In Our Garage: Trevor Cooper’s 1988 Chevrolet Corvette

Q. Tell us about your Chevrolet Corvette.

A. My car is a 1988 Chevrolet Corvette that came over from Anaheim, America and I've had it for just over two years.

It's a 350 fuel injected Chevrolet engine, it's still the original engine.

It hasn't been touched or rebuilt because it only had 52,000 miles on it when it come here, which is nothing for a car like that.

I just put slightly different mufflers on it, as it was a bit quiet when I first got it, so I just put slightly different mufflers on it just to make it a little bit noisier.

Q. What features are on your car that makes it special?

They call it a sports pack, which is one above the basic standard Corvette, I suppose, a bit like your special Holdens and whatnot, which has got all electric heated seats, electric windows and everything.

Obviously, the electric heater seats, we don't need to use here in Bundaberg.

The lights are pretty good. It catches a bit of attention when you hit them and they pop up, a lot of people like that, especially the young kids.

It’s still left-hand drive, my wife gets a little bit scared in the car because she sits on the driver's side and she's always saying, move over, move over.

On this model I can take the roof on and off and make it a convertible, it just has four screws, and it comes off.

Q. What do you love about Corvettes?

A. Since being a young fella, I’ve liked Corvettes, I've played a lot of other cars, but I like Corvettes.

I just love them because for one, they're a big head turner, but just the sporty, the slick shape of it and things like that.

I just love looking at them and you can't get past that V8 sound.

Q. What do you enjoy about owning the car?

A. It's just something for me to come up in the shed and tinker with, polish up a bolt or polish a bit of chrome here and there.

I just love that I'm doing that, as I think it's very important because it keeps you active, keeps you busy, keeps your mind a bit active and tinkering with stuff.

I’m in the Rum City Rod and Custom Car Club, and I'm also in the American Car Club.

It's companionship and people to talk to you about your same interests, and myself and my wife go on outings with them, weekends and things like that.

Driving along and you pull up at traffic lights and people in the next line, they're all giving you the thumbs up and a nod of the head sign, nice car type thing to you and things like that, that's satisfying.

I've had a lot of renditions of my ‘Little Red Corvette’ with it, but yeah, they just love the car.