What Ever Happened to the 1965 Corvette Race Car?

You will remember “Operation Corvette Rescue” from about one year ago. 

           Operation Corvette Rescue

You might ask, “What happened to that cool 1965 Corvette Race Car?  Here is an update:

The car is a 1965 Corvette roadster that participated in SCCA racing in the late 60’s and early 70’s in the “B Production” class. The car raced at Laguna Seca, Riverside and other tracks in Southern California and Arizona. Originally owned by Dr. Bruce Halpert, the car is decorated in a red-white-and-blue color scheme. It last competed as Number 18 fielded by Ron Leahey Enterprises. The car had been in storage off and on for about 12 years until it was purchased by Joe Hofman of San Diego.  Joe has spent the past year restoring the car to its SCCA racing heyday.  Some parts of the car were in pretty rough shape.  Joe spent lots of time researching the car’s racing heritage, talking to other Corvette racers, and restoring the car to full racing form. The car has its original paint scheme and the red color may be the original paint!  Look at the workmanship of the rolling Chassis!

The result of all his efforts culminated in the car’s acceptance to participate in this year’s Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, August 15-18.  The photo below was taken at Button Willow race track at the end of June, 2013.  Joe will also be racing the Corvette at Road America this month (July) where there is a Corvette Celebration and lots of racers.

You can see that the car is immaculate in every detail.  Nice job Joe!

 

Celebrating Corvette's 60th Birthday!

June 30, 2013:  The 60th Birthday of Corvette!

We celebrated by having a Corvette Party at our house.  We set a new Cary's Garage Record:  14 Corvettes (well 15 if you count the 1967 Stingray Coupe on the lift inside the garage waiting to be restored!).

Nan ordered a special cake just for the occasion!

Thanks to everyone for coming to the party!

Cary & Nan

Fine Tuning the exhaust system on Nan's 56 Corvette

I was in such a hurry to get Nan's 56 to the NCRS convention here in San Diego last year that I didn't have time to make sure that everything was "perfect"  So now a year later I'm on a mission to tidy up a punch-list of items.

One of them is the exhaust system.  I bought tight-tuck headers for the Fastburn 385 engine, and connected them to a standard 56 Corvette exhaust system, upgraded with the MagnaFlow mufflers.  After a year there were a few irritating leaks and a few rattles where the pipes weave their way through the frame and then out the rear of the body to exit in the bumpers.  Very complicated.

Today, with the help of Danny Schrokosch, we visited Lyons Muffler shop in San Marcos.  Jim Baldwin and his master mechanic, Dan, spent four hours going through each pipe and connection.  They replaced three of the "mass-produced" pipes with perfectly-fitting new ones, custom bent and swedged for an exact fit.  Look how clean the installation is on the lower photo!

If you need a whole new exhaust system or repairs don't mess around -- go the the best muffler shop in San Diego:  Lyons Muffler, 1560 Grand Avenue.  Ask for Jim Baldwin at 760/744-8010.  You won't be disappointed!


 

Herman, Clairvoyance and the Plasma Cutter

Herman Knauer and his family have a long history in Beltsville.  He was a great friend to me at High Point High School and still is 50 years later.  He is a master craftsman at anything he builds.  In retirement Herman decided to build his own monster garage and to fill it with cars and tools.  During the quiet Beltsville winters Herman constructed his own plasma cutter and has been making parts for a hand-made truck -- frame and body!

Besides all of Herman’s many skills I did not realize that Clairvoyance was one of them!  On my last visit to Herman’s garage he gave me an amazing present.  Using his plasma cutter he crafted a sign for my garage out of a big steel plate.  The sign says “Cary’s Corvettes” and there is a replica of a Stingray in the center.  There are two amazing things about the sign:  (1) He chose the name before he knew that I had used “Carys Corvettes” for my Blog; and (2) He used the image of a Stingray before he knew I had just received a Corvette Stingray for Father’s day!

 I painted the sign to match the colors of my 1967 Stingray Coupe and have hung it in the garage next to the car is symbolizes! 

 Thanks, Herman!  This is the coolest sign in my garage!  I can't wait to see the progress on the truck!  When you are done I want to talk to you about my life-long dream of owning a 34 Ford!