Does Originality Matter for Corvettes?

Thanks! Here's another at the dry lakes.
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Its not bad at all, probably better than the factory ride. Doug at Global West really knows his stuff. Anti-dive,negative roll,full travel, lowered,offset trailing arms.etc. State of the art for these old beasts without turning them into a restomod with a different chassis(no longer a Corvette at the point, IMO).
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You would be correct. Original engine safely bagged in my hanger. This is a Corvette 350, stroker with alloy heads. Looks mostly stock, but makes good numbers even on California crap gas.

 

I am right behind you in age and you said it perfectly.

Best

Lee

 

Thank you, this is exactly the route I would like to go. Curious why a 64 is the least desireable. I am a 64 vintage myself, so always wanted to get a 64 car.

 

Because 63 was the the first year for the C2 and only year with spilt window and 65 was the first year of the big block. Therefore, 64's are the most affordable of the C2 era.

 

The 63 was the split window, 64 was last year of drum brakes(although they were offered one more year for those that wanted a delete credit for disc).
Since you'd be modifying the car, this doesn't really matter.

 

I've seen plenty of good starting points for well under that.


1964 Chevrolet Corvette SHOW QUALITY PAINTED CONVERTIBLE FOUR SPEED | eBay

1963 Chevrolet Corvette N/A | eBay

1965 Chevrolet Corvette STD | eBay

Corso Teorico-Pratico Di Diritto Civile, Volume 1 [ITA] by Francesco Ricci 9781145791176 | eBay

1966 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible | eBay


1966 Chevrolet Corvette AC ROADSTER | eBay

 

Roadsters can be fun too-here's a very early 63 with some history, that I'm playing with.
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Looks like the Bill Mitchell stingray racer prototype, or speed racers car.

I really like your coupe though.

As always best to find one of these cars where someone else has done all the hard work, asuming its done properly that is.

 

I like the car and the idea of a European tour. Lose the crappy tires, the trailer and install some 3.08 gears. Much easier to enjoy the roads and do battle with the locals.

 

Nice looking car but I take exception with the written description. It says it has power steering but looking at the engine pics I can't see it. I believe its manual steering which would suck at low speeds. Also says it has discs brakes. Looking at the master cylinder I don't believe it. These would have been changed at some point to get discs all around and would have needed a new master cylinder. So if I am right on this, manual drum brakes would suck worse than the steering.

 

yes, they do! Country inns and back roads-nothing better!

All 66 Corvettes had disc brakes, dual master cylinders weren't standard until 67. Also, looks like I can see the power steering lines in the chassis pic.

 

Its my understanding that discs were an option but I could be wrong. As for PS, I cannot locate a pump for it anywhere in those pics. Normally its on top for easy access. I did not look at the under chassis pics.

 

If you actually want to enjoy the car with modern form and C2ish look there are some companies doing C2 restomods on C5 chassis with all the C5 electronics. I think they look pretty cool.

Google "corvette c2 restomod on c5 chassis"

The other cool thing is C5's are dirt cheap now even Z06's. The C5 is still a smoking fast chassis. In SCCA club racing we just got awarded another 75lbs of ballast against the C6!

 

Having been in the Corvette community for some time & a member of NCRS, there are certain years & optioned cars that due to rarity most benefit from being kept as delivered from the factory, that being stated certain high end restomods have sold for HUGE$$$, more an anomaly than a tried & true approach.

In my experience the best approach is remove the numbers matching drive-train, unless the car is being shown or judged & replace with a modern drive-train ie LS series engine/6 speed manual/ independent rear suspension with discs...all these mods can be removed & car can be returned to stock configuration if wanting to be sold.