order the latest-generation models,
and always in yellow. Their enthusiasm
waned, however, when he discovered
that the local dealership had ordered the
wrong transmission, manual instead of
automatic.
Seizing the moment, Jeremy asked
the dealer if anyone else had stepped up
to buy this new Stingray with a seven-
speed manual. Not yet, so he made
a 1,400-mile trip from his home in
Oklahoma to Virginia to grab it off
the lot.
Over the next two years, Jeremy spent
untold hours lavishing attention on the
car, turning it into a show car with a
“bumblebee-style” color scheme in yel-
low and black. But this showpiece was
no trailer queen. He drove it to shows
on both coasts, and everywhere in
between. And when the Z06 debuted, he
planned to enhance his car with a cus-
tom widebody treatment. Then a deluge
ensued, literally.
After attending church services with
his family on a Sunday morning, reports
of near-biblical flooding came in.
Jeremy suddenly wondered if the drain-
age canal right next to the shop where
his Corvette was being reworked was
doing its job. He took a trip over there
and was shocked and dismayed to find
the water level was two feet above the
shop’s foundation.
Once the waters receded, he found
that even though his Corvette was on
jackstands, it had been flooded right up
to the seat cushions. A total loss ... well,
sort of.
Since he’s in the insurance business,
Jeremy knew the ins and outs of a dam-
age policy, and thanks to an “inflation
guard” provision in his coverage, he
received an additional six percent above
the “agreed value” of the Corvette.
Undeterred by this heartbreaking set-
back, Jeremy used the funds to purchase
a new 2017 Grand Sport. In what color,
though? He already had a set of yellow
wheels on hand that he had planned to
put on the 2014 Corvette, and wanted
to change the body color to blue on the
2017 model. But he wasn’t quite sure
how to combine them until he came
across a picture of the ’63 Penske Grand
Sport noted at the outset. “As fate would
have it,” he notes, this image was an
16 VETTE 19.
[FEATURE]
FITTING TRIBUTE