The chance encounters that I experience with dream cars of my childhood continue. My first Hooniverse submission was a piece I wrote about a Finnish DeLorean; true, that was barely a chance encounter as I called the dealership beforehand, but getting to see one of those in this country is pretty random. Some time ago, I featured a Testarossa, which is another car I would just park on a plinth in the middle of my living room and dust it off every week. Some comments I’ve heard maintain that the Testarossa probably is best positioned on display and not on the road, so it might not be such a terrible idea.

But from the more accessible end of the ’80s dream car spectrum is the C4 Chevrolet Corvette. Every time there’s some classic Corvette discussion, I play the C4 card with snarls usually audible. “It’s the cheapest Vette!” “Badly made!” “It’s so ’80s!” All of those assertions are most likely correct, but they do not detract me or my want for one. So, here’s one I saw today.

In hindsight, the super-extended, chiselled plastic nose of the C4 is almost a sports car caricature. It takes the curvedness of the C3, and smooths it out with the slightest hints left above the front wheelarches. It’s a great big slab of plastic, one you could spend hours polishing – especially those power bulges on top. Another thing it’s got going for it are those swivelling headlights, that swing around with a lot more action than the ones you see on Japanese sports cars of the era.

I also like how the front plate on this car is mounted under the whole nose cone, on the front airdam. Saves me the trouble of photoshopping it out; even if blanking the plates on photos of a Corvette is probably more worth the trouble than doing that to a set of Starlet photos.

The chrome wheels on the Vette are from a later, facelift car. It’s also nice to notice they’re two-and-two; the blade spokes face the same direction (ie the rear of the car) on both sides. This means no two wheels on the car are the same, if the rear wheels are wider than the fronts; this also means you can mount them completely wrong and have the car look ridiculous when viewed side-on. The owner of the Corvette has chosen not to do that.

There’s something about the Vette that just says “Wayfarer shades” to me. I don’t exactly know where that feeling comes from.

And again, it’s the endless sea of inherently boring Finnish family cars in silver that make the Corvette stand out so prominently. That’s probably the exact reason why the owner here has bought a bright red Corvette with chrome wheels. And I salute him for it.

[Images: Copyright 2012 Hooniverse/Antti Kautonen]