Tag: Terry Michaelis

Corvette Timeline Tales: July 12, 1967 – The Last C2 Sting Ray Rolls Off the St. Louis Assembly Line – VIDEO

Published on by Scott
Photo: Proteam Corvette, Napoleon, Illinois, www.ProteamCorvette.com

The restored “Last Sting Ray” 1967 427/390 Corvette Coupe sells for a whopping, $660,000!

Dateline: 7-12-17 – Obviously there’s a first-and-last of every Corvette ever built. Unfortunately, there was no pause for celebration on July 12, 1967 when the very last C2 Corvette Sting Ray rolled off the St. Louis Assembly line. Not even a moment for a snap shot! Too bad! But forty years and three months later there was PLENTY of celebrating at the October 2007 Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale Auction.

Up until the last C3 rolled off the St. Louis assembly line, no one paid attention to these cars. The VIN number indicates that this was the last C2 Sting Ray to ever be built, Terry Michaelis, owner of ProTeam Corvette, in Napoleon, Illinois bought the rough Corvette Continue reading “

Corvette Timeline Tales: July 12, 1967 – The Last C2 Sting Ray Rolls Off the St. Louis Assembly Line – VIDEO” →

Corvette Timeline Tales: August 20, 1954 – Chevrolet races 1953 Corvette at a NASCAR-sanctioned Raleigh Speedway.

Published on by Scott

The Corvette was a race car almost from the very beginning!

5A-Oldest-Corvette-Racer-1953 Yes, these were the first Chevrolet-built Corvette race cars. They don’t look familiar because in this promotion photograph the cars had yet to be decorated. The young man to the left and in the back is Bill France, Jr. in 1953 Corvette VIN #211 and the man on the right and in front is Joe Hawkins in 1955 Corvette VIN #1399. The names of the bathing beauties are not known. Back in the NASCAR’s early days they had a “Sports Car Series,” sometimes called the “International Class” that ran as support races for the Grand National races.

Terry Michaelis, owner of ProTeam Corvette has fully restored the 1953 version and meticulously researched the two cars, stitching together the history of these two forgotten Corvette racecars. Back in the day, working under the direction of three-time Indy 500 winner, Mauri Rose and Chevrolet chief engineer, Ed Cole, the Chevrolet Engineering Department did an admirable job turning the struggling Corvette into a racer. Continue reading “

Corvette Timeline Tales: August 20, 1954 – Chevrolet races 1953 Corvette at a NASCAR-sanctioned Raleigh Speedway.” →

C3 L-88 Corvettes Draw TOP DOLLAR at The Auctions!

Published on by Scott2 Comments

Dateline: 2.1.12

The once obscure L88s are now highly valued Corvettes!

Lurking under the hood is the 427 L88 beast.

It’s always an exciting thing when the heavy guns from the Corvette’s past go on the auction block. Auctions can be a quirky thing, be it a local farm auction or a high-level exotic cars auction. On one hand, the final sale price is a direct reflection of what the market place is willingness to pay. On the other hand, two people can get caught up in the adrenaline of the auction experience and drive up a final sale price. Either way, they’re always fun to watch to get a sense of the market value of Corvettes.

Keith Cornett at www.CorvetteBlogger.com does an excellent job of covering Corvette auction action. Well, it seems that there’s an interesting trend developing in the Corvette world over L88 Corvettes. L88s with the appropriate petegree are getting just just north of $600,000! That’s VERY impressive, considering that new, the cars cost in the neighborhood of $6,500 back in the day.

The L88 option was Mr. Duntov’s gift to his beloved Corvette racers. Just because GM didn’t want to go racing didn’t mean that Duntov couldn’t design and develop parts for independent racers to use. The L88 package was the ultimate racer kit for its day. On paper and in person, the L88 didn’t look all that spectacular. The only visual clue as to what lurked under the car’s body was the special cold-air-induction hood that was essentially a dome on top of the big-block hood’s dome. That was the ONLY visual clue. On paper the L88 was grossly underrated at just 430-horsepower. The real power number was never “officially” published, but it was estimated to be in the high 500horsepower range. Continue reading “C3 L-88 Corvettes Draw TOP DOLLAR at The Auctions!” →