Claudio D'Andrea
March 26, 2024
For many people, a little red Corvette gets all the attention but for Dave Holman, it was an orange model that’s given him the love that lasts.
The Winnipeg man was pre-planning his retirement last year when he thought about fulfilling a lifelong dream: owning an orange Corvette.
Not just any orange Corvette. An L82 1976 Vette just like the one he saw for sale when he was about 10 years old and walked past a dealership in a small town in Alberta where he was raised.
“I just remember seeing this orange car with this huge fender and this yellow tag,” says Holman who still remembers the pricetag of $11,500. “I fell in love with this orange car.”
Holman started scouring the internet to see if he could find a similar Corvette but the closest he got was a blue 1978 model. He considered buying it but his wife Laura Visentin reminded him that she thought he always wanted an orange car.
Holman decided against buying the blue Vette. Two days later, he checked the internet again and found an orange Corvette for sale in Hanover, Ontario. It had about 95,000 miles on it and was the exact replica of the car he saw as a 10 year old, with a four-speed transmission and the famous Stingray on the side.
He bought the car and has since become friends with its previous owner, Mike Bonaventura, who has his own orange Corvette personal story to tell.
Holman says when Bonaventura was growing up, he would carry around an orange Corvette dinky car in his pocket.
“He always wanted it and ultimately bought it,” Holman says.
Holman arranged to have the orange Corvette delivered to Winnipeg and it arrived on a sunny Sept. 12, 2023 in his driveway.
“Literally, I can’t get the smile off my face,” Holman says. “Every day I run my hand over the fender. It’s this precious gem that I have.”
Holman says his connection with Bonaventura feels like fate. He says Bonaventura had the car for sale for years and had just posted it on the trading site that Holman happened to look at a couple of days after he gave up on the blue Vette.
He says Bonaventura owned the car for about five years but with a family wedding coming up he had to part with the car.
The orange Corvette is certainly in good hands.
Holman, 57, says he put off buying the car at first because he grew up poor. When he could afford one, he found he never had the time and even though he retained the passion for the car he didn’t have a place to put it.
Pending retirement and a planned move to Cranbrook, B.C. in a few years brought the orange car back into focus and he decided to act last summer.
Holman says the car is all original, down to the mesh in the well of the windshield wipers that are factory installed. “It looks like chicken wire.”
He treats his Vette with kid gloves and has only put on about 200 kms in the first three months he’s owned it. Holman says it’s needed some minor work — “It’s got 40-plus years of grease on it” — and now that he has it, he hopes to keep it in the family for a long time.
“I know it’s just a car but it’s literally my dream car."
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