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Corvette Auction Preview: Four More Corvettes to Make You Drool at Mecum Kissimmee 2022

Photo Credit: Mecum Auctions

Welcome back to our look at Mecum’s upcoming 2022 Kissimmee auction. The countdown to opening day is just about 14 days now. Perusing the Corvette docket, we currently see 360 Corvettes listed which is more than double the number of consignments from 2 weeks ago. Expect a few more to be added as the date draws nearer.

Past previews focused on the Corvette Super Sport, Gulf One, and the C2 Z06 equipped Corvettes from Mecum’s Once in a Lifetime Corvette Offering. This time we’re going to focus on a diverse quartet of first and second generation cars ranging from a pilot line 1966 L88 to an ultra-rare 1957 airbox fuelie.

Lot F158: 1960 Race Rat Tanker – When we think of big tank or “tanker” Corvettes, we generally think of C2’s. However, tankers were available to savvy buyers and racers on C1 Corvettes as well. In 1960, 10 big tank Corvettes were built. This 1960 fuelie was ordered through Nickey Chevrolet by George Reed to complete in the 1960 Sebring 12 hour race. In addition to the 315hp engine, Reed selected heavy duty suspension, heavy duty brakes, and a 4-speed transmission. Upon delivery to Sebring, Zora Arkus Duntov himself assisted with the final race prep. The car went on to win its class and finish 16th overall. Today the car is in excellent restored condition and has been displayed at top events such as the 2004 and 2014 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, the 2009 Los Angeles Concours d’Elegance, the 2010 NCRS 50th Anniversary display, and the 2013 Greenwich Concours d’Elegance. It’s also an NCRS American Heritage Award recipient.

Lot F164: 1957 Big Brake Airbox Fuelie – This well-known straight axle is one of 44 produced with RPO 579E, the fresh airbox intake. It’s also 1 of 54 with heavy duty brakes and suspension. Other options include a fuel injected engine, 4-speed transmission, and wider 5.5″ wheels. The car was raced in SCCA events across the country throughout its early life. Since that time, it’s been restored back to stock form and lays claimed to our hobby’s top awards including multiple NCRS Top Flights, Bloomington Gold, and 2 Bloomington Special Collections. It’s been featured in Vette Vues magazine and participated in the 75th anniversary Monterrey historics. It’s being offered from the John Justo collection with copious documentation, awards, and restoration photos.

Lot S113: 8,500-mile unrestored 1967 427/435 Coupe – We first saw the “Vault Find” 1967 Corvette at the 2017 Mecum Indy auction where it sold for $675,000 from the original owner’s family. The Marina Blue on blue 435hp coupe remains in unrestored, original condition with just 8,533 miles on the odometer. The option list includes the 435hp engine, M21 4-speed, F41 suspension, and 4.11 rear end. It’s never been shown or judged and comes documented with the window sticker, Protect-O-Plate, and car shipper.

Lot S237: 1966 Pilot Line L88 Coupe – This Sting Ray is one of the “Four Kings,” 1966 Corvette factory racers. It’s the first known Corvette factory-prepared for Luigi Chinetti’s NART team, the first built with shoulder harnesses, and the second to be fitted with the cowl-induction fresh air hood. The intent was to test aluminum cylinder heads and other racing bits in the 1966 Sebring 12 hours. Pedro Rodriguez and Mario Andretti were to be the drivers, but they ended up in one of Chinetti’s Ferrari’s instead. Future pilots included Harold Whims, Don Yenko, John Finger, and John “Sam” Henderson. They completed at many notable tracks such as Daytona, Talladega, Charlotte Motor Raceway, Virginia International Raceway, Marlboro Motor Raceway, and Road Atlanta among others. The L88 engine sports a 1965-dated intake manifold and January 1966 dated aluminum cylinder heads. Other track-spec options include heater and defroster delete, radio delete, F41 suspension, Positraction rear axle, heavy-duty brakes, transistor ignition, M22 4-speed, and a 36 gallon gas tank. It’s extensively documented and has been shown at numerous national events over the last decade including 2014 and 2020 Bloomington Gold Collections, 2016 MCACN Corvette Legends Invitational, and the 2014 Corvettes at Carlisle Race Car Reunion.

Mecum’s monster 2022 Kissimmee auction will take place January 6th-16th at the Osceola Heritage Park. MotorTrend TV, MotorTrend+, and Discovery will have live coverage Wednesday, January 12th – Saturday, January 15th. Approximately 3,500 cars are expected. Keep an eye here and on the Mecum website as new additions are being added daily.

Source:
Mecum Auctions

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What If the Original Corvette Had Its Engine Mounted in the Middle All Along

We have featured work from Abimelec Arellano’s time machine to an alternate past in these pages before (A late-May edition of Quick Shifts reveled in his outstanding “1959 Escalade“). So impressive was Arellano’s work, that our amigos at Hagerty Media have snapped him up for a new series entitled, “What If?”

After taking readers back to a version of 1970 where Ford made a Raptor trim level of the Bronco, Abimelec set his sights on America’s Sports Car for the second official running of his new column.

So, with his DeLorean set for 1953, Mr. Arellano set off to a timeline where Chevrolet’s sporty halo model had been mid-engined from the get-go.

This is an intriguing version of history for a Corvette enthusiast to ponder. It was the 1953 Motorama Corvette that attracted the “Father of the Corvette,” Zora Arkus-Duntov to General Motors. He then spent his tenure as Corvette chief engineer attempting to get his bosses to sign off on moving the ‘Vette’s engine to the middle. What if Zora was already on board at GM when work on the Plastic Fantastic was beginning? Would he have succeeded in producing his mid-engine vision with the inaugural Corvette? Was he already dreaming of an engine behind the driver in 1953? The possibilities of what could have been if these, and infinite other, circumstances would have been slightly different are endless and Abimelec’s render is a fascinating view into what could have led to a completely different heritage for our favorite vehicle.

Be sure to head on over to Hagerty where each new render is accompanied by a fictional, period-correct review. The ME ’53 short take is a parody of our other friends at Jalopnik (or in this case, a ‘50s version called Jalopies and Knick-Knacks) and their propensity for trying a bit too hard to come off as edgy and hip, humorously highlighted by the excessive use of outdated slang.

We are looking forward to the next time that a Corvette is subjected to a What If? transformation, seeing C’s 2-7 professionally reproportioned for a mid-mounted motivator is a tantalizing prospect but, we suspect, Abimelec has something even more creative up his sleeves!

Source:
Hagerty.com