Reunion Couple, '86 'Vette get another go-around

[SpaceGhost]

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2007/12/28/soldandfound.ART_ART_12-28-07_A1_AD8T83F.html?sid=101

 

Friday, December 28, 2007 3:13 AM

By Kathy Lynn Gray

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Jerry Apicella always wondered what had happened to the two-tone silver Corvette with the glass roof that he and his wife, Carol, had custom-ordered in 1986.

 

They'd loved the admiring looks they got as they drove, and the powerful, sporty feel of being close to the road.

 

But they traded in their $29,000 splurge for a family car two years later when their second child was on the way and pregnant Carol couldn't fit behind the wheel.

 

Still, Jerry, now 46, was sentimental; he'd kept the original key and registration in the desk drawer of their Sykesville home just outside Baltimore, Md. When he noticed them last Saturday as he searched through papers, he decided to try to find the car.

 

And yesterday, he and his wife once again owned the silver Corvette.

 

"This is unbelievable," he said as he stared at the car for the first time in 19 years, parked in the garage of Denney Motors at Cleveland Avenue and Morse Road. "This is great."

 

He'd found it by conducting a title search on his computer, using the vehicle identification number from the registration. When he realized his old car was for sale, he phoned Denney Motors.

 

"Lost car found; it's a neat thing," said David Ruark, Denney Motors manager. "He says it's meant for him to have it back."

 

The car looked nearly new and, with just 42,000 miles on the odometer, apparently hadn't been driven much by the two people who had owned it since the Apicellas.

 

"There's a real passion for these cars," said Bud Pullins, owner of Denney Motors. "I have a saying: 'If you own one Corvette, you'll always own another one.' "

 

Carol, 56, teared up after she sat in the driver's seat and remembered how she and their daughter, Christina, now 21, used to tool around town in the Corvette.

 

"We got a lot of looks," she said. "Jerry had always wanted a Corvette, and it broke his heart to turn it in."

 

The couple drove 400 miles from Maryland yesterday morning to pay $9,800 and pick up the car. They planned to drive it back last night.

 

"It was just a crazy set of coincidences, too many coincidences to pass up," Jerry Apicella said. "And it's aged a lot better than I have."

[Casper]

That's really cool.

[Ziggy1647545504]

Cool story. Too bad there's no pics.

[Science Abuse]

So wait a minute: A 25 year old guy and his 35 year old wife tooled around in a vette with their newborn kid for two years.

They don't even have back seats, do they?

[Nitrousbird]

Too bad they didn't have something cooler than a regular 80's Vette. Come on, at least a Calloway or ZR1, then it is a story.

[thorne]

It also seems like they paid more then it was worth 9800$ for a 80's vette ?

[SpaceGhost]

It only had 42k on it. It is Denney Motors though.....