The Dark Lord of Rock n Roll
Steve
Miller’s interest in Corvettes began in his early teens. Steve’s
father, who owned a classic 67 GTO, once expressed his longing for a
Corvette Stingray. That confession remained with Steve and his interest
in America’s only true sports car was born. In the early 80s Steve’s
other passion was Rock n Roll. MTV was in its heyday of excess and
delivered rock bands like Kiss, Twisted Sister, and Judas Priest to
teenager’s living rooms on a daily basis.
Shortly after graduating high school Steve realized his young dreams and bought a 1986 C4. The car had a special order color scheme, black on bottom, silver on top. As what usually happens, life and finances soon got in the way and Steve had to part with the car.
Fast forward 17 years. In 2002 Steve put together his current band ALIVE-N-KICKIN' with the purpose of bringing back some of the excess of the MTV 80s. The idea and hard work have paid off. His band has become one of the premier hard rock acts in the Mid-Atlantic region.
In 2007, with his music career and family life on track Steve started feeling that fire burn for his Corvette passion. This time around Steve wanted a car that would represent his new lifestyle and his Darth Vader like persona. Steve performs in black garb and stands over 6'3". He embraces his nick name with pride. Old Darth had his own unique fighter craft so Steve felt it was time to get one of his own. That fighter craft took on the name of ZR1.
The 1990 Z car arrived at 6am the day before Thanksgiving in an enclosed trailer. As the delivery guy fired up the car inside the trailer, every light in his neighborhood came on! Steve’s first impression of the car was how menacing and evil it looked. It took no time at all to know what was going on his plates. LORDVDR had found his new ride!
The 1990 ZR-1 in stock trim sports an all aluminum custom built 32V dohc v8. It was dubbed the "King of the Hill" Corvette! The engine was designed and built by Lotus and Mecury Marine. This was an outrageous experiment that GM has never repeated. The car was previously tuned and massaged by the Vette Doctors in Amityville New York. They retrofitted the car with new fuel injectors, a performance chip and a Hurst shifter.
The warmed over LT-5 ran a best of 12.2 on the 1/4 @120mph. This was very pleasant surprise considering the car had a set of street tires and was piloted by a very inexperienced driver.
Besides the black on black finish of the cars rear has been lowered to even the cars stance and provide an even more menacing look. The windows and targa top still bear the Arizona tint. The blacked out taillights round out the whole Dark Lord look Sound plays a very large part in Steve’s life, its no wonder that his ride mimics this. The growl on this particular Z is enough to make the ground rumble! Wagner headers feed out to the cats then to 3 inch straight pipes with resonators at the rear! There is nothing subtle about the sound of this car.
The car's sound actually found its way onto the bands new album. Steve recounted that the band had an instrumental piece that opened at the start of one of he bands albums. Steve said the song sounded like a car racing. The drum intro sounded like a car starting. The middle section sounded like shifting thru the gears. The end of the musical piece reminded him of racing away!
The band took the car to an old industrial park and set up some recording equipment. They blasted around and did a few burnouts recording various sounds from startup to takeoff to a 100mph flyby. During an editing session several speakers were damaged when the 135 decibel sound of the Z’s burnout was transferred. The original title of the tune was "Magnum opus", after adding the car tracks the tune was renamed "Life at 180". It is the opener on the album, and can be heard on the bands website at www.Alive-N-Kickin.net
Steve keeps LORDVDR in a constant state of showroom condition and is never raced or abused. He enjoys taking it to car shows and has won several trophies.. Steve plans on starting work on the car interior this year. He is determined to keep the car as original as possible, and will defer any future engine mods. The dark Z fits Steve’s character perfectly! Both the Z and Steve are from an era of excess when “more was best”. In Steve’s words “the 80s rocked and I'm all about flaunting it” Never underestimate the power of the dark side.
The Vette Nuts
Shortly after graduating high school Steve realized his young dreams and bought a 1986 C4. The car had a special order color scheme, black on bottom, silver on top. As what usually happens, life and finances soon got in the way and Steve had to part with the car.
Fast forward 17 years. In 2002 Steve put together his current band ALIVE-N-KICKIN' with the purpose of bringing back some of the excess of the MTV 80s. The idea and hard work have paid off. His band has become one of the premier hard rock acts in the Mid-Atlantic region.
In 2007, with his music career and family life on track Steve started feeling that fire burn for his Corvette passion. This time around Steve wanted a car that would represent his new lifestyle and his Darth Vader like persona. Steve performs in black garb and stands over 6'3". He embraces his nick name with pride. Old Darth had his own unique fighter craft so Steve felt it was time to get one of his own. That fighter craft took on the name of ZR1.
The 1990 Z car arrived at 6am the day before Thanksgiving in an enclosed trailer. As the delivery guy fired up the car inside the trailer, every light in his neighborhood came on! Steve’s first impression of the car was how menacing and evil it looked. It took no time at all to know what was going on his plates. LORDVDR had found his new ride!
The 1990 ZR-1 in stock trim sports an all aluminum custom built 32V dohc v8. It was dubbed the "King of the Hill" Corvette! The engine was designed and built by Lotus and Mecury Marine. This was an outrageous experiment that GM has never repeated. The car was previously tuned and massaged by the Vette Doctors in Amityville New York. They retrofitted the car with new fuel injectors, a performance chip and a Hurst shifter.
The warmed over LT-5 ran a best of 12.2 on the 1/4 @120mph. This was very pleasant surprise considering the car had a set of street tires and was piloted by a very inexperienced driver.
Besides the black on black finish of the cars rear has been lowered to even the cars stance and provide an even more menacing look. The windows and targa top still bear the Arizona tint. The blacked out taillights round out the whole Dark Lord look Sound plays a very large part in Steve’s life, its no wonder that his ride mimics this. The growl on this particular Z is enough to make the ground rumble! Wagner headers feed out to the cats then to 3 inch straight pipes with resonators at the rear! There is nothing subtle about the sound of this car.
The car's sound actually found its way onto the bands new album. Steve recounted that the band had an instrumental piece that opened at the start of one of he bands albums. Steve said the song sounded like a car racing. The drum intro sounded like a car starting. The middle section sounded like shifting thru the gears. The end of the musical piece reminded him of racing away!
The band took the car to an old industrial park and set up some recording equipment. They blasted around and did a few burnouts recording various sounds from startup to takeoff to a 100mph flyby. During an editing session several speakers were damaged when the 135 decibel sound of the Z’s burnout was transferred. The original title of the tune was "Magnum opus", after adding the car tracks the tune was renamed "Life at 180". It is the opener on the album, and can be heard on the bands website at www.Alive-N-Kickin.net
Steve keeps LORDVDR in a constant state of showroom condition and is never raced or abused. He enjoys taking it to car shows and has won several trophies.. Steve plans on starting work on the car interior this year. He is determined to keep the car as original as possible, and will defer any future engine mods. The dark Z fits Steve’s character perfectly! Both the Z and Steve are from an era of excess when “more was best”. In Steve’s words “the 80s rocked and I'm all about flaunting it” Never underestimate the power of the dark side.
The Vette Nuts