Photo: haleigmaso0/eBay
Over the years, it's been a common occurrence to see cars parked in a barn or in a field and left there for years. Sometimes this happens to unimportant models; other times, the oblivion plague hits the best, such as “America’s sports car.” Case in point, this C1 Chevrolet Corvette has been left unattended since the early 1980s...
Now, we have to confess that we almost called this first generation an original ‘Vette. But it would have been a grave mistake, as we’re inclined to believe the seller is basically toying with our minds when slapping the description box with a note claiming we’re dealing with an example that’s “all original besides the paint job and Toyota Motor.”
Yeah, we figured for ourselves the red paint looked a bit odd when compared to the general rust and decay. Wait, what?! Back up a little, what about the Toyota engine? Mind you, the Japanese motor is mentioned in the same sentence with “this is a great piece of American history!!” (double exclamation mark is not an editor’s note).
Seriously, we really have no idea if this eBay seller is actually serious or just trying to rise to Internet fame as a jester, at the expense of people paying up to $24k for this Corvette that will have purists run as if powered by Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets.
With the current bid at $20,600 (at the time of writing) and the reserve not met, we may never find out an important piece of information. That would be why on Earth someone decided at one point in this ‘Vette’s life that swapping the car’s original engine (possibly a Blue Flame inline-six or one of the small-block V8s) for a small Toyota motor would even remotely qualify as a promising idea in any of the known and unknown universes.
By the looks of this thing, which is also being described as “a project but has great bones,” the years of inattention haven’t been kind, either. Seriously, we could even bet a full restoration paycheck the legendary Japanese reliability hasn’t actually touched this miserable-looking little engine.
Still, the seller again baffles us by mentioning the Corvette was “running the last time it was parked in the early 1980’s.” And the information just keeps getting better and better (it’s right there with the well-known fact that pigs really do fly!).
As our very last example, the listing says “the interior upholstery is in good conditions, just needs a good cleaning.” We really advise against that because we’re afraid the rest of the cockpit might turn into dust...
Yeah, we figured for ourselves the red paint looked a bit odd when compared to the general rust and decay. Wait, what?! Back up a little, what about the Toyota engine? Mind you, the Japanese motor is mentioned in the same sentence with “this is a great piece of American history!!” (double exclamation mark is not an editor’s note).
Seriously, we really have no idea if this eBay seller is actually serious or just trying to rise to Internet fame as a jester, at the expense of people paying up to $24k for this Corvette that will have purists run as if powered by Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets.
With the current bid at $20,600 (at the time of writing) and the reserve not met, we may never find out an important piece of information. That would be why on Earth someone decided at one point in this ‘Vette’s life that swapping the car’s original engine (possibly a Blue Flame inline-six or one of the small-block V8s) for a small Toyota motor would even remotely qualify as a promising idea in any of the known and unknown universes.
By the looks of this thing, which is also being described as “a project but has great bones,” the years of inattention haven’t been kind, either. Seriously, we could even bet a full restoration paycheck the legendary Japanese reliability hasn’t actually touched this miserable-looking little engine.
Still, the seller again baffles us by mentioning the Corvette was “running the last time it was parked in the early 1980’s.” And the information just keeps getting better and better (it’s right there with the well-known fact that pigs really do fly!).
As our very last example, the listing says “the interior upholstery is in good conditions, just needs a good cleaning.” We really advise against that because we’re afraid the rest of the cockpit might turn into dust...
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