Interesting Chevy/Corvette engine story
Thread Starter
Advanced
Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 66
Likes: 0
Interesting Chevy/Corvette engine story
My mother relayed a story that I thought you folks would find interesting/funny. I was telling her about my C3 and future plans for it when she starting talking about my grandfather. My grandfather owned a small Chevrolet dealership. My great grandfather had gotten in on the ground floor of automobiles by switching from carriage making and blacksmithing to cars. He and my grandfather continued the dealership until the early sixties. My mother described the excitement surrounding new cars. There was evidently huge excitement in regards to the 1957 283 fuel injected corvette engine which put down one horsepower per cubic inch. My grandfather wanted one for his small dealership but couldn't justify a corvette since he had a family of four. He did the next best thing and special ordered a 1957 Chevrolet four door wagon with the 283 fuel injected engine
. I'm sure this is the only one ever produced and has to be more rare than the "black widow" race cars of that era. My mother said my grandfather was always tinkering to get the fuel injection to work correctly but he was quite proud of his family "sleeper" before there was such a term. The high point of her story was one evening when my grandfather took the family out for ice cream and was taunted at a red light by a fellow in a Jaguar. My mother said Jags of that era were considered exotic and very fast. She said the man in the Jag snickered at the cross flags on the fenders proclaiming "fuel injection" and made a snide comment. My mother said she had never seen my grandfather drive in anything but a responsible manner until that moment. When the light changed, my grandfather pulled hard on the Jag. My mother remembers everyone in the car laughing so hard because the Jag driver kept pulling up to them at lights and asking what had been done to the wagon. She said the Jag driver's look was priceless.
. I'm sure this is the only one ever produced and has to be more rare than the "black widow" race cars of that era. My mother said my grandfather was always tinkering to get the fuel injection to work correctly but he was quite proud of his family "sleeper" before there was such a term. The high point of her story was one evening when my grandfather took the family out for ice cream and was taunted at a red light by a fellow in a Jaguar. My mother said Jags of that era were considered exotic and very fast. She said the man in the Jag snickered at the cross flags on the fenders proclaiming "fuel injection" and made a snide comment. My mother said she had never seen my grandfather drive in anything but a responsible manner until that moment. When the light changed, my grandfather pulled hard on the Jag. My mother remembers everyone in the car laughing so hard because the Jag driver kept pulling up to them at lights and asking what had been done to the wagon. She said the Jag driver's look was priceless.
Team Owner
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 87,375
Likes: 1,593
From: Western NY
THOSE were really the good old days...when you could walk into any GM dealership and order a car "a'la carte", not having to worry if that particular engine/transmission combination was EPA approved for that particular body style, or was part of some "option package"....
Thread Starter
Advanced
Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 66
Likes: 0
THOSE were really the good old days...when you could walk into any GM dealership and order a car "a'la carte", not having to worry if that particular engine/transmission combination was EPA approved for that particular body style, or was part of some "option package"....
