Dateline: 7-11.12
Subtitle: A Piece of Corvette racing history could be yours! How deep are YOUR pockets?
Sometimes you get a little “I wonder” thought. Yesterday I realized that the RM Auctions Monterey event would be coming up soon and wondered if there might be any interesting Corvettes going on the block. Last year there were five interesting Corvettes that were up for auction – four race cars and one one street Corvette. But the big splash was the auction of the John Greenwood Stars and Strips BF Goodrich 427 ZL-1-powered Corvette racer that went for $580,000. What’a show!
Usually, the cars are carefully pushed on the revolving stage, but for the Greenwood Corvette, the big ZL-1 was fired up off stage, sounding like an approaching thunder storm, and driven on stage. “Seven hundred horsepower, ladies and gentlemen!” said the auctioneer. And the crowd went wild! Yea, it was FUN.
So I checked in with the RM Auctions Monterey website to see if any Vettes were going on the block. But alas, I only found one (as of this date), but what’a beauty. Here’s your chance to buy one of the all-time great Corvette race cars, the ‘68 Owens-Corning Fiberglass L88 A/Production Corvette. This car won 22 consecutive races, qualified on the pole in most of its races, and scooped up the A/Production Championship two times!
The car is currently owned by John Thompson (no relation to race car driver, Jerry Thompson). In ‘07 Thompson sent the car to Corvette Repair for a restoration back to its Daytona ‘71 configuration. Kevin Mackay and his expert team completed the work in ‘08. In ‘09 the car won the NCRS American Heritage Award and was later one of the Chip’s Choice cars on display at the Corvettes at Carlisle Show.
Here’s a juicy little tidbit about the restoration from Mackay. Kevin explained that the race team used to paint their engines white, not to match the nose of the car, but so that if there was a fluid leak, the team would be easily able to locate to source of the leak. Pretty smart! But when researching the car’s history, Mackay found photos of the car when it raced at the ‘71 Daytona race with a YELLOW engine, so for the restoration project, he painted the engine yellow. At first, he was told, “That’s not right! The Owens-Corning Corvette always had WHITE engines.” When Kevin did some more digging (Kevin is like a beagle with a bone when it comes to researching Corvette race cars) he learned that yes, indeed, “most” of the OCF Corvettes had white engines. But when the car was being prepared for the ‘71 Daytona race, the team didn’t have any white paint, but happened to have some yellow paint, and used that. “The devil is in the details” as they say, and Mackay and the team at Corvette Repair nailed it on this one.
The car is a beauty and it’ll be exciting to see it go off at auction. RM Auctions publishes a paper book of all of the cars up for auction for their events for around $50. They also publish a free online version using software from ZMags.com that makes the e-book function like a real paper book. It’s very cool! As of this time, the e-book version is not yet available, but when it is, we’ll let you know.
Another cool, fun thing RM Auctions does is they broadcast the event live on their website. The cars are auctioned off in numerical order. Last year, I stayed up until around 2:45 AM to see the Greenwood car go on the block. There’s a “show’n tell” aspect of all the cars up for auction, so if you don’t mind staying up really late, have a few cappuccinos and enjoy the online show. The event is on August 17 and 18, 2012. For more info, CLICK HERE.
If you’ve never seen a high end car auction, you’re in for a treat! – Scott
Related:
For the results of the ‘11 RM Auction Montery event, CLICK HERE.
Corvette Repair has a wonderful portfolio section that showcases their fine work. Check out the images of the Owens-Corning Corvette, HERE.
Raquel Welch was one of THE pop icons of the late ‘60s and ‘70s. Aside from her extraordinary beauty, you NEVER heard any stories about her being naughty or difficult. She was a genuinely well liked and respected actress. But she always reminded my of the Mako Shark-styled Corvettes. I mean, do her curves look familiar when you turn her image side ways??? All the right curves, hot, low-slung, and a classic beauty. And Raquel ain’t bad either!
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The above 11×17 Laser-Etched Print is available for just $49.95 + $8.00 S&H. You can order your with the secure PayPal button below, or by calling 1-800-858-6670, Monday through Saturday 10AM to 9PM Eastern Standard Time.
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