1966 Corvette

[11Budlite]

So, the other night I hear the deep rumble of a V-8 pull in the driveway. It's dark but it certainly looks like it could be a 60's Corvette. So I go outside and Nancy's in the passenger seat (all this time I thought she was upstairs doing laundry!) with my neighbor Karen at the wheel. Her husband already has a couple Corvettes from the 60's, but they just recently picked this one up. It was a completely stock '66 Red convertible with a 427 4-barrel, 4-speed, side pipes, and modern radials. Well, she tells me to go take it for a spin so who am I to argue!

 

The first thing I notice is this thing doesn't have power steering and even with the huge wheel, it's a pain to maneuver in the driveway. But it sounds good, shifts with a much shorter throw than I expected, and has a ton of torque....I mean it doesn't seem to matter what gear you're in or what rpm you're at, it just pulls and pulls and pulls! I didn't dump the clutch or anything, but I did run it up through the gears pretty good and it seemed like it had pretty good traction, too. But OMG the steering on this thing was horrendous. The suspension felt tight and it seemed to ride and handle decent for the era, but with the steering it was just all over the place! Maybe a simple adjustment to the steering box and a good alignment would fix some of it, but I don't think I could ever get used to the imprecision of this beast! On a winding road my Birkin is so much easier to drive and handles so much better that I think I'd leave it in the dust.

 

It really is a beautiful car with what I think is the best looking, most well equipped interior of any 1960's American car. It was an entertaining drive and would probably be a blast at a dragstrip or cruising around, but I don't think you'll be seeing one of those in my garage any time soon...and I'm sure it has nothing to do with the cost of admission!!

[Mondo]

I went thru 3 powersteering boxes for my 67 truck. First leaked and way too much slack before anythng happened, 2nd was a quick-ratio box which was great around town but over 65mph was too twitchy, finally bought a 76 box from redhead (same bolt pattern/design etc..) and it was a variable ratio; the more you turn the quicker the ratio.

 

3rd time was the charm.

[Kitcat]

Had a similar recent experience with a '60's Camaro. 5 turns lock to lock, skinny steering wheel, not power assisted, vague and heavy. Combined with brakes that were ineffective and unpredictable and that pulled the car violently side to side it was a walk down memory lane (I got my license in 1962 driving a Chevy). The bad old days:)! Hardly any car cooler looking and more macho than the 'Vette you were driving tho.

[scannon]

I bought a used '63 Corvette split window coupe in '68. It had a 327engine with 365 HP (engine was from a '65 Corvette), 4 speed and 4:11 posi diff. I loved that car, it handled better than anything else I had driven at the time.

 

Fast forward to about 1985. I was selling a gray market '80 911SC and a doctor called and asked if I would be interested in taking a '63 split window Corvette with 53k miles in trade. Memories of the good times flooded my brain so we arranged to drive each others cars.

 

What a let down, I climbed into the Vette and although it was in great shape, the handling, brakes (drums all around in '63) and acceleration were abysmal compared to the 911. It had the usual body creaks and groans and was very noisy. I never looked back.

 

I drove a nicely restored '65 Corvette about 5 years ago and got pretty much the same impression.

[slngsht]

My friend has a convertible one... white on blue, white interior. yes, there is no comparison to sevens or modern cars, but they definitely have their own charm.