The Trixter Corvette!
A Keen Parts Customer Story
The Rock n Roll life starts
Keen Parts has been providing quality parts and accessories to Corvette fans around the world for over thirty years. We love what we do, and customers appreciate our knowledgeable sales team who want to help you first and possibly sell something later. We hear some amazing stories from our customers and wanted to share some with you. This is a wild one to start our series.
Both Vince Gioia (pronounced JOY-a) and his Corvette have lived quite a life. Vince fell in love with a “Classic White” 1979 Corvette while he was a High School Senior residing in New Jersey. He worked HARD at multiple jobs to save enough money to purchase the car. Vince’s grandparents emigrated from Sicily and brought their work ethic to America. Did I mention that working hard also involved being a “Roadie” for a friend in a local rock band? Work hard and work smart and great things usually happen. Vince’s world is about to become interesting with his Trixter Corvette.
Vince meets Trixter
Vince met a girl at the local roller rink who went to nearby Paramus High School. He wanted to play drums, and his girlfriend knew an excellent drummer named Mark “GUS” Scott from high school. Mark and Vince became friends, and Vince began to take drum lessons. Did I mention that Mark was an excellent drummer?
Mark was in an up-and-coming local band called Trixter. Trixter was formed in 1983 and worked to earn their fame. By 1987, they were playing sold out concerts and opening for Stryper and Dokken. In May of 1989, they hit the big time and officially signed with Mechanic/MCA Records. They recorded their major label debut “Trixter” in September and released the single “Line of Fire” a few months later. “Line of Fire” climbed the charts and hit #1 on the Z-Rocks Top 100 in the summer of 1990. Trixter was on their way.
Vince’s Vette becomes a Star on MTV
There was this small cable TV channel that began playing music videos in the late 1980s. Trixter jumped on the new video bandwagon and recorded a video for their hit song Give it to Me Good. When Trixter needed a cool car that the MTV viewers would love- they knew exactly where to go. Vince’s 1979 Corvette became famous when it was featured (starting at 2:48) in the Give it to Me Good video. The scene begins with the band visiting the “Suburban Diner” with some cute female friends. The Corvette appears near the entrance as everyone heads inside. Vince’s 1979 Corvette became a Rock n Roll star as Give it to Me Good spent 15 weeks as the #1 video on MTV!
Vince and his Trixter Corvette circa 1990 at a car show at Paramus High School- home of Trixter!
“Vinny” back in the day- Note the license plate!
The Trixter Corvette and Vince hit the big time
The band started a nationwide United States tour in September of 1990 and began to open for Stryper. They continued the tour in October opening for Dokken. Trixter joined Poison and the Scorpions on arena tours in early 1991. They also toured with Warrant and Great White. Vince toured the world with Trixter from 1991-1992 while both Trixter and the Vette became famous from their MTV video and sold-out concerts!
Vince restored the Vette when he came off the tour, doing all of the work himself. He says that he could not go anywhere in New Jersey with the Vette without being mobbed. Not too bad of a life for a young man only a few years out of high school!
The Trixter Corvette finds a new home
All of his other Corvette friends had recently upgraded their cars to a newer model. He traded the 1979 in on a beautiful Black Rose Metallic 1994 6-speed but never told the dealer about the unique history of the car. He began to regret his decision to sell. Years later, Vince found out that his baby was sold off the dealer’s lot in one day!
In my three decades of answering questions at the National Corvette Restorers Society headquarters- I spoke to hundreds of former Corvette owners who were desperately trying to locate and re-purchase their old car. Most of the time- there’s no happy ending. People spend years searching for the one that got away and reluctantly eventually settle on the nearest example they find.
Everyone reunites- Trixter, the Corvette and Vince!
Trixter reunited with their “classic” lineup of members in 2008 for the “Give it to You Good Tour.” The tour ended with a sold-out homecoming show in New Jersey. Unfortunately, everything was not great as Vince still regretted selling the Trixter Corvette.
Several of his long-time friends bought and sold C3 Corvettes as a business (pictured below). In June of 2014, Vince received a late night text from one of these friends who located a south Jersey Corvette on Craigslist that had the same custom wheels as Vince’s Trixter Corvette had 17 years prior. It was interesting, but no one even dreamed that it could be Vince’s old car. Vince wanted to make sure.
He checked the many photos in the Craiglist ad. Every photo confirmed that his friend had accidentally located his long lost Vette! Virtually nothing was changed in the seventeen years it was away. This was just another of the amazing coincidences in Vince’s life. When the band heard that Vince and the Vette were reunited- they wanted to feature the car on the cover of their upcoming album- Human Era. You can see below that Trixter created a new version of the diner scene that made the Corvette famous almost two decades earlier!
The smile of a man who just repurchased his long lost Corvette!
Vince (middle) and his two close Corvette friends in the early 1990s
The 1979 featured on the band’s Human Era CD Cover
A rock n roll ending for a loyal Keen Parts customer
We are proud to say that Vince is a long-time Keen Parts customer! He’s a real “gear-head” and does almost everything himself. He is now restoring the Corvette yet again and updating as many components as possible. His goals are upgrades from stock and comfortable cruising. He loves the classic Corvette styling but would like everything modernized. We can help! He can visit Keen Part’s selection of 26,000 parts to make his restoration easier. Will Vince sell his Trixter Corvette AGAIN someday? Are you kidding?
The Trixter Corvette as it appears today
The car’s license plate!
Who is Keen Parts?
Your Corvette probably has not been seen by millions of people on MTV, but we are still able to help you with anything that your Vette might need! Keen Parts is a leading manufacturer and retailer of Corvette parts and accessories. We have over thirty years of happy customers all over the world and look forward to helping you with all of your Corvette needs. Our catalogs cover more than 26,000 Corvette parts and accessories. Our retail shop and warehouses are located in Cleves, Ohio just north of Cincinnati. We are right off Interstate Highway I-74 and only six minutes from Cincinnati. We stock parts for Corvettes from 1953 to the present. If you own a Corvette- we have the parts and accessories that you need! Click to learn about Keen Parts.
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- Sunday closed to be with our families
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