Blk63Vette

Hello

I'm not sure if I was in a different parallel universe in the 70's and 80's. I heard more of Corvette owners from "back in the day" say they NEVER abused their Corvettes and always treated them like special cars?? Even in the 70's and early 80's???

I remenber my uncle and his friends in he 70's abusing their 60's era muscle cars and yes I dare say mid year and solid axle Corvettes too!! Why?? lets face it they had a lot more horsepower than new cars of that era..

I can remember seeing my uncle power shifting his 67 Corvette.. Pushing the tach needle to insanity levels...and yes blowing a couple big block engines also...So, am I wrong to think that MOST did abuse their High Performance 60s cars??


That's what it was all about in the 70's right??

427Hotrod

Yes....most were played with. All the one's I knew of were for sure. Guys older than me had them and had a blast racing them.

Certainly there were some bought by older guys with maybe more restraint.....but I can tell you they missed out on the fun of owning a high performance sport car!


JIM

Railroadman

There are two types of Corvette owners from back then. The larger group, about 95%, will tell you all about the racing and hard driving they did.

The other 5% are liars.

tbarb

At sixteen my first car was a 1969 chevelle ss and the first thing i did was to pull a hole shot to see if the car had posi and how well it worked. That was just before I swapped a 12 bolt from a 67 gto for the 355's in my car, the gto had 4.56's which lit up that Chevelle.

It was fun back then and not expensive, I'm just glad my guardian angle stayed close to keep me safe. The good old days for sure..

capevettes

I always felt my 65 was a special car, even back in 1971. It was my daily driver in the early 70's. Didn't do any hole shots but I would get on it almost every time I drove it. Still do. Over revved it and had to rebuild the motor (broken wrist pin) in the late 70's. They were fast, even the small blocks, for the era they were built in. We used to take them to the old hamburg stand on Rte 1 in Norwood, Mass. and race them down Route 1. Lots of memories. They are slow compared to today's high performance cars but still alot of fun to drive.

MikeM

It depends is my recollection. Some ran them hard, some babied them.

That's what caused the ones that babied them to place a value on "original block". Fifty years later, doesn't matter about the original block as probably almost all of the original blocks don't have the original guts in them anymore.

Running an engine to red line, squealing tires taking off and shifting fast, sliding around corners doesn't necessarily constitute abuse considering what the car was designed to do.

Some, like my friend that bought a new '64 fuelie, put the car in the garage every night and covered it up with a clean, white sheet. Later he built his new house and now has it parked under a chandelier in his garage.

Frankie the Fink

I ran the dog snot out of every kind of car that showed up on my 'ole man's used car lot. Add helmet-less motorcycle riding at triple digit speeds to that.

When I could afford to buy my own cars/motorcycles I did the same....

Jackfit

My first corvette was a 1961.....stock paid $900 drove it as fast as I could every time...put a big double pumper on it and blew it up , fire and all.

1970 Bought my 1966 L-79....drove it as fast as I could every time except did not do a lot of hole shots....

Perhaps that is why , 300,000 miles later , it still has the same original block, crankshaft , rods, intake,....etc. 5 rebuilds later.

We thought we had the bad *** car....even though some of the chevelles and others that were modified...could beat us...

But..driving down the road in a Corvette was neat....

And still is to this day....

Jack

DansYellow66

Preservation was not a key priority in the 60s and 70s. Day 2 mods were done to most cars to some degree, depending upon the finances available and owner capability (real or imagined). And then we ran them and had fun with them. Even if money was tight you did small things and day-dreamed a lot about doing more. About the only area of anxiety over preserving the originality of a car was the dreaded tin-worm issue. On my first car I was strapped for cash to pay for it and save money for insurance and college - but I still managed to burn the rear tires off of it within the first 2 or 3 months.

ack fia

Was this considered abuse or what they were for?

capevettes

That was good old fashioned fun Is that you behind the wheel Pat? Looks like your new car, except for the go fast tweaks.

TIMBERWOLF427

Burnouts in my 67 were a common weekend adventure back in 1973. One burnout too many and my cross member bracket broke away from the frame. Ill never forget the sound of my axle u joints tearing a hole in my jack compartment!

65 Pro Vette

In 1971 i bought a 65 cp in high school and ran it as hard as I could. I didn’t want to cut the wheel wells but wanted L-60 15 with deep dish cragers. But to do that I lost a lot of u joints. I fixed it now. Lol Now
Then

Railroadman

Must be the yellow paint!

1968 - One night about 2AM in drove by a GF's parents house and just as I suspected her "friend's" GTO was just pulling in to drop her off (after she said she was going out with girlfriends). Nice quiet residential neighborhood. I stopped at the end of her driveway, revved to 3500, and popped the clutch. I bet every light in the neighborhood got turned on to see what happened.

I'm sure there was no long, lingering goodnight kiss! That was early July, and you could still see the rubber until the snow arrived in late November.

Looking back it seems juvenile, but back then I guess I WAS.

ChattanoogaJSB

I wasn't alive in the 70's (almost!), but I'm making it my goal in life to use the 64 the way you guys describe. Hopefully more track days in the spring, camping at the races- all the essentials in the back, road trips... we need more people showing these cars in motion every day.

reno stallion

I had a 77 in 78 I wanted to beat on it but it was gutless. And yes everyone that I knew that had one with any power beat on them or wrecked'um

desertpilgrim

Most of the time when you hear about how sedately his Corvette has been driven, it is because you just responded to his "For Sale" ad in the newspaper, auto trader or on the internet. He burned the timing slips the day before he wrote the ad........

ptjsk

Great thread. I beat the dog snot out of most every car I had way back then. Especially my poor old '61 Corvette.

Roger Walling

Abuse is storing them for 50 years with 5000 miles on them and then advertise them as a low milage, numbers matching car!

colo63sw

I didn’t get my 1st vette until I was a little more mature. But, back in the mid 70’s my ONLY car was a totally original (except for wheels) 70 Challenger T/A. Drove it every day even in the Colo winter. I knew it was special, but in no way did I baby it, I was a teenager. Man I wish I had that T/A today.