The Official C3 Vette Registry was established November 1st, 2001.
The idea for a C3 Registry came to me as a friend of mine and I were heading back from a driving school in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania in October 2001. He owns a C5 and I (of course) a C3. As we were driving we were talking on our FRSes and I started asking him about the C5 Registry. He told me all about it and that he was a member. I asked if he knew of a C3 Registry and he did not. So I said to him that when I got home I'd check to see if one existed. If not, I'd start one. I got home, and checked for the existence of a C3 Registry. I did find that C3Registry.com was in use, but it appeared that it hadn't been updated in over a year. So, I figured there was room for me to start a C3 Registry. Problem was, C3Registry.com was taken, so I had to come up with something similar. And thus www.C3VetteRegistry.com was born!I am a computer programmer, but I had never really done any serious web development, so I figured putting together this site would not only be fun but also a learning experience for me. And believe me, it has been (a hell of a learning experience). But it has also been a lot of fun!
The abbreviation "C3VR", which is used quite often, was not my idea. As the site got busier, I noticed that members had started to refer to it as such. It occurred to me that it was much easier to type, and so www.C3VR.com was purchased.
The first working feature of C3VR was the Automatic VIN Decoder. I had noticed many people wondered what their VIN meant, and I knew it could be determined by looking at the "Black Book" or other means. But there didn't seem to be a way to do it quickly and easily. So, since I'm a programmer, I knew this would be an easy task for me. I think I put it together in a day.
The next feature that was important to get working was the C3VR Forums! I had started the site with really horrible forum software that comes with Microsoft Front Page. It was ugly and hard to use! So my options were to find some shareware forum software that would either not be what I wanted, or would be ugly, or many other things that I didn't want. My second option was to buy a forum software package. While that would have been nice, the good one that you see on other sites is quite pricey! When I first started this site, I really didn't have any funds to spend on that software. So, I put my programming skills to work once again and came up with the C3VR Forums software completely on my own. That forum software was in place for over 2 years. Eventually it was replaced with the current forum software which was built by another programmer.
Which brings me to the rest of the features that can be found throughout C3VR. Many of them were ideas submitted by C3VR members! Which is one of the things I pride myself on with this site, and that is making it useful by providing feature that the members want. If I just came up with all the features on my own, members wouldn't necessarily want or use them. I always accept new ideas and if it makes sense and I'm capable of doing it, I'll do it!
Membership continues to grow.
With the membership building and especially thanks to the over 200 Gold & Lifetime Members I have the funds to make this site even better!
So please enjoy the Official C3 Vette Registry as I continue to make it "The Best Resource on the Net for C3 Vettes!"
Thank you very much for your support!