There´s nothing more American than a Corvette, and it definitely fits the bill as crazy fun and quite impractical (two door, no back seat).

The photo is from the 2000 mile road trip me and Nina did earlier this summer. It´s a 2006 C6 Corvette with a 6l V8 turning out 400Hp. It only had 3000 US miles on the meter when I got it so it was practically new. It has the 3LT luxury equipment package and the Z51 performance package so it´s fully loaded.

One of the points of owning a car like this is the hobby of modifying it and making it a bit more unique.

The very first "mod" I did was to remove the front license plate. I simply didn´t like the look of the stock holder, sitting at an angle in the middle of the front spoiler. Not quite legal in CA but quite common and the police do not seem to care too much.

With some minor violence it´s gone :

About a month ago I did a weekend project of upgrading some interior components. Primarily I wanted to install a Nav unit. My two last cars had integrated Nav units and I have grown used to the convenience. I opted to go for the original GM Nav because it integrates with the Heads up display which is a really neat feature.

Since installing the Nav required removal of the dash console I took the opportunity of exchanging the whole console. The original one was made of really cheap looking plastic that I really didn´t like.

One more very common mod is to exchange the shifter for the 6 speed manual gearbox to a short throw sport shifter. Once again, convenient to do when the console is of anyway. There´s nothing horribly wrong with the stock shifter but it really doesn´t feel sporty enough for a car with this kind of performance. (stock to the right)

This is the before picture, felt a bit strange to pull apart a brand new car but once I got going it was great fun.Dash console off and the stock shifter gone. The whole center console gone but the new shifter is already in place.A common complaint about the Corvette is that the exhaust running just under the center tunnel, emits a lot of heat that makes it´s way into the interior. There´s a convenient storage compartment in the center console but you can hardly store anything there due to the heat. Having the car apart anyway I also added some insulation mats to get rid of the problem!With the insulation and shifter done it was time to get started on the electronics.

The Nav in place and working!

And here´s everything put together again. The picture really doesn´t do the new console justice, it´s a huge improvement over the old one.

With the interior mods done, it was time to focus on the sound of the car. The stock exhaust is surprisingly quiet and that great V8 can hardly be heard. Last weekend I took care of that problem :) First stock:And the after photo, new cat back (mufflers and X-pipe) Corsa Sport exhaust. Finally the V8 growls like it´s supposed to.

To finish off the biggest blog entry I will ever do :) Here are some photos after I washed and waxed it today. First time ever I waxed a car. It was quite enjoyable but I can´t see myself doing it to often, it took 2 hours to get it washed and waxed.