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Another amusing tale from my old Chevy dealer.
One of the business accounts our Chevy store had was with Raytheon. We serviced several of their company vehicles, and many of its employees had their personal vehicles serviced by us as well. Which brings us to this story.
One day as I was returning from lunch, I was greeted by an odd sight. A clean, low-mileage early 90's Corvette ZR-1 with its entire engine induction system missing and several wires and hoses undone. The ZR-1 from that era was / is the ultimate incarnation of the fourth-generation ( 1985-1996 ) Corvette, with a really exotic ( for the time ) powerplant. While standard C4 Corvettes made do with a 5.7 liter, two-valve-per-cylinder, Tuned Port Injection V8 ( called the L98 and the LT1 ) making between 250 and 300 horsepower, those ZR-1s used a four-cam, 32-valve, superlight alloy, 385 / 405 horsepower monster ( called the LT5 ) designed jointly by General Motors and Lotus, and hand-assembled by Mercury Marine. This engine features tricks like a dual-tract intake system for optimizing both low-speed torque and top-end horsepower, and a clever "valet" system allowing the owner to manually shut off half the injectors, reducing power output. All very exotic stuff for the 1990s, especially on a semi mass-produced American car. Its rear body was also a full 7 inches wider than a standard C4 Vette to make room for massive steamroller tires in hopes of getting that beast to hook up.
As one might expect, this rare and exotic powerplant required special tools, equipment, and training to properly service and repair. This fact was lost on Mr. Know It All Engineer, who had no business messing with it. Apparently he got in over his head and had the car towed into our shop to fix his fuckup.
If that wasn't bad enough, the guy was an arrogant prick. He talked down to the service writer, mechanic, and even the service manager like they were all idiots. He bragged that he could easily fix the car himself, but he had an "executive position" ( making sure to emphasize those two words ) that left him little time to bother himself with such things ( those were his words ) .
I don't know how much they charged him to put that mess back together. I don't even know why he took it apart in the first place.
One of the business accounts our Chevy store had was with Raytheon. We serviced several of their company vehicles, and many of its employees had their personal vehicles serviced by us as well. Which brings us to this story.
One day as I was returning from lunch, I was greeted by an odd sight. A clean, low-mileage early 90's Corvette ZR-1 with its entire engine induction system missing and several wires and hoses undone. The ZR-1 from that era was / is the ultimate incarnation of the fourth-generation ( 1985-1996 ) Corvette, with a really exotic ( for the time ) powerplant. While standard C4 Corvettes made do with a 5.7 liter, two-valve-per-cylinder, Tuned Port Injection V8 ( called the L98 and the LT1 ) making between 250 and 300 horsepower, those ZR-1s used a four-cam, 32-valve, superlight alloy, 385 / 405 horsepower monster ( called the LT5 ) designed jointly by General Motors and Lotus, and hand-assembled by Mercury Marine. This engine features tricks like a dual-tract intake system for optimizing both low-speed torque and top-end horsepower, and a clever "valet" system allowing the owner to manually shut off half the injectors, reducing power output. All very exotic stuff for the 1990s, especially on a semi mass-produced American car. Its rear body was also a full 7 inches wider than a standard C4 Vette to make room for massive steamroller tires in hopes of getting that beast to hook up.
As one might expect, this rare and exotic powerplant required special tools, equipment, and training to properly service and repair. This fact was lost on Mr. Know It All Engineer, who had no business messing with it. Apparently he got in over his head and had the car towed into our shop to fix his fuckup.
If that wasn't bad enough, the guy was an arrogant prick. He talked down to the service writer, mechanic, and even the service manager like they were all idiots. He bragged that he could easily fix the car himself, but he had an "executive position" ( making sure to emphasize those two words ) that left him little time to bother himself with such things ( those were his words ) .
I don't know how much they charged him to put that mess back together. I don't even know why he took it apart in the first place.
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