UGLIEST CORVETTE EVER
Safety Car
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 3,547
Likes: 12
From: Carbondale Pa.
Re: UGLIEST CORVETTE EVER (aussiejohn)
ONLY IF YOU BEG ME will I try to photograph one and put it on this forum for your edification. Keep your wives and children away from here if I do! You have been warned. :yesnod: :yesnod: PLEEEEEEEEEEZE, Peace,,,,Moosie :seeya
Drifting
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 1,944
Likes: 20
From: The only Corvettes in Highett Victoria
Re: UGLIEST CORVETTE EVER (eleven79)
Dear eleven79,
Great to hear that someone actually knows who built the car! I have an article in issue No. 7 of the 1987 Australian Street and Strip magazine that describes the "Corvette Summer" car that, at that time, was resident in Australia. It is a 1973 model, VIN 1Z37J3S415437 built October 1973 and was smashed up two years later in a wet weather crash in the U.S. Although an insurance write-off, it was sufficiently intact to be rebuilt as a radical custom and was sent to Korky's Kustom Studios in Van Nuys to be built as one of the two "star cars" by Dick Korkes and Jim Shoppe for the movie "Corvette Summer."
The article goes on to state that the Peterson Publication of "Corvette: An American Classic" of 1978 lists the car and its serial number along with various photos during construction, especially its right hand drive conversion. Mark Hamill was said to have driven the car frequently and moulds were made off the front and rear so that two complete cars were built, along with spare body parts in case of driving errors while filming.
After doing a bit of the show circuit for five years, it faded out of sight until an Australian importer of engines and parts bought the car and had it shipped to Australia where it was found to be in such bad condition that it was fixed thoroughly before going on the show circuit. One day, it was on a transporter that was involved in a collision and the whole rig plunged off a bridge into a river and the car was written off again.
However, it was bought by an enthusiast who re-built it, more than once, and the 350 was tossed for a 454. As far as I know, it is still locked away in a Sydney garage, unless that is the one that Mike Yaeger had in his MY Garage.
So, let me know if that IS the one that's in the U.S. If not, then now you know of another "Corvette Summer" car in existence.
Regards from Down Under
aussiejohn :cheers:
Great to hear that someone actually knows who built the car! I have an article in issue No. 7 of the 1987 Australian Street and Strip magazine that describes the "Corvette Summer" car that, at that time, was resident in Australia. It is a 1973 model, VIN 1Z37J3S415437 built October 1973 and was smashed up two years later in a wet weather crash in the U.S. Although an insurance write-off, it was sufficiently intact to be rebuilt as a radical custom and was sent to Korky's Kustom Studios in Van Nuys to be built as one of the two "star cars" by Dick Korkes and Jim Shoppe for the movie "Corvette Summer."
The article goes on to state that the Peterson Publication of "Corvette: An American Classic" of 1978 lists the car and its serial number along with various photos during construction, especially its right hand drive conversion. Mark Hamill was said to have driven the car frequently and moulds were made off the front and rear so that two complete cars were built, along with spare body parts in case of driving errors while filming.
After doing a bit of the show circuit for five years, it faded out of sight until an Australian importer of engines and parts bought the car and had it shipped to Australia where it was found to be in such bad condition that it was fixed thoroughly before going on the show circuit. One day, it was on a transporter that was involved in a collision and the whole rig plunged off a bridge into a river and the car was written off again.
However, it was bought by an enthusiast who re-built it, more than once, and the 350 was tossed for a 454. As far as I know, it is still locked away in a Sydney garage, unless that is the one that Mike Yaeger had in his MY Garage.
So, let me know if that IS the one that's in the U.S. If not, then now you know of another "Corvette Summer" car in existence.
Regards from Down Under
aussiejohn :cheers:
