So a short whiles back this olelongrooffan shared with my fellow Hoons that while I was hanging in the pits and garage, I decided to head over to my Rolex24 buddy, RJ’s, pad to see what was up over there in the “Hub of Lake County.” While there, we got to hook up with some pretty cools sightings, a couple of which I have shared with my fellow Hoons. Yeah, Alex Job Racing is first class and I can’t wait to see if some of the predictions he shared with us come to fruition. At the end of that post, I commented we were heading back to RJ’s new two story pad and check out what was in the basement. Yeah, it turns out the Garage of his old house just wasn’t big enough. Hell he had to put his 68 Corvette in a storage unit, God forbid. Well a couple years Rj decided to rectify that situation and build him one big ass house, nearly 50% of which is his basement. Feel free to click on through to see some of what I ended up seeing that evening.


Now before my fellow Hoons begrudging RJ (shown to the left in the above image) for his choice of rides and his home, know this. RJ’s dad was a working electrician at MickeyMouseLand and his mom was a travelling practical nurse throughout his childhood. RJ’s first job was wrenching at a Mobil station there in the big O and he found his true calling in wrenching stuff. Initially he was planning to follow his pop and younger brother out to MickeyMouseLand and start wrenching on all the motor driven stuff they have out there. At the ripe old age of 29, he took a look at his career path and the potential earnings and he decided to switch things up, in a big way. He signed on working on off shore boats (his word) in the oil industry and hasn’t looked back since. It turned out to be a great decision for him an he is now the Chief Engineer on a 170 foot oil supply boat over in the Persian Gulf. Yeah, he does alright but is still the same down to earth guy you would meet wrenching on your car down at the local Mobil station. And he is still a generous but cheap bastard.

Yeah, working half way across the world, 16 weeks on, 6 weeks off, sure enabled RJ to save up for some pretty cool stuff, including this continuation Cobra, number 4 thousand something. He has wanted one of these forever and a couple years back was able to have one built just for him. Although he loves it, RJ doesn’t deny it is a beast to drive. “That’s why I have a Boxster for my daily driver,” he says unrepentedly. This olelongrooffan is sure happy that my buddy could pick up yet another car without a back seat.

Yes my fellow Hoons, that is correct. My buddy RJ owns (at the time of this write up) five automobiles and none of them have a rear seat. ’68*, ’88, and ’02 Corvettes, a Porsche Boxter and a Shelby AC Cobra. I told him one time once when the Skye was blue that he should pick up a CTS V wagon or and Magnum just for some four seater longroof fun. “Hell, RJ, it might even get you a girl or two.” His response? “Longroof, I am fat, ugly, bald and out to sea four months at a time, you think a four seater is going to get me laid? Even these two seaters don’t do that. And I’m okay with that. I’ll just keep these and let you haul us around as needed in your longerroof.” Can’t beat that logic.

So back when RJ was just starting to save a few bucks while working offshore, he sold his 26′ open bow fishing boat and invested in this 2002 Corvette ZO6. At the time, his daily driver was an 80’s era mullet inducing IROC Z something he reminded me of when we spotted one just like it (but in much better condition) that weekend at a car show we took in one afternoon. Come to think of it, he still has that mullet.

Last fall, RJ got wind of this 1988 35th anniversary ride available for purchase. It has 99,000 on the odo and its owner was sure he had something worth some real bucks. After several months he realized he didn’t and RJ picked it up for less than $10K. Lots less. “Hell, longroof, I needed another daily driver Corvette as my ’68* was racking up to many miles. You can probably note this is a DD as it hasn’t been washed since RJ drove it on his last trip home.

After RJ divested himself of that IROC, he picked up this chrome rear bumpered ’68* down at Mecum in the mid $20’s. He incorporated this into his DD and still enjoys it. It’s not numbers matching and has a ding or two here and there but with less than 60K on the odo, he is quite happy with it. We saw another just like it, color, accessories and all, at that same show where we had seen that pristine IROC that weekend. But RJ’s has the matching hardtop.

Now RJ has even influenced some of his offshore friends to acquire a somewhat rare two seater. Lobo, an engineer on another boat in the North Atlantic picked up this special edition Saturn Sky a few years back. I forget the package but it is a sweet ride and it also has no back seat. He does have a Chevy Cruz as his daily driver as he is a married engineer. That is RJ’s DD Boxster and my longerroof in the background. RJ’s place is the only home I visit where this olelongrooffan has covered, weather tight parking.

Even if it is in his basement. It’s pretty cool though. We can overlook the pool while we are sharing some apps and trading tales about our rides.
Image Copyright Hooniverse 2015/longrooffan
*that third gen Corvette may well be a ’72, this olelongrooffan has slept since then.