If I was the gentleman behind the wheel of this final-year C1, I might be tempted to take my sweet time in getting to the office. Granted, he looks just a bit more successful and established than me (just a little), so with those qualities probably comes a little more freedom in terms of business hours. Regardless, I can imagine there’s absolutely no comparison in comfort, whatsoever, between a generic, multi-adjustable, bonded leather-faced, ergonomically-correct, executive office chair and the pilot’s seat of this classic Corvette. Give me that low-back Corvette bucket seat all the live-long day. When I look at this car, I’m suddenly George Maharis playing Buz Murdock on “Route 66” – off on my next great adventure to anywhere but a corporate office.
Nineteen sixty-two brought the the high water mark, up to that point, for Corvette sales, with just over 14,500 sold – representing a whopping one-third jump over the ’61 total. All were powered by a Chevy small-block V8 newly bored out to 327 cubic inches, ranging in power from the standard, 250-hp version to the fuel injected 360-horse mill. A three-speed manual transmission was standard, with a two-speed Powerglide (nooo!) and a four-speed manual as options. Curb weight started at around 3,000 pounds. A fuel-injected, four-speed model would have been good for 0-60 in the upper five-second range – extraordinarily quick.
To me, the ducktailed rear restyle of the ’61 just looks so organic, so perfect, so natural that sometimes it’s easy to forget about the first and second rear-deck treatments that had preceded it. That this basic rear styling was successfully adapted to (from?) the radical, new ’63 Stingray speaks to its correctness of form. It’s kind of like when Madonna had chopped and bleached her hair for her “True Blue” phase of the mid-80’s for a look that was so different than before, but so very right you almost forgot what she looked like a couple of years prior. Actually, this ’62 ‘Vette is probably more like Marilyn Monroe who passed away that August – gorgeous, all curves, and still America’s sweetheart.
Downtown, The Loop, Chicago, Illinois.
Wednesday, June 14, 2017.
Related reading:
- Whoops! Paul N. already beat me to the Marilyn metaphor: Curbside Classic: 1962 Corvette – The Marilyn Monroe Of Cars (NSFW-USA only); and
- Another, great Cohort sighting: Cohort Sighting: 1958 Corvette On 14th Street In NYC
The guy piloting that Corvette, looks like he should be piloting a rather famous blue police box. You Whovians might notice the guy looks like Jon Pertwee, the third generation of the Doctor driving the first generation of that ‘vette (especially in the first picture).
Speaking of generations and regenerations, it’s interesting that this is still considered a Generation 1 Corvette when, as Joseph mentions below the second picture, the the tail end of that first gen ‘vette, morphs into the tail end of the second gen ‘vette starting in 1963.
I’ve always been somewhat confused at this, as I’ve also been confused at why the 1965 thru 1973 Mustangs are considered one generation. Seems more like 3 generations to me, as with these Corvettes.
The C1 Corvettes weren’t all that much different underneath; they all had a live-axle suspension. The joke used to be that the Corvette was a 2-seat, full-size Chevy.
The C2 Corvettes were completely new from the ground up with IRS and a brand-new coupe model (the C1 was only sold as a convertible with an optional hardtop). The C3 Corvettes were mainly a completely new body.
It seemed more like the C4 and later Corvettes were where the designations get a little murkier.
I’ve also wondered the same thing about the Mustang, Retro-Stang Rick. And I agree with your follow-up point to R&DMan – I tend to lump the 1965 – ’68 Mustangs together, as the ’67 (even though it has a lot of new sheetmetal) seems more like a beefed-up 1965 – ’66 model. The 1969 – ’70 models seem much different, and then there are the 1971 – ’73s.
About the C1 Corvettes, though, they always kind of seemed as part of one generation, to me, with a central core that remained the same and a series of visual changes front-and-aft that made it easier to identify model year. That was just my impression.
rudiger makes a good point above about the change from C1 to C2… what he said about IRS & the body type (no coupe for C1) seems substantial.
But as other ‘eagle eyed’ observers pointed out below, this must be a resto-mod with those C7 quad exhaust tips and brake setup from a much more modern generation.
I agree, the wheels are a bit much, but probably necessary to clear the big brakes, but as much as this may be heresy to put them on a C1, I’d kinda like to see the classic C3 ‘vette rally wheels that were way too popular back in the day… so popular in fact that people put those wheels on everything from a Monte Carlo to an Impala to a Chevelle. I still love that wheel though.
It looks like you can even score aftermarket knock-offs that you might be able to get in a big enough diameter to clear the calipers. Hey, since we’re mixing generations on this ‘vette, why not? ;o)
The Doctor in a Corvette? Inconceivable!
Looks a bit like Michael McDonald to me honestly.
“Sweet Freedom” does kind of fit here. 🙂
Yeah really… What WAS that old British car the Third Doctor drove anyway?
Seems like he spent 1/2 a season or more driving around in that thing instead of his TARDIS….
That would be 4 generations of Mustang: 65-66, 67-68, 69-70, 71-73, right?
I kinda look at 65-68 as one even though the sheet metal changes somewhat significantly between 66 & 67; then 69 & 70 (bigger); followed by the really BIG ones (71-73).
As to the Corvettes: 53 & 54; 55 thru like 59 or 60; which kinda morph into 61 & 62.
Perhaps I should think of these as sub-generations like 1a, 1b, & 1c (for the ‘vette). Wikipedia does say there was a size decrease between 62 & 63 (C1 & C2), so maybe the back end of these pre-stingrays is just ‘similar’ and not ‘same’.
A recent example of sub-generations would be the S197 Mustang (mine’s an ’07)… 2005-2009 (5a); 2010-2012 (5b); and 2013-2014 (5c).
The problem with grouping the S197 generation as 5a/b/c is the differences between 5a and 5b is extensive – all new sheetmetal, new dashboard – while the differences between 5b and 5c are basically just trim – different(but still similar looking) front bumper/hood/grille and blacked out taillight panel. For me those are simply 10-14s, all grouped together. The changes between 69-70 were more extensive.
I think it’s a little more correct to group the first Corvettes(1953-1955) together, as they’re exactly the same body, albeit with more color choices later and in the case of the 1955 an optional V8. From a distance, the Corvette faithful seem to want to lump the 1953-1962 together as C1’s, even though there’s four subgroups among that range.
You’re correct, R&DMAN. The confusion comes when people(and I’m one of them) lump the ‘classic’ Mustang(and Cougar, too) into the ’66-’73(’67-73 for Cougar) year models for purposes of parts sourcing, skipping by the Mustang II years, and then starting again with the Fox-bodied cars and later.
Those wheels remind me of a chandelier. I’d do magnesium Halibrands or the later steel Rallye wheels with no center caps.
Full points for actually driving it though, well done.
Doug, I wish! No – I didn’t drive it… just caught it in passing traffic on my morning walk to the office.
I think he meant kudos to the guy simply driving such a classic in midtown traffic. Maybe the Mercedes was in the shop.
Yeah, the wire wheels and white-wall tires make me think this has a Power Glide. Still, it’s my favorite Corvette, although I wouldn’t kick a nice ’67 out of my garage.
I’m slow sometimes. Agreed, Rudiger! Most wouldn’t take a nice car like this one out and risk it in the Loop. Cab drivers take lots of chances around here.
Nice! Hey Buzz, can I be Martin Milner’s Tod and come with? 🙂
One of my gripes about Studebaker styling over the years was how they would only re-do part of the car one year and more of it the next, thus losing the impact of “new” styling. However, the Corvette did the same thing between 61-2 and then 1963. And with no second guessing from anyone or ill effects in sales. I guess that was the difference between Chevrolet and Studebaker back then, one could pull it off, the other couldn’t.
It strikes me that this one is wearing some abnormally large wheels (and correspondingly thin tires) which I don’t think works all that well, but then maybe I’m just showing my age.
JP – I agree.
Wheels too big; tires too skinny (for a C1 Corvette).
Or maybe, comment writer (and reply writer) too old.
Ah, Route 66, the most favorite TV show of my youth. That great score by Nelson Riddle is just perfect and so evocative. I was a grade school kid when it was first broadcast and this show fueled my life long love of road trips. I bought several seasons in a boxed CD set and the later shows were a little preachy at times but it reflected the concerns of the growing youth culture.
The 1961-62 models were my favorite Corvettes. As you point out, the new rear end treatment worked beautifully with the rest of the car. The contrasting cove went away for ’62, and this one in solid black is smashing.
While the car body is nearly identical (the most apparent differences were in the ‘cove’ treatment), the ’62 got the new 327 while the ’61 had to make do with the 283. The 327 is the reason I’d go with the ’62.
Joseph,
Great find.
I love the duck tailed C1 Corvettes. They were so unattainable to a high school hamburger flipper in the early 1960s that I didn’t even dream of owning one.
At the hamburger shop in late 1960, one of the boss’s sons (Tony) got a brand new 1961 4 speed Corvette; fawn beige top, paint, and interior with a white cove. He let me drive it around the parking lot but that meant first gear only. Then he took me and my buddy Jim for a ride (top up) down Long Island’s Sunrise Highway. Since I was the skinny one, I sat between the seat keeping my legs twisted right to avoid Tony’s speed shifting antics.
Say what you will about the 283, it was fast. Very fast.
Alas, Tony only kept the Corvette a few months. In mid 1961 he traded it in for a red 413 Dodge Polara which he shortly thereafter wrapped around a telephone pole (or was it a fire hydrant … my memory fails me). Tony was in the hospital for days and then out of work for weeks.
283 Corvettes were probably one of the fastest “normal” cars on the road back in the day. One winter night on the Jones Beach Meadowbrook Parkway we encountered a friend in his 1958 Powerglide 283 Corvette; we were in my buddy’s 1957 Fireflite. The Fireflite was no slouch, but that 2 speed 283 Vette made it look like we were not even trying. And we were.
Power to weight ratio is a thing. Even when it’s Powerglide and a [very] small block.
And Nelson Riddle’s Route 66 theme always brings these memories back.
Thanks, RLPlaut. I’m just glad Tony lived through that Polara experience.
I’m also a big fan of Nelson Riddle… I own four of his CD’s, including a two-fer double-reissue. I love the elegance, playfulness, and strong sense of melody in his work. My all-time favorite might be “Communication” from ’71 – an obscure choice, for sure, but just rhythmic, orchestrated, and yes – funky – enough for pretty much any audience.
When I was a teenager, I had a cassette soundtrack for the “Batman” TV series and played it a lot. Parts of it were corny (which was the point), but I loved it.
Years ago, in Lima, OH, some guy had a ’62 Corvette for sale. It was in primer, had hideous homemade side pipes on it, no hardtop, and probably no soft top.
I have no idea now what shape the interior was in, nor what engine it had in it.
I do recall the seller telling me it had a 4-speed, and showing me that the body had no cracks.
But it was running, drivable, and available for $2500 or offers.
I was too naive and unversed in finance at 21 to get the money together.
A ’61 or ’62 is still my favorite Corvette.
I believe this particular car is a restomod because if you zoom in on the rear end you can see the quad center exhaust tips which would suggest some variation of a C5-C7 chassis and drivetrain. This would certainly make it a much more pleasant commuter car.
Hmm, looks like you may be right. I see 4 wheel discs, and I don’t see leaf springs at the back. Hopefully it isn’t an automatic at least.
That’s what I was thinking….hopefully he went with a 6-speed. My guess is that’s it an actual ’62 Vette (not a kit) but with modern underpinnings. I have a ’60 project car and am considering doing this being that it’s a non-matching-numbers car.
Eagle-eye(s), great catch! At least if it’s a replica, the owner chose a superb model year. And FWIW, I actually really like the wheel / tire combo, even if it’s far from period-correct.
My eighth grade teacher in the last half of the ’70’s had a hardtop Corvette of this vintage that he drove when the weather was fine (he had a nice ’72 Cutlass coupe for the other days). I ran into him late in 1984, and the first thing I said was “Do you still have that old ‘Vette?” He replied in the affirmative, and that was all I needed to know. I’ll take a convertible with the 327/4 speed combo.
Actually, all Corvettes of this vintage were convertibles. The hard top was removable. They squeaked, rattled and leaked but they did look good.
Likewise, one of the girls PT teachers in junior high(7th-9th grade) drove a 1958-60 Corvette, and as a perk, she got to park it on campus next to the gymnasium, so I got to ogle it each day as I walked to PT. I think it was blue.
Nice ride, great stance, except for the wheel & tire choice which is just all wrong. Like, write-that-owner-a-citation-for-public-indecency-wrong.
Some years ago when I was changing buses in downtown Seattle on the way to work, I’d always see, at about the same time every day, an immaculate Porsche 356 driven by a well-dressed older man. I imagined him being a lawyer, banker, or some such. I’ve since changed jobs and now drive to work, so I don’t know what’s become of him and the car.
I don’t know how you keep finding them Joseph but please keep doing what you do so well!!!
Thanks, Bill! Actually, I think it’s the other way around – they always seem to “find” me. 🙂
I wonder if that is a reproduction or replica car. Something seems off outside of the awful wheels and upgraded brakes.
I like the late model dark grey Corolla next to the old Corvette.