Finally, a stretch Corvette that seats the whole family Eugene Swatek of Carleton created a family-sized Corvette. Eugene Swatek of Carleton stands next to his custom built "family Corvette." Tired of not having room to take all of his family to car shows, Mr. Swatek combined two 1984 Corvettes into this stretch version. Evening News photo by CHARLES SLAT By CHARLES SLAT Evening News staff writer CARLETON - It is every sporty family man's dream. You might know this dream. You're tooling down the highway in a low-slung Corvette. Your Italian-made sunglasses are taking the squint out of a bright, sunshiny day. The wind is whipping your hair. "Born to Be Wild" is blasting from the CD player. There's a hot babe in the passenger seat. But wait! Something's missing! The hot babe, in this case, would be your wife, and those little rugrats whose arrival a few years ago put an end to dreams like this because, as most everyone knows, there's no room in a Corvette for back seat passengers. At least there wasn't until Eugene Swatek realized his dream of converting a classic 1984 Corvette into kind of a stretch Corvette, a four-door version with plenty of space for backseat passengers. "Years ago, I used to collect Corvettes and I'd take them to car shows," he said. "I had four kids, I had four daughters -- they're all grown now -- but I only could take one girl with me at a time to a car show." Four years ago, a friend with an '84 Corvette had an accident and banged up the rear of the car badly. He didn't have insurance, but when Mr. Swatek saw the car, he saw potential. "Immediately I thought, that could be the start of a four-door Corvette." He bought the wreck, then bought a matching, red, perfectly good 1984 Corvette with the intention of creating what he envisioned as a "family 'vette." He cut away the wrecked portions of the friend's 'Vette, then turned toward the unwrecked car to harvest its back half. "The only time I had second thoughts was when I had the saws out," he admits. "I didn't tell the guy I bought it from that I was going to cut it in half." He keeps busy as co-owner of a Romulus tool-and-die shop, but spent his spare time over the course of a year fitting the back of the one car to the front of the other to create a spacious, limousine-like, passenger-friendly backseat. Windows had to be remade. A custom extra-long driveshaft had to be fabricated for what now was a 20-foot-long vehicle. He tweaked the fit, spruced up the finish, looked at what he created and saw that it was good. So good, he decided to enter it in the Detroit AutoRama, which runs this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Cobo Center. "That's a big car show," he says. "I've gone there for years and I never ever imagined taking a car there." He sits in his kitchen showing a portfolio of before- and- after photos of his project. Briefly, there's the sound of a Corvette engine starting and revving in the living room. It's the Corvette engine clock his wife got him for Christmas, striking 2 p.m. It's time to take a spin in Mr. Swatek's "Family 'Vette." It's time to turn some heads. The engine has the familiar V-8 growl and the leather buckets still put passengers in a semi-supine position. The rear is so roomy, passengers can fully extend their legs and cross them. Mr. Swatek carefully maneuvers the country roads around Carleton, then cruises around, looking for reactions. He makes a sweep through town, leaving a trail of rubbernecks doing double-takes. "People stare at this thing like you wouldn't believe," he says.