groovyjay

A friend of mine told me some time ago about a all original 1959 Corvette that came with a power steering from factory. He also told me that they did some hard digging to find evidence that it really was made by GM. He said that there were 7 cars made with this set up. Finally a friend of a friend bought the car and is now considering selling it and a another friend of mine is considering buying it and would like to learn more about this.

Does anyone here have more information about such thing?

wmf62

sounds like an 'urban legend' to me....

if true, it would have been a VERY popular option...
Bill

groovyjay

It sounded like one to me until my friend told me that he found evidence about the 7 cars. He's usually right on the money, he's got a nice fleet of old Vettes and knows his stuff. JohnZ???

wmf62

if you could post pix, we could probably figure out if it was done with parts available at the time.

if it is real, i would expect to see a generator driven power steering pump; but then it couldn't have a generator driven tach drive. and the slave cylinder hookup to the 3rd arm would be interesting to see..
Bill

groovyjay

I've never seen the car in person, but I promised to go and see it with my friend who is interested in buying it. I'm going there to give him my opinion on the cars overall condition etc. I'm trying to get a hold of my other friend to ask him about it again, but he's on a summer holiday abroad.

1snake

I have heard of it being done but it was never a publicly offered option. The picture I saw showed the power steering unit mounted on the back of the gen. (like passenger cars). The tach was driven off the dist. but I don't remember it being an FI car. I believe it was done for some exectutive at GM. JohnZ will surely know more about it.

Jim

vintagecorvette

Cranes's Corvette has a bolt on unit for 1956-62 Cars. Maybe the car you are to look at has one of his Conversions on it.

http://www.cranescorvette.com/corvet...em_1956-62.htm

oWEN

JohnZ

Never happened, at least from St. Louis. Engineering may have fabricated a development system or two in the experimental shops, but I've never seen any info on it. They would have photographed it, and Noland would have come across the photos while researching his '53-'62 book.

Fawndeuce

And once again the laser like zap from the mighty Z slays yet another potential Corvette urban myth dead in its tracks.



Paul

groovyjay

JohnZ to the rescue!

I'm still going to see this thing through and find out where the owner got his "solid information" about the power steering kit. I'll definately try to get some photos too.

1snake

Why would it be a "development system in the experimental shop" when 53 & 54 pass. cars had power steering as an option and they have the same suspension and steering boxes as the C1? Seems like it would be a fairly easy swap. I know I've seen an old B&W picture of it installed so I assumed it might be from the factory. Maybe it was in an old issue of Corvette Restorer.

wmf62

i have Crane's demo tape on their PS from when i was considering the various ways to put PS on my 62. it reminds me very much of the C2 slave cylinder type power assist and uses a late model PS pump.

and it's VERY expensive..., and there are now better ways to do it
Bill

1snake

I didn't find the picture but in Noland Adams book he refers to an original 1961 with power steering and is believed to be a COPO.

Jim

groovyjay

Now this is getting more interesting... Could there be COPO 59 cars too? The car is all white/white top car.

Dan Hampton

There was an ad on one of the "for sale" forums a few months ago that advertised a '59 or '60 with power steering. The car belonged to a Chevrolet dealership (possibly owner) who had owned the car for upteen years and the unit was retrofitted to the car a long time ago. Perhaps, this is the car the originator of this thread is referring to.

wmf62

the thought has occurred to me, given some of the opinions expressed here, that any C1s that might may have original appearing PS are the result of some ingenuity on the part of dealers or individuals who figured out that C1s steer like buses and that upgrading to power steering using stock 53-54 chevy parts would be a great idea for selling to older or female buyers. the biggest hurdle would be what to use for a tach drive...

think of all the performance cars/parts that were added only by dealers in the 60s to create 'special' cars: Royal Pontiac's Bobcat, the Nickey and Yenko chevys; i can remember when J2 Oldsmobiles were marketed to older drivers, without the end carburetors, because that was one way of getting a 2-barrel carb; the Cadillac dealer in Ann Arbor, Mi modified engines by adding 2-four barrels for special customers, and on and on...
Bill

OldSchoolSS

Hmmm…. That 53-54 power steering setup looks interesting. I might have to check under the hood of my fathers 53 vert and 54 210 and see if I luck out and find one sitting there.

What’s the steering ratio on those compared to a corvette? Does anybody know how the road feel is?

groovyjay

A blast from the blast. This car is now in my shop! Friend of mine owns it and I'm doing little bit of work on it. The power steering set up is still all there and working like a champ. Pretty neat set up, although THIS IS NOT ORIGINAL, but it has been done in a period correct feeling in mind using parts from other GM brands from the same era.

groovyjay

Couple of pics

groovyjay

Blue and white theme at the shop