Made to look like the feature car in the movie "Corvette Summer," this Craigslist find actually comes pretty close to the original.

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Um....................................yo u DO realize that THIS (Corvette Summer) was Mark Hammil's (Luke Skywalker) first starring role in a movie................................... right? (What a disaster)

 

Gas Monkey recently bought the real Corvette Summer for like 20k
atleast that was what was shown on TV. ... Reality who knows ...
that looks like a pretty close copy.
I was kid with Car dreams, when Corvette Summer was released !
Now I have my own Corvettes !

 

The Vette from the movie was a right-hand-drive car.



Corvette Summer (1978) was Mark Hamill's second big-screen movie. The first one was Star Wars (1977).

More details about the real Corvette Summer car(s) can be found here: http://www.superchevy.com/features/c...mer-movie-car/

 

I do believe I know who the owner is, if you look at the CL ads you will see a blue 1/2 mako shark, it only has the front clip,
This fellow bought several mako parts that were produced from molds from my mako body parts, to my understanding his idea was to turn the blue car into a complete mako and flip the extra parts for profit.

As far as this tribute to the Movie car goes I used to be a big fan of the films car but now see it as the most tacky c3 ever made, nothing flows, the truck style rear flares really irk me, so a copy has to be really on the money for me not to really dislike it, but like it or hate it one seldom forgets it, this one is nice but I do not see any true metal flake paint on it, in fact the paint looks bad flat or something

I wouldn't know what to do with this car even if I got it for free and the catch was I had to keep it, I would be embarrassed to drive it...

So with no price listed, let me hear what some of you guys think it could possibly fetch....

I will start with 12-14K

 

Building cars is not cheap, and this one comes pretty close to the movie car, so my guess is that the seller would want/like to get (at least) somewhere in the mid $20ks.

And even though I loved the movie and the car back in the late 70s when I was a teenager, like Bats said, I'd be embarrassed to drive that thing around town today.

I wouldn't mind driving a Knight Industries 2000 tribute though. lol.


BTW, if anyone feels like watching Corvette Summer again (or for the first time), see:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1zvz93_corvette-summer-1978-1-2_lifestyle (1st half), and

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1zw0x2_corvette-summer-1978-2-2_lifestyle (2nd half).

Make some and enjoy!

 

While that is very , very true, I have seen some one off show cars with sometimes even over 100k invested not sell for a fraction of the investment, while the owners think they are worth the investment or more,

I have to assume that while the gas monkey car got 20 and wasn't as close as this one this ones paint hurts and since the buyers pool will still be limited,
I could be all wrong but I see this one hard getting over that 20K mark, the buyer has to want it for what it is a movie tribute car not just a one off custom, okay it's both.

A fellow down the road from me in Orlando had a spot on Kitt replica and it was very nice, from the outside the valley of the lights interior wasn't seen well....I too would have driven it anywhere....

 

Gas monkey bought a clone, or copy. They didn`t know what they were buying. The original movie car was right hand drive.... the car gas monkey bought was left hand drive.

 

It's interesting to note that—according to an article in the Sept. 2007 issue of Corvette Magazine—Korky's Kustom Studios in California (the guys who built the Corvette Summer cars), left all the LHS steering mechanisms in place, then installed a RHS steering column and connected the setup with sprockets and a motorcycle chain.

Also, at the beginning of the movie (1:45), Ken Dantley (played by Hamill) get the idea to build a Corvette by an emblem that falls to the ground in front of him, while visiting a salvage yard. The only problem with that is that the "Corvette" emblem is not from a C3. Gotta love movie goofs.

Didn't matter though. After I saw that movie back in '78 (more than once, I must admit), I bought my first Corvette. A 1968. And I had a LOT of fun with it.

And speaking of Corvettes and movies, does anyone remember this scene from another action flick?

 

More like "When Insanity Attacks"! It would make a cool Hot Wheels car though.

 

The non metal flake paint kills it
Never cared for the flames but it was the 70s-
Some older era wheels would help, everyone has those nowadays doesnt look bad though
Still like it, back then lots went out of their way to be different now everyone wants the same car, same part same paint. gaed forbid its not stock.

 

I used to wonder what happened to the car in the billy jack film,

I would guess they had the "wrong" corvette emblem drop in Skywalkers lap to further carry with the films name "Corvette" summer,
Had a stingray emblem been dropped only the more car savvy would have gotten it,

I too heard this motorcycle sprocket thing way, way back when I used to call and bug people like Korky, it wasn't suppose to be top shelf or safe it was just suppose to be radical,

Years ago a fellow who had pictures to back up his story to the point of being there when the real movie car then owned by Mike Yager of mid America was being loaded for a show got to sit in it and said that because of the low end ( sprocket and chain ) left hand mod the angle of the column was different and anyone bigger than a skinny cat like skywalker at the time couldn't have driven it in any practical manor,

As far as the real metal flake paint, The story I got was Yager didn't like the beaten up look the car had, if you look closely at the film the front spoiler is knocked almost off a time or two and the whole car is getting sand blasted in the end chase in the film, so he restored it, that ended it's real metal flake paint it was repainted metallic ( some people believe metallic is metal flake ) some things were changed for what ever reason, the moon roofs, side mirrors I believe the wheels too, if you google around for images you can find before and after pics of the real movie car,

I was really sad when he did this restoration, I do not care how bad it was it was original to the way it was used in the film and a survivor of that, restoring it was a bad move IMHO.

So on that gas monkey tribute copy, did Mark Hamill ever even sit in that car because it sure was not in the movie in any way and if he didn't really drive it pretty darn cheddar Richard to paint that he did on the door...

The real corvette summer car and most all copies like the gas monkey have full tilt clips the one in this thread is just a hood, so now I wouldn't want it even more so....

 

All this Corvette Summer reminiscing inspired me to remove my car's steering column and start on my own RH-drive conversion.





KIDDING!

Am in the process of replacing the steering column.

 

I would be curious how they do it in Australia, I have been told adamantly that a few c3's were converted at huge costs down under by owner or shop for right hand drive but I have never seen the interior of one...the interior of the CSMC wasn't too nice.....

 

 

I take it you do not really care for it....

Since on the subject of the CSMC I thought might be fun to post a couple pictures, these are of Korkys girlfriend who was Skywalkers stunt double in the film and customs that korky made for her,

The coolness is that it shows a lower version of the famous/infamous CSMC hood scoop...so this was a trademark so to speak of the fellow.

 

After watching Corvette Summer at the drive in, I decided to convert mine. I was talked out of converting it, but found a 1978 that had blue velour tuck and roll throughout the interior.
After a year of trial and error I found an article published in Vette Vues Magazine, and managed to contact the guy in Australia to get me an Australian Ford steering box and converted linkage. The hardest part was figuring out how to make it a hydraulic clutch.
I get lots of thumbs up whenever I drive the car.
I went and sat in the Corvette Summer car when Mike Yeager still owned it, and the steering column is very difficult to get by. Mike Yeager drove my car and had some of his people take some photos of him in it. It was a great trip.

 

Think of the State Farm commercial.... Jake from State Farm.

Wife says well it looks hideous.....
Husband replies.... Well It's the car from corvette summer.
Marshal

 

Thanks for the pics, looks like the 80 style dash was way easier to make look good than the 77 and back,

Were you the fellow who drove the car on and off the truck for, is his name "yeager" or "yeger" ? Google has me confused.

 

Sorry, it's Yager. I am not sure what you are talking about " driving the car on and off the truck ". When I sat in it, the car was on Mikes' showroom floor, and it was aek before the ' Corvette Funfest" , so unfortunately there wasn't any way of moving enough cars out of the way to get the Corvette Summer car off the floor. Mike did say that the 'chain drive on his car made it very interesting to drive.