The Long Strange Trip of 1960 LeMans Corvette #1 (photos)
The 1960 LeMans Corvette #3 is something of a legend. It was lost for many years and though destroyed before being found recently, but that wasn't the end of the story. Here's the strange tale of this unique, long lost, race car
1. Whatever happened to the LeMans Corvettes from 1960?
Briggs Swift Cunningham, a young millionaire sports car racer, had been trying to win the LeMans 24 hour race with American drivers in American cars since 1950, with little luck. In 1960, Chevrolet's Corvette engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov, convinced Briggs to try again with the latest Chevy Sportscar (and some backdoor factory help). Three cars were purchased with all of the best factory racing options, then mechanic Alfred Momo (yes that Momo) tuned them further. It reportedly cost Cunningham a million dollars to prep the Vettes and get them to the race, but he was heir a fortune earned in railways, utilities, real estate, and the Proctor and Gamble Co. so he had it to spare.
2. Corvette's pre-race trial at Sebring
Briggs was one of the first entries to LeMans that year, and the Corvettes wore numbers 1, 2, and 3. In order to test them under actual race conditions, cars #2 and #3 were entered and raced at the 12 Hours of Sebring in Florida earlier in the year. Car #3 (wearing the #1 at Sebring) broke and axle and flipped on that 27th lap. Car #2 finished 41 laps before the engine expired. Both cars were fixed and what was learned was used to improve them before heading to France.
3. Only 1 Cunningham Corvette Finished at Lemans
LeMans is an endurance race and it's important to keep in mind that it is not about speed, but strategy and consistency over a grueling 24 hour period. Cunningham's team assigned the #1 car to go as fast as possible, ideally to goad and burn out their competitors, while the others would take a slower sustainable route. The fast #1 car crashed out in the third hour of the race in the rain. The #2 car had an off track excursion and had to be dug out of the sand, then blew its motor in the 20th hour. The #3 car continued, despite overheating problems late in the race, and managed to finish in eighth place, behind seven Ferraris, and first in its class.
4. Cunningham sold the cars for street use
On returning to the USA, Cunningham returned the cars to street trim and sold the Corvettes, vowing never to race a GM car again and vowed never to work with a GM vehicle again. The cars were sold and lost track of. Car #3, the most successful was used by a privateer racer for years, repainted red and white, and lost for 30 years, only to be rediscovered and returned to its historic racer status. The #2 car also had a murky history, but is now in the Petersen Automotive Museum and owned by collector Bruce Meyer. The #1 car remained lost for more than 50 years, until recently.
5. Dusty Florida custom car discovered to be LeMans Corvette
The #1 car was believed lost forever, but a dedicated group of restorers and collectors never stopped hunting for it. The organizers at LeMans had recorded the VIN number, and it was known by several hunters of historic cars. In 2012, someone disposing of the estate of a car collector did a Google search and discovered the Corvette that he had the Lemans Corvette. The car had been heavily customized, and modified for drag racing, before being purchased in 1976 from an unknown seller by Richard Carr, a Florida judge. It is a shame Judge Carr was not aware of the legend he had bought when he was a live if he still was, perhaps he'd be able to shed some light on the #1 car's lost years.
6. Lost Corvette is presented to the public
Chip Miller, organizer of the Corvettes at Carlisle event had been hunting for this Corvette for 20 years, and died shortly before it was found (thanks to his sleuthing years before). Lance Miller, his son, managed to acquire the historic barn find in time to show it off next to the restored #3 car at the 2012 Carlisle event (above). The million dollar car had been found, but things had only just begun to get weird.
7. The legal dispute
Just a few months following the Corvette's showing to the public, a Florida man named Dan Mathis made a claim to ownership of the car, stating that it had been stolen from his father the drag racer back in the 1970s. Another Corvette detective, Domenico Idoni, had been tracking the car, traced it to the co-worker who had sold it to Mathis back in the 1970s, who he still believed to be the rightful owner. Things got confused because nobody knew this derelict Corvette that sold for $700 at the time was anything special, and it had not been titled or registered to Mathis (or Carr for that matter), and was never reported stolen. This should be a lesson to us about titling our project and race cars.
8. Resolution and value
It took three years, but finally the legal ownership was resolved by the courts. Domenico Idoni and Gino Burelli, well known Corvette restorers and dealers, bought out Mathis' ownership and proceeded with the lawsuit. Lance Miller and Kevin MacKay, who had bought the carcass on a bill of sale in Florida were on the other side of the suit, though Miller had agreed to sell his interest to MacKay for $75,000. The judge ruled that Mathis' claim of ownership was 70% believable, and for finding the car Miller/MacKay deserved the remaining 30%, and stipulated a $750,000 value on that sahre for the next 90 days if he wanted to sell to Idoni and Burelli. They have decided to maintain joint ownership until it can be restored and sold at action. We all look forward to seeing that happen, which may set a record for most valuable Corvette ever at $5-7 million.
For help keeping your Vette purring, see the how to sections of CorvetteForum.com