Fast forward three years later. I'm finally working a decent job, but the toy is still on my mind. I find a '97 SS 30th anniversary edition for sale a few hours away. Go to check it out with my brother (whose various Camaros are undoubtably responsible for own infatuation, he's built a '67 dragster, a '73 street rod that he transplanted the 350 from to an '84 Z-28 before getting rid of it and restoring a '68 RS/SS convertible for my mom).
We ran the carfax report and things looked good, but it had ~60K miles on it already. My brother noticed some 'fish-eyes' in the paint, and we open the deck lid to pull out the spare. The whole right rear fender was wrinkled on the inside. He spotted the bondo reacting to the paint. Open the passenger door and see the paint rubbed off the bolt holding the fender. Someone clipped the whole side of it, paid cash to get it straightened out and repainted, and dumped it on the dealer - the wreck wasn't in the vehicle history. Safe to say we left it there.
Spent the next two days with bank draft in hand scouring for at least a Z-28 - but no luck. Always something missing, or an automatic, etc.
I get home and check out Autotrader.com. Therein I find a '97 SS, all options, six speed. But it says in the ad 2900 miles. It's a three year old, surely a typo. I call the man and inquire, "How many miles?" "Oh, I think it's 2925." "What?!" Needless to say, we meet the next day. Turns out he picked it up just to keep as a collectible, but now that Corvette is coming out with the Z-06 he wants to sell this one and get the new Corvette. He tore the plastic off the passenger side floorboard that day. It still smelled like a brand new car. In fact, it hadn't even been in the rain. It had every option I intended to have, including even optioning off the standard rear window defroster! SLP's stainless steel exhaust, from the headers to the 'two on the left'. Needless to say, we came to a price, and I picked up my '97 SS three years late, but $11K cheaper for only 3089 miles of wear.
I see the look on my dad's face when he thinks about the yellow '57 Chevy he traded to his brother (which was then traded for a '34 Ford), and I know this toy is always going to be with me. There are only 123 other white, SS, t-top, 6-speeds built that year, so I'd be hard pressed to find it again... production numbers