What is it about the letters c, o, r and v in that order?

So I was wondering today. Why is it that approximately 75 to 80 percent of people who drive either Corvettes or Corvairs tend to be kind of "toolish"? I'm not talking about anyone on this board (everyone here is alright in my book)but the other 99% of people out there. I work at a large parts house and, honestly, most of these guys are tools. Why? What is it about those letters in that configuration?

Thoughts?

Once again, I am absolutely NOT referring to anyone here. Just the rest of the motoring world.

Sorry If I offended anyone. That wasn't my intent. Please don't set me on fire.

No different than cars with letters P-O-R or F-E-R. Over at Pelican Parts forum, there are a number of Porsche Bob Costas' in a thread about why a guys 911S is slower at track days than Spec Miata's.

In my experience, Corvair owners tend to be the total opposite of Corvette guys... (I've owned both and still own Corvairs)

Corvair owners are stereotypically/generally cheapskates and I tend to associate the term "tool" with snobbery... not a typical Corvair owner accusation.

I find most vette owners... at least those of modern vettes.. tend to be older, affluent, and really cannot control the power, handling, and brakes their cars have without a LOT of electronic doohickies

wcelliot wrote: In my experience, Corvair owners tend to be the total opposite of Corvette guys... (I've owned both and still own Corvairs) Corvair owners are stereotypically/generally cheapskates and I tend to associate the term "tool" with snobbery... not a typical Corvair owner accusation.

Funny....I was going to use you as an example of one of the good-guy Corvair Owners, based on the e-mails that we traded.

bah, there are "tools" in every enthusiast group, sometimes you just get stuck in a concentration of them.

being the owner of one of the most hated BMWs every built (the 318ti) I aggree with that statement. A LOT of M owners look with disdain on my little hatchback.. and they really hate it when I can outhandle them

mad_machine wrote: I find most vette owners... at least those of modern vettes.. tend to be older, affluent, and really cannot control the power, handling, and brakes their cars have without a LOT of electronic doohickies

I remember chasing a dentist (lic. plate "TOOTH DOC" ...seriously) down a twisty bit of road in a bone stock 1st gen Miata and practically pushing him through the turns. He disappeared on the straight bits of course but had NO idea how to handle his machine. His frustration was hilarious.

This was in '02 and it was a new 'Vette not some mid-eighties piece of E36 M3.

i am a corvette owner. there are corvette guys who are car enthusiasts, and then there is "vetteguy"

vetteguy is the tool who is either old and does not drive the car like it should be, the guy who buys it as a status symbol and takes it to car shows right off the showroom floor, and midlife crisis guy. vetteguy has vanity plates like "corgasm" or "vetgasm" or "2fst4u" or "flybyu" but never gets the car over 70mph. vetteguy pretends to be a car guy but is essentially a tool. most corvette owners fall into this category.

^^^ Agreed!

I just got a 93 Vette and joined a Corvette forum. There was a thread about this in the C4 general section, asking the others if they get snubbed by owners of newer models. The general concensus was, "Yup".

With a Vette, I think you might be able to 'read' the car and make some guesses about it's owner. The guy who drives an automatic/convertible probably has no idea what a Z06 is.

Paging AngryCorvair. AngryCorvair to the thread, please...

One of my racing buddies has a C5. After much prodding, he agreed to join the local Corvette club since they host their own autocrosses. He says out of the multiple dozens in the club, maybe 5 are "drivers". The rest polish theirs and take little tours for breakfast. He enjoys the fact his is blistered with stone chips and frequently has the wheels coated with brake dust.

Most Corvair owners around here are well past retirement age. Quite a different demographic.

My experience has been that BMW/Porsche owners are much more "toolish" than Corvette owners. I was working an autocross, and a PCA guy showed up in his 911 Turbo and wanted to autocross. He was so convinced that he didn't need to respect the fact that there were cars on course, he decided to drive across the course while it was hot, resulting in him almost being hit by another car because we couldn't red flag it in time. The safety steward ran over to his car, and the Porsche guy was stark raving mad at the driver of the car that almost hit him. Since then, I've had a very very low opinion of drivers of most Porsches, new 911s to be specific. People who drive 914s and 944s and stuff are much better.

But there's shiny happy people who drive all types of cars.

My neigherbor has an automatic convertible C5 vette, and does wear some gold chains now and again with his corvette hawaiian shirt, -and he's grey haired retirement age. But if that all you see of him you're missing out. He also has 3 C1s, all with V8s. He calls the C5 a "throw away" corvette. He's had all the C1s since the early '70, IIRC. He is a wealth of C1 knowledge and will help anyone out if you ask him, and sometimes without asking. He's a stand up guy.

My take is that at least 80% of all people are douche nozzles looking to build a fantasy life where they are the brand of cool they were sold by bad screen writers and ad execs. Corvette and Harley is cheaper than Porsche and Ferrari so the higher concentration of berkeley sacks naturally wind up there.

just remember that those douche nozzles are the cost of plentiful and awesome drivetrain donors and you'll feel better.

Imagine the tools if Chevy ever releases the long-rumored mid-engine Corvette!

pinchvalve wrote: Imagine the tools if Chevy ever releases the long-rumored mid-engine Corvette!

They won't know the difference but I'd be all over rocking one of those as soon as the nozzles start bringing the 24 month leases back.

There are tools in every sub-community. It's not exclusive to high-end sports car ownership.

maddabe wrote: So I was wondering today. Why is it that approximately 75 to 80 percent of people who drive either Corvettes or Corvairs tend to be kind of "toolish"?

You should meet the guy who lives near my parents (not quite the suburbs but not quite the country). He has a '65 Vette and a Corvair. With the Vette, he runs VERY hot laps on the county roads around my parents' place for hours. With open side pipes. Running race gas. The people who live out there just love him.

I ran into him at the gas station once with his Corvair. I watched a guy approach him, and in a very mature way, tell him "Nice car!!". His response was an eye roll and "Yes, Yes it is", at which point he got in and drove away.

In reply to dimeadozen:

Maybe you should shoot at him with a paint ball gun. That is good clean fun, isn't it?

I actually had a customer tell me that Porsche ripped off Corvair with the rear engine layout! Unfortunately, I need my job so didn't really get into it with this obvious encyclopedia of automotive knowledge. I'll bet he could've taught me a lot about muffler bearings and Cavalier fan clutches.

Can you taste the sarcasm?

In reply to Otto_Maddox:

The odd part is that this guy's cars seem to bring out his alter ego- in the community, he's actually very well respected, and contributes significant amounts of time and money to all of the local HS sports programs, Cub Scouts, etc.