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It started with the '53 model that put a smile on my face. I was 11 years old. The son of the dealer in town had a '53 with a 270 GMC engine in it. In 1954. By 1956, I was reading every car magazine I could get my hands on (still have all of them too) and the '56 model came out and I was hooked for sure.
St. Jude Donor '14-'15-'16-'17-'18-'19-'20-'21-'22-'23-'24
Growing up in the 50's all we saw in my neighborhood were family cars. Didn't see any Corvettes until we saw Route 66. That's when I fell in love w/them. Didn't get to buy one until the divorce in the mid-80's. When I bought the '58, it was my first time driving a Vette.
I didn't even take it for a test drive. Just bought it outright.
Growing up in Australia we didnt really get Corvettes locally. Most of the 70's muscle cars here were GM/Ford/Chrysler variants with typical big engine, solid axle configuration that drove like very powerful boats.
As a country, we also import thousands of Mustangs so that is kind of the hero car if you are so inclined to get something from the US. The C1 Corvette is recognized from movies and C3's, C4's were becoming more common with importers as they are relatively cheap even after shipping.
I had never really seen a midyear until I moved to the US in 2007. There are very few in Australia, you might see one at a typical car show. I started looking to buy a car while in the US and of course started with Mustang. When I started going to shows in the US though, the Corvette section was huge and I really liked the midyear coupes.
I bought the first midyear I ever drove, I just couldn't believe how good it was, I had never driven a near 50 year old car that drove so well. Mixing classic style with something thats still entertaining to drive was as good as it gets for me... I ended up buying a convertible as well !
Growing up in Australia we didnt really get Corvettes locally. Most of the 70's muscle cars here were GM/Ford/Chrysler variants with typical big engine, solid axle configuration that drove like very powerful boats.
As a country, we also import thousands of Mustangs so that is kind of the hero car if you are so inclined to get something from the US. The C1 Corvette is recognized from movies and C3's, C4's were becoming more common with importers as they are relatively cheap even after shipping.
I had never really seen a midyear until I moved to the US in 2007. There are very few in Australia, you might see one at a typical car show. I started looking to buy a car while in the US and of course started with Mustang. When I started going to shows in the US though, the Corvette section was huge and I really liked the midyear coupes.
I bought the first midyear I ever drove, I just couldn't believe how good it was, I had never driven a near 50 year old car that drove so well. Mixing classic style with something thats still entertaining to drive was as good as it gets for me... I ended up buying a convertible as well !
For me, I was about 9 or 10 years old (born in '66) and the neighbors across the street were a young couple. He was a lawyer and I could tell also an ******* and she was a good looking brunette. I used to walk over there and talk to her when she was gardening on her hands and knees. I used to stand in front of her and look down her shirt which was really great for me and on one occasion there was a vette in the driveway which the husband just bought. That gave me more reason to stand there and look, but at the car this time. I believe it was a '72.
First real impression was about '72 when I was 12. Sister's boyfriend had bought a new blue coupe with 350/4 speed. Took me for a ride and I remember how cool it was to be sitting down low and looking over that long long hood!
In high school, my buddy's brother had a white '64 convertible with a hardtop. Had a nasty 12.5 compression 327, 4 speed and 4.11's in the rear. Body had lip flares and a small spoiler on the rear along with slot mags. It was about the coolest thing ever and was a killer street racer in my hometown. That's when I locked in on midyears.
Got my first one in '78. It was a '64..orange with lip flares, 350/4 speed and 3.36's.
Went through several..but the current one has been with me 20 years now.
I was in high school in 1963 directly across the highway from
Johnny Londoff Chevrolet in Florissant MO. You could see the new
split windows from the classrooms.
Sitting in those classes, looking at those cars almost all day long --.
53 years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday.
Larry
Growing up in the 50's all we saw in my neighborhood were family cars. Didn't see any Corvettes until we saw Route 66. That's when I fell in love w/them. Didn't get to buy one until the divorce in the mid-80's. When I bought the '58, it was my first time driving a Vette.
I didn't even take it for a test drive. Just bought it outright.
Same here - NOBODY I lived near or knew had a Corvette; I saw my first one (a later C1) drive by me in Maryland when I was 12. It must have had off road exhausts because it was so loud I thought it was broken. Never even sat in one until Dad traded one in and he let me drive it one evening after I was a married, grown man (a C2 coupe).
In 2007 I bought my '61 (only the second vette I'd ever sat inside).
Snagged the '63 in 2013.
One of my earliest memories is sitting between my father and my uncle in what must have been a 59 or 60. I remember being confused that there was no seat and remember my uncle shifting. I was maybe 4 years old. We drove across the Brooklyn Bridge. Sensory overload and I never forgot it.
I have the same sensory overload when it's a nice day and I can settle my 60 at a nice rpm. RRRRRRRR.
My father was an active club racer in the late '50s early '60s. He raced a double turquois/charcoal 290hp fuelie very successfully. Also Porsches. We were raised to worship at the Corvette and Porsche altars!
Around 66-68 timeframe we had a family friend who owned a SWC, red/red. Don't know any specifics. He was a B-52 navigator and would fly B-52 from Guam to Tulsa, OK for services, thus had his family there. I can remember riding around in the back of it, and playing rocket-ship in their driveway in it with his daughters like it was yesterday.
They live somewhere in the Napa valley now, and still have the SWC. Last we heard he wasn't doing well, dementia/Alzheimers I believe. Such a shame, as he was a good looking, in shape guy when I last saw him around maybe 1975. His wife, Miss Janie was one of the prettiest women I have ever seen in my life, still to this day. I hope his family keeps that car as long as they possibly can. They are the original owners. Don't know if it is as significant to them as it is to me...
When I was in grade school, this around '71-'72, we had a science teacher at our school. She was gorgeous, always wore miniskirts and heels. Drove every boy in the school NUTS!! When your mother gave you an apple or some flowers to take to your teacher, you took them to the science teacher instead, getting in line with all the other boys doing the same.
Anyway, she had a '71 Ontario Orange/saddle coupe. We used to hide in the hedges at my friend's house across the street from the school, just to watch her leave...
Ontario Orange is STILL my most favorite color on a C3. If you had seen Ms. Wisely back then, it would probably be your fave too. She was that deadly good looking.
It was 1967 and I was seven in the car with my mom heading to the A&P in Delaware County Pa. We got backed-up at a light and in front of us was a Silver 63 Coupe. I thought what a cool car-it was like a spaceship.
I talked all day about that car. Told my mom I'd have one just like it some day. Well in 1989 on vacation in Ca. I saw it and bought it a few days latter. Still have her, and today 5/18/16 is her birthday.
When I was about 7 in the early 50's, my aunt gave me a toy Corvette. It was white/red and larger than most car toys. I think it was a '53 but maybe a '54 or '55. Anyway, it was cool because it even had a miniature set of tools in the trunk.
After that, I always wanted a Corvette but didn't get to drive one until about 1979 when I saw an orange '75 automatic on a used car lot. I pulled in, took a test drive, and returned it to the car lot. Got back in my minivan, which seemed like a high performance car in comparison, and drove home. That cured me of Corvette fever for awhile.
The only other Corvette I've ever driven is the '67 I own now which I bought 4 years ago this Monday. The first time I drove it was the day it was delivered to my driveway. It is WAY better than the '75, I might add.
The first Corvette I ever rode in was the first one I ever drove as well. At 15 1/2 my neighbor lost his license due to a DUI so I got to drive him around in his 66 convertible. Worked my azz off and bought a 64 coupe when I was 18 and then my 60 (that I still have) when I was 19. 14 additional Corvettes later, I'm 61 and still have my 60. Corvette number 17 is waiting for me to pick it up.
Last edited by 1snake; 05-18-2016 at 01:51 PM.
Reason: spelling
I was 17 and had a '55 Chevy that I really liked. 327 and it was a lot of fun running everybody. Then my buddy picked up a '60 Vette. Went for a ride in it and that was it. You know how in those years you can hear every sound the motor makes? He punched it and it just screamed. I thought it was something built, but he swore it was a stock 283. Yea, as it turns out it was a DZ 302. The first Corvette I bought was a '63 Convert which I still have.
This 1958 hotrod Corvette is the car that got me into Corvettes.
It was owned and built by a friend of mine; at the time I did not know him well, but was good friends with the woman that eventually became his wife (they just celebrated their 38th anniversary).
He worked at a local Chevy dealership (parts department) in Central Florida and the car was a trade in. It needed a lot of work.
The nose was already sectioned, and cove side trim removed when he got it. He added fender flares, an over the counter 1970 LT-1 engine (but replaced the cam with a hydraulic), posi 4.11 rear end, new black interior.
He could, and did order lots of NOS parts for the car. He still has some of those NOS parts, like the original cove side trim.
Car was painted Daytona Yellow with a gloss black hardtop, and a custom graphic design in the side coves.
I was 15 or 16 when I remember seeing the car for the first time.
I have been trying to locate the car, just to see what happened to it. My friend does not recall the VIN of this car. He sold the car in 1975 to the owner of a tire store.
Around 1958 I was ten and would watch a new 57 FI Silver w/black coves leave my school bus stop every morning. And, I would listen to all four gears being shifted until he was out of sight. I was hooked and by the age of eleven I owned over fifty corvettes--of course they were all AMT models. Then, my best friends brother came home with a red 59 followed by my cousin getting a new black 63 FI convertible. So, when I turned sixteen what did my Dad buy me, a 59 Black Impala w/factory 4-spd and 3-2 348 w/solid lifters and 4:11 rear. Yes, I did only get about 6 MPG. I was so disappointed! Once I was old enough to join the Army and go to Flight School, I bought my first new 1969 Coupe and drove it out the front doors of a Mineral Wells dealership and many more followed over the years. My wife just could not handle me constantly coming home over the years with a different Corvette deal. Consequently, she is now a long-time Ex. Best thing that ever happened to me--Corvettes that is.
Around 1958 I was ten and would watch a new 57 FI Silver w/black coves leave my school bus stop every morning. And, I would listen to all four gears being shifted until he was out of sight. I was hooked and by the age of eleven I owned over fifty corvettes--of course they were all AMT models. Then, my best friends brother came home with a red 59 followed by my cousin getting a new black 63 FI convertible. So, when I turned sixteen what did my Dad buy me, a 59 Black Impala w/factory 4-spd and 3-2 348 w/solid lifters and 4:11 rear. Yes, I did only get about 6 MPG. I was so disappointed! Once I was old enough to join the Army and go to Flight School, I bought my first new 1969 Coupe and drove it out the front doors of a Mineral Wells dealership and many more followed over the years. My wife just could not handle me constantly coming home over the years with a different Corvette deal. Consequently, she is now a long-time Ex. Best thing that ever happened to me--Corvettes that is.
I'd give my left nut to have that 59 Black Impala right now. But at my age my left nut is useless anyway!
05-17-2016, 06:32 PM
....Harvey's! ...best damn burger ever! 
