Me too, this car ran out of Blair Speed shop and was featured in a magazine The previous owners son is on the Hamb but I don't know where the car is today. Notice the air intake scoop under the grille, I have never seen that done before. ↑ I hope this has not been returned to stock.
This is how it looks today.........................just kidding. I certainly hope not, but you never know.
That's not funny Baron but you are probably right. It's probably a numbers matching never altered or modified restored original car according to the current owners version of the cars history.
Sorry Jason. I couldn't resist. Talking to Doug about the Hayseed, he said if he knew then what he knows today, the car would be exactly as it was in 1971. And I am sure that is the case for not only many of these old Corvettes, but also many nice old Hot Rods that got "up-graded" through the eighties, with there velour interiors, tilt columns and graphic paint schemes . I know my 57 will never be "matching numbers car " ,at least not in my lifetime. "
Jason, great picture of Rapid Rat. The HAMB member you refer to whose dad owned the car is Sinister I believe. It is such a great photo that it looks like someone had a lot of pride in the car and staged the photo for such a great shot. You could hope it still survives in a private collection. How anyone could turn it back into stock is something we may not understand on the HAMB but there are many that do not have a high opinion of drag racing or drag cars. I have had some road race guys over the years make comments that belittle drag racing in a sense. I have also heard stories about guys restoring old Vette drag cars back to stock so we all know it has happened. Baron you have a point and I believe some may have not returned them to stock but others really like them stock for whatever reason. One time at the Dream Cruise there was a red and white (of course) 57 Vette and I was with my cousin and we commented that we could not even hear the engine as it drove by. I asked the owner when he parked it about it in a nice way (I forget exactly what I said) and his response was that he could not stand the ones that made noise, that it is so much nicer to drive, blah blah. As we walked away I told my cousin that someone should pull his Corvette ownership card. Some of these guys simply do not understand the true heritage of the Corvette which encompasses performance and believe it or not drag racing.
The Corvette was intended from the start to be a preformance car, it may have started a little weak but it soon made up for it. I enjoy seeing the cars that are restored to stock but the drag cars that are left in their racing livery turn me on a little more. In my humble opinion a vette should have a nice exhaust rumble, stock or not.
If the Corvette wasn't fast going in a straight line it wouldn't have been able to win at road racing because of being passed on the straight aways and would have been lapped by faster cars. They were high performance sports cars with high performance engines standard and even higher performance engines optional from 1955 on. The Chevy strategy was win on Sunday and sell on Monday. If they were meant to putt around town they would have continued with the 6 cylinder engine and nobody would care about them today. The corvette almost didn't survive past 1956 due to low sales. The sales improved with more horsepower because it was what the public wanted. If it wasn't for drag racing and hot street cars I don't think that the corvette would have survived because I don't think that the publicity from road racing would have been enough to turn the tide of the poor start with the public and the poor performance of the 6 cylinder. How many road racing tracks were around in those days and how popular was that type of racing with the general public? Keep in mind this was when drag racing was becoming very popular. For the guy that wanted his corvette to be quiet and mild he might have missed the boat by not buying an Opel GT, ("Corvette" styling with anemic performance on a budget)
I agree with you Jason. The cars do not have to be loud but there is nothing sweeter sounding than a sports car with an exhaust tone that allows one to hear the performance so to speak. I have said it before the one Corvette that sold me forever was when my neighbor down the street bought his 62 fuelie with off road exhaust (when new). The car looked great but the sound is what made me just stop in my tracks. Like you said there were not that many road courses and when drag racing was taking hold in the mid 50s onward, the young buyers found the V-8 Corvettes to have pretty decent performance and throw in a 4:11 gear (or more serious 4:56 etc) and the cars started to take on a new identity. I remember running Woodward in 68 with my buddy's 61 with a 283/270 with a 5:13 gear. There were not too many cars that could touch us, although to be truthful some would have beat us on top end if common sense did not tell us to shut it down before we got there (safety and all). Tame toad is pretty cool-wish it was mine-
For me, the exhaust sound can make or break a car. I want my cars to sound as mean as they look. Choosing the right cam and mufflers make all the difference in the world. I changed camshafts in the past because they were too wimpy sounding. I have friends of mine who think I am crazy........they might have point. The days of 4.88's or 5.13's on the street are long gone for me. Cruising down the highway at 4000-4200 rpms gets old , real fast ! At 20, no problem. At this age, no thanks.
I can still hear the first Corvette I saw, a black '54 the neighbor girl bought. I was about 5 or 6 at the time. And my first ride was in my cousin's '61 when I was 12, gold with red interior fuel car. It ruined me for life.
I agree with you Baron, when I had my 68 Z28 and I switched to a 4:88 and then to a 4:56 I took it off the street. That was in 1970/71 and that is the last time I ran a "big" gear. My present project is going to be a 4:11 and that is going to be about the max since I want to drive it on the street. My other Vettes are 3:70 and I find that is perfect for me (although I went with a wide ratio M22 to help it out a bit more in first gear -with the 327). I want the 4:11 since I am going with a 283/270ish since it needs a bit more gear down low (and going with a wide ratio M22). Not going to drive it anywhere on the freeway anyways and want to have a bit of fun getting up to the speed limit (kind of). I have to admit though that the 5:13 was a whole bunch of fun though-moreso than my 3:70s. Doug I know what you say about getting hooked on these cars.
I agree with all the above posts. Exhaust sound is cam/compression and cubic inches. I run a full 2.5" mandrill bent exhaust all the way out the back and the radio is still hard to hear. No difference in ET open or closed. Just tweak the throttle, the engine snaps. Sound so cool with open headers. I am currently running 4.30s with 26" tires. I gave up on the highway after removing the TKO 600 over drive, because it shifted too slow. But when I still had the TKO, I had to install a 5.38 Spider blocked Olds rear during one of my several Drag Strip parts destruction episodes ( the only un-blow Olds rear I had at the time). A 15.44 first gear ratio, On the street it was wild starting off in first gear. Off idle, the front of the car would rise at least 5"with stock suspension. That is when I decided to go to the M22W and 4.30 gears. BTW, Jim D, I have talked the 436", Max effort sbc 61 vette guy, to go Old Shool and to loose the low rider look and go high times 60s. Jim
Sounds good Jim-the 61 will fit in much better. Keep me in mind on the Olds/Pontiac/Henry axle setup. Have a good turkey day by the way.-Jim
Hi Jim, I took pictures of the Henry parts this week. Axles and spool only. I had to borrow the case to replace one of my blow ones. I will PM the pictures to you. Jim
Jason I believe I referenced it before but at the 2014 Meltdown I spoke to Bones and asked him if he had the VIN from his Corvette and he told me no-that they were just cheap cars and had no idea they would be worth money some day. I thought it would have been cool to track it down. He said he has no idea what happened to it.
That's too bad but in those days people couldn't imagine what those cars could be worth and the importance of their history. Many people didn't even own a camera and some race cars didn't even have titles. Why would they need one.
I wonder if this is the Mazmanian Corvette? It is the only one that I have seen with the rear wheel wells radiused like that.
Jason I suppose that is possible after they removed the engine and put it in the Willys. I had thought the car was sold at some point. The differences I see are the roll bar and the headlight rings. Hard to imagine that someone else would cut the wheelwells the same way. Enloe nice video. Rat Sass nice interview-cool car of course.
Hi Jim. Thinking somebody might have seen Mazmanian's corvette and wanted theirs to look just like it. Stranger things have happened.
I doubt that it's Mazmanian's Vette as Just Steve restored it to the way it was when Mazmanian raced it.
I think that we are wondering if that could be a picture of the Mazmanian corvette after he sold it in 1964 and with some changes made to it by the next owner. I don't see anything new in the picture that would prevent it from being a 60s-70s photo.
Just going from memory, but it looks to me that the cutouts on that car are a little lower than the Mazmanian car. I could be wrong tho`.
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