Your Best Memories

[Rick G.]

Re: Your Best Memories

That event in 1987 at Laguna Seca was the greatest that I have ever attended. There was an incredible group of old race cars and their former drivers as Mike has said. I believe Mike and Mickey Swezey had the biggest smiles which lasted the entire weekend. Both are true gentlemen and have done more for our hobby than most. Mike was gracious enough to take a picture with his 62 and my wife which I still treasure. Mickey put back together the old Bob Bondurant 57 race car just in time for the event for us to enjoy. A couple of years later, Mike drove his 62 from Southern California to Reno for another National and put on a great seminar on the car. Both are class guys and true enthusiasts.
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In my 62 Gulf Oil racer, (for which I paid $3500 in 1980 and which sold this summer at Monterrey auction for $1,485,000) going into the hairpin at Laguna Seca in 1987, following Frank Buck in his 57 team car, and looking in the rear view mirror, I saw:
John Fitch driving, Zora in his yellow helmet as passenger in the old GM SS racer, and they're racing against Dick Thompson who is driving the SR-2. We were told this was a "performance demonstration", and they were going at it!!
Many wonderful Corvette memories, but I don't know that I'll every top that one!

[Steven B.]

Re: Your Best Memories

Hi, I am not familiar with the 2 cars in the picture. One was a SR-2 and the other a Corvette SS. Was this the SS from the GM Motorama? I was told today that a Corvette SS was sold in Chicago Ill. to a Ralph Pool cars in Albuq. The car this person spoke of had shiny metal in the coves and no top. The son of Mr. Pool borrowed a helmet for the drive from Chicago to Albuq. The car was sold and wrecked by a son of the new owner. The salvage was bought by a Mr. Bill Hovey of Albuq. and much later sold again. Supposely a book was written about this Autorama Corvette SS. I was away at College when all this supposed to have happened. Can someone enlighten me? dale

The SS in the pic. was owned by GM until Zora presented it to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum in I believe '75. I think you are speaking of the basically production SS with two small windscreens, stainless in the coves, white with blue stripes and interior.

[Dick W.]

Re: Your Best Memories

i'd give the 63 ZO6 to see you and any 4 females in a c-1 today.mikie

Would you believe me and one today????

[Steven B.]

Re: Your Best Memories

I remember the first time I saw my '57, a dark evening in early November, 1964. Max, the owner, heard that I wanted a Corvette. I had saved money from working at Underhill's Grocery. He brought it to our house, described it and I asked if I could sit it. In the dark drive I slid in, put my hands on the wheel, looked at the Sun Tach on the column steady at 0, and slid my right hand onto the 4 speed shifter. Soon my mind was off to Sebring. Prying myself from the seat after a few laps I walked around what I envisioned to be the most beautiful car I had ever seen, R&T pictures included. A couple of weeks later, Saturday noon, a trip to the bank on my lunch hour and it was mine. I parked it in front of the store so I could see it for awhile, then my Dad took it home so it wouldn't get a door ding in the side trim. I got off work at 9:00 that night, ran home two blocks and sat in the '57 until I couldn't stay awake any longer.

[Steve B.]

Re: Your Best Memories

For me it was the old Bloomington Gold in the 80s namely Earthquake 88. The sound that those cars made made gave me goosebumps. Also watching the cars go up and down veterans pkwy left a lasting impression on me.

[Edward S.]

Re: Your Best Memories

Though I had loved the vettes since they came on the scene in 53 ( I was 13 at the time ) it was not until 1962 that I got my first ride in one - a 1962 white drop top with a blue interior. The guy who owned it had already made some changes, I remember him saying that he had put a chevy truck clutch in it, he was a pal of a pal of mine I was with that day. He took us for a ride, top down with me sitting in the middle. Without saying a word the guy popped the clutch in first and the next thing I knew my head was hitting the top cover. At the time I was driving a 1957 Olds 98 J-2 conv., which I ate alot of cars up with and thought was really swift. Could not hold a candle to that vette, that day I made up my mind that some day I too would own one. Between getting married and having children it took me another 22 years to get my first. I have not been without one since, never give up your dreams.

[Mike M.]

Re: Your Best Memories

Though I had loved the vettes since they came on the scene in 53 ( I was 13 at the time ) it was not until 1962 that I got my first ride in one - a 1962 white drop top with a blue interior. The guy who owned it had already made some changes, I remember him saying that he had put a chevy truck clutch in it, he was a pal of a pal of mine I was with that day. He took us for a ride, top down with me sitting in the middle. Without saying a word the guy popped the clutch in first and the next thing I knew my head was hitting the top cover. At the time I was driving a 1957 Olds 98 J-2 conv., which I ate alot of cars up with and thought was really swift. Could not hold a candle to that vette, that day I made up my mind that some day I too would own one. Between getting married and having children it took me another 22 years to get my first. I have not been without one since, never give up your dreams.

ed: hope you kept the 57 98 J-2 convert. the 57 Olds were the best looking Oldsmobiles made, in my opinion.did your J-2 have the first design "batwing" air cleaner with two oil baths or the second design air cleaner with a single disposable paper filter element? regards,mike

[Bill M.]

Re: Your Best Memories

the 57 Olds were the best looking Oldsmobiles made, in my opinion.

I agree. The star of our high school basketball team had a black '57 Olds convert (about 1962). Lucky guy.

A guy I worked with finished restoring his '57 J-2 in about 2000. It is perfect. He was sure he could beat my '92 LT1 in a drag race. I decided someone else could enlighten him.

[Jim L.]

Re: Your Best Memories, there are just so many

In roughly chronological order:

1. Driving my first Corvette, a '59 POS (see below) for the first time. Open headers. 13.9 in the 1/4.

2. My Dad and I winning Overall Top Eliminator with his '54 at an all-Corvette drag race. Yes, really.

3. Taking my then-5-year-old daughter to day care in my '63 SWC and teaching her to change gears. She wasn't even tall enough to see out the window.

4. First time attending the Cypress Gardens NCRS event .... probably third year of the show. The classiest NCRS show I've ever attended. People actually wore suits to the banquet.

5. Reaching California from South Carolina in my injected '60 as part of job relocation. A trip I wouldn't even have considered were it not for Mike Ernst's saga of his successful trip in this Gulf Oil Racer a couple of years earlier. Thanks, Mike!

6. Monterey '87. Sensory overload that spanned several days. If you have only heard people tell you how good that event was, trust me, they are lying. It was better than that.

7. Reaching California with my son and a couple of NCRS buddies from Georgia in the '54 and '63 roadster I inherited from my Dad.

8. Every time I get to vintage race my reproduction '63 Grand Sport.


And the flip side of these experiences is the absolute worst moment:

When I walked out of K-mart one evening and it dawned on me that my '63 SWC (the one in which my daughter learned to change gears) had just been stolen. And later, listening to my then-9-year-old daughter cry her eyes out.


Overall, exceedingly good memories.

Jim

[Richard J.]

Re: Your Best Memories

My 1965 Roadster with a 502 and a 6-speed. I should have kept that car!