Bonnie and Clyde, Butch and Sundance. Individually, they were nobodies. Together, they put the world on its ear. In spite of their individual differences, they seemed to be two pieces of the same puzzle. Whatever one lacked, the other filled in the gaps, and vice-versa. They were two of a kind-just like the two 1994 Chevy Corvette ZR1s featured here. We have two different cars with completely different histories, yet together, they form a dynamic duo that makes waves wherever they go. These two gems are owned by Mike and Renee Conway, of Lake Tahoe, California, who are also two of a kind. Mike and Renee may be two different individuals but when it comes to their ZR-1s, they're on the same level.
Mike, a local TV station owner, has owned several musclecars in his lifetime, so he's no stranger to the rush of adrenaline felt from having gobs of power under his right foot. Renee, however, has always wanted a Corvette. This stems back to when she was a young teenager wanting to sport dad's brand-new '63 Corvette around town. However, her dad had no intention of letting her touch, let alone drive, his snazzy split-window coupe, thus, her want for a Corvette went unanswered for 27 years until Mother's Day in 1990, when Mike surprised her with an '84 coupe. That's when her need for speed began.
After a few years of enjoyment, she needed more power, so the '84 was traded in on an '88. When that wasn't enough, she stepped up to a '91 ZR-1, at almost twice the horsepower. Unfortunately, the ZR-1 turned out to be a lemon, and they got their money back. But Mike and Renee didn't let that sour them (pun intended) on ZR-1s, and while in Southern California for business, Mike heard about a '94 ZR-1 that was for sale. When he got there, he saw the King of the Hill as it sat there with its Competition Yellow (Code 53U) paint and light beige interior (Code 643) and liked the looks of it. It was a one-owner car, number 163, and had less than 50,000 miles on it. It wasn't long before he was driving back to Lake Tahoe in the potent coupe. After some additional research, the Conways found out that Chevrolet made 41 Competition Yellow ZR-1s in 1994, and of that 41, eight came with light beige interior, making it a pretty rare breed indeed!
With 405 horsepower on tap, the ZR-1 turned out to be a hit with the Conways, and Mike decided to get one of his own. He searched the Internet and found another low-mileage '94 for sale. After communicating with the owner, he found out that the ZR-1 was number 426, had about 8,000 miles on it, was never registered, and was-get this-Competition Yellow with light beige interior! They arranged to meet in Spearfish, South Dakota, and travel to a local Corvette show where Mike would then take possession of the Vette. The owner met Mike at the airport in a 50-foot motorhome pulling a 20-foot trailer with number 426 inside. On their way to the show, they had a little trouble with the trailer. As they crossed over some train tracks, the trailer got hung up, shearing all the bolts holding the trailer hitch.
When you're driving a 50-foot motorhome, anything less than a nuclear blast feels like a bug on the windshield, so you can imagine their surprise when they looked in the mirror and noticed that the trailer was still on the tracks-and a train was coming! Nah, just kidding. There wasn't a train in sight, but the sooner they could get the trailer off the tracks the better, not to mention the fact that they were on a hill. "I hadn't even paid for the car yet, and I had visions of the car rolling down the street into the hotel," Mike said. After a few hours and the kindly assistance of a tow truck, they extracted the trailer from the tracks, bought a new trailer hitch, and were back on the road the next morning. "We had gotten the car out of the trailer after the railroad incident," Mike commented-we don't blame him.