She's real fine

My first new car was a 62 Corvette 327/340hp (claimed) It got about 16mpg on the highway, pretty good for that time. But it also consumed a qt. of oil every 300 miles. It spent a lot of time at the (2) dealers. I finally got to see what the problem was. There were shinny chunks of hard metal in the bores that made the rings go bump in the night each stroke. GM refused to replace the block. I carried an extra set of spark plug. Had to clean them every week. It came with 3.07 rear end gears?? Why you ask? Don't know. You had to slip the clutch quite a ways to get moving. But at 55mph in low gear it would start to slip the tires and continue to 75 as it got to red line. 2nd was good 'til 105mph. Then you had 3rd & 4th for leisurely getting there.. I put 411s in it after a trip to San Francisco. Sold it when I went in the Navy, 32,000 miles and lots of qts. of oil. The guy that bought it knew about the oil use. Fun car to drive with a new set of plugs. But on a road trip it took two sets per day. Had I considered keeping it I would have bought another engine. Maybe put a Ford in it just to spite the damn thing.
 
My first car was a 1961 Austin Healy Sprite. It had a 6 gal tank if I recall and cost under $2 to fill up.
It was easy to push when it ran out of gas. Those college days were special.
 
Larry$ said:
My first new car was a 62 Corvette 327/340hp (claimed) It got about 16mpg on the highway, pretty good for that time. But it also consumed a qt. of oil every 300 miles. It spent a lot of time at the (2) dealers. I finally got to see what the problem was. There were shinny chunks of hard metal in the bores that made the rings go bump in the night each stroke. GM refused to replace the block. I carried an extra set of spark plug. Had to clean them every week. It came with 3.07 rear end gears?? Why you ask? Don't know. You had to slip the clutch quite a ways to get moving. But at 55mph in low gear it would start to slip the tires and continue to 75 as it got to red line. 2nd was good 'til 105mph. Then you had 3rd & 4th for leisurely getting there.. I put 411s in it after a trip to San Francisco. Sold it when I went in the Navy, 32,000 miles and lots of qts. of oil. The guy that bought it knew about the oil use. Fun car to drive with a new set of plugs. But on a road trip it took two sets per day. Had I considered keeping it I would have bought another engine. Maybe put a Ford in it just to spite the damn thing.
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Cars of that vintage are fondly remembered although in most cases they were relatively crude and not nearly so dependable as they are today. Like you I only had mine for a short period due to circumstances beyond my control. I bought it used with 18,000 miles on it the late summer and it ran like a dream for the first few months. As the weather turned colder it got harder and harder to start. If the temperatures stayed above 50* it ran fine. If it got below 50* it was often a beast to start. It would crank like all get out but not fire up.

I worked nights at a local GM assembly plant. When I went to work about 3:30 PM it would start and run fine. The temperature would regularly go down to the mid 30's or lower by the time my shift was over. That's when the fun began. Sometimes it would start fine. More often it just cranked. The only saving grace was that the factory had a truck with a starting unit go around the parking lots at the end of each shift to start the cars that were having trouble. All they had to do was touch the cables to the battery for a split second and the beast would start.

The unfortunate part is that it was badly damaged in an accident when I'd had it less than a year. Traffic had stopped for a line of cars slowly entering a local restaurant. I just happened to be waiting a short distance beyond the exit ramp of the local interstate. A woman in a 59 Ford wagon came barreling down the ramp totally oblivious that traffic was stopped. She hit my car in the right front fender, went down in the ditch, hit something, came around a second time and hit me again in the right rear.

As you might expect body shops that would work on fiberglass were few and far between in those days. I took it to the only one my insurance company could find. It turned out to be a poor choice. The car went in February and I didn't get it back until August. It turned out the owner was an alcoholic that would regularly go on binges. He must have called me a dozen times wanting me to pay in advance because he needed the money "to buy parts".

When I finally got the car back it was a disaster. It still had a bent right front wheel, was missing the right rear bumper, and "Corvette Sting Ray emblem, and had the worlds worst paint job. It turned out he hadn't replaced either of the fenders, but rather patched them in with pieces from a another wreck that was originally painted blue. He even went so far as to put the trim on the patches before painting. The repair quality was awful, he never finished the job, and the insurance company couldn't care less. I was so disappointed with the repair and the attitude of the insurance company I sold the car less than a month after getting it back. I had long forgotten the car and chalked up the incident to experience.

40+ years later I went to my 50th high school class reunion. I happened to run into the husband of a classmate and he started talking about Corvettes. It turned out he was the original owner. The best part is that he had searched for years to find the car, and finally found it in Ohio. It was in almost the same condition at that time as it was in when I sold it. He bought it for several times the price either he or I had paid for it, and was in the process of having it professionally restored.

That was over 5 years ago. I have no idea whether the job was finished, or what it might have cost. I see a few on the market today with asking prices in the $120,000.00 range. I have no idea if they're actually getting that price. If they do that's quite a nice appreciation for a car that sold new for $4,250.00
 
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Larry$ said:
I tried to find their attempt but it was nowhere to be found. What happened to it?
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Interesting, I worked at a marine maintenance facility many years ago. We had Warlock come in for service all the time. She was an offshore racer with twin 750 HP engines and monster outdrives. It took four to operate her: Driver, Engineer, Navigator and Throttlemen. There was not a single time they were out that they didn't have something get damaged from rough seas. She had a top speed in perfect conditions of well lover 165 mph. It had seats in it that kept the spine from being crushed by the impacts.

I can't imagine how something the size of this quoted boat would survive 3100 miles at high speeds without some major damage and no where to go.
 
projectnut said:
...I worked nights at a local GM assembly plant. When I went to work about 3:30 PM it would start and run fine. The temperature would regularly go down to the mid 30's or lower by the time my shift was over. That's when the fun began. Sometimes it would start fine. More often it just cranked. The only saving grace was that the factory had a truck with a starting unit go around the parking lots at the end of each shift to start the cars that were having trouble. All they had to do was touch the cables to the battery for a split second and the beast would start...
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The irony: A GM plant that has a truck helping GM employees get their GM cars started. Theoretically, I imagine they helped get anyone's car started, regardless of brand, but I also imagine everyone owned GM products.
 
Papa Charlie said:
I can't imagine how something the size of this quoted boat would survive 3100 miles at high speeds without some major damage and no where to go.
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No where to go but down.
I have seen damaged hydroplane racers heading urgently for the crane. Scary business is that.

I can't imagine it surviving either, even if weather conditions were perfect the whole way across.
I do not know if the crossing was ever attempted. But it must be a challenging exercise in design and planning and financing.
 
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