corvette. She met her current partner, the owner of a white C5 Corvette, who was with her on the day of the event, and they found out through social networking that they were both C5 Corvette owners. They had their respective cars lined up together at the event.

She would like to build an aero system to match the external bumper that was originally installed, but she also wants to keep the simple and clean atmosphere.

“Even if I can no longer drive it for some reason, I want to keep it with me.”

Her love for the C5 Corvette that she fell in love with at first sight will continue for a long time.