I am in search of a 1955 corvette VIN number VE55S001195. My grandfather owned this car in the early 1960s when it unfortunately was involved in a rear end accident. At the time it has dual quads on it and a hot cam. It was also converted to a manual transmission at some point. Long story short he ended up selling the car after the accident but has always regretted doing so. I have been trying to track down the car for him and finally had some luck when I posted the VIN number on the corvette forum. They informed me that the car does in fact still exist and was for sale on Ebay around 10 or 11 years ago completely restored. The car's last known owner was a Roger Kuske of San Diego. When I contacted him he informed me that he sells so many corvettes that couldn't remember who he sold this exact car to. He believed that he either traded the car for a 1953 corvette somewhere in Tennessee or sold the car to a private collection in Thailand. So now I turn to the HAMB, do you have any information on the car's whereabouts today? I have also included some pictures of when my grandpa owned this car and also a picture of the Ebay ad where it was listed. Thanks In Advance, TR
Isn't there some registry for Corvettes, where they take your VIN info, give you a shiney jacket, and teach you the secret wink? Maybe they can tell you who the owner is now. Or they would at least relay your info to that owner.
Thanks for all the replies! I did look on the registry of C1 corvettes but the car was not listed there. Incidentally I also haven't learned the secret wink or received a shiny jacket as of yet. At $125,000 we wouldn't have bought the car back, even with how much it means to my family. My grandpa would really love to see the car in person again though and maybe if the price is right even buy it back.
Pardon my inquiry but where were the early vette's built ? Purely coincidental & means nothing at all however my 55 Nomad shares vin # 1195 as well .
hmmm.....I am not an authority on this topic, but nonetheless think that those numbers are partial, not complete, and could easily be duplicated between different models within a larger sequence that has to be considered in its totality. Ray
The 1955 Corvette begins with VE55S...the passenger cars don't use the E...that was for Corvette..since they built regular passenger cars in St. Louis too..you could have near identical serial numbers except for the E..the regular passenger car would be VA VB VC, or just A B C as a prefix if it was a 6 cylinder. Later on in the 60s the sequential part changed. Regular Chevy would be 100001 plus, Camaros would be 300001 plus, I remember offhand '69 Corvettes used 700001 plus...I guess to further differentiate the serial numbers.
To clarify a little more since I'm a numbers geek...looks like the Chevy started the numerical part of the serial number for all cars in 1955 and 1956 with 001001...the Corvette production ended with 001701. In 1957, they went to the 100001 as the first one made that year. So you could conceivably have two cars with identical vins except for the E as I said above. In its place would be A B or C...C for a Nomad. Last thing on this topic..let's say you had a '55 Nomad with serial number VC55S001700, and a Corvette with VE55S001700. Were they built the same day? Nope...the 700th Belair was made very early in the production and the 700th Corvette near the end. Months apart.
^^^"A" would have been for a Model 150, "B" for a Model 210, and "C" for the Bel Air, that included the Nomad. And then there's "D", for what else, a Sedan Delivery. V, in the passenger car VIN, was for V-8 engine. And, I learned something today from this thread, "E" was for Corvette.^^^ I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
Secret wink, huh? Until now, I thought they were being ''fresh'' with each other! Silk jackets are disco.. After watching 300K Chevelles sell, $124,000 for a first gen seems realistic. ^Glad it didn't end up here^.
So if you do find the car in Argentina, you are gonna go look at it. Or even if it`s 10 states away. To me they all look the same. So buy another and recreate what he had. Lowered in the front and add flippers. That`s what stands out about his car. I know a guy who put 100 grand in a car because it was the one who he lost his virginity in with his wife. The car was a money pit. I told him he should of cut off the back half and make a couch out of it.
I agree with the idea that a tribute car would be great, but it would be twice as great if we could bring that very same car home again. My grandpa owns a 1954 corvette, which he enjoys, but is also disappointed with the performance that it has. I think the V8 in the 55 suited him better. You can see a video of me driving with my grandpa riding passenger here. Thanks, TR
So why not put a V8 in the 54? Then drop the front a little and put on the Lancers and you have exactly what he's looking for. All that can be done with nuts and bolts, just so the shiny coat guys don't their panties in a bunch.
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