Bloomington Special Collection

[Joseph Trybulec (930)]

The terrible news of Vic's Sebring car being heavily scratched in two places on set up day at the Special Collection was a downer.

I had breakfast that morning with Doug Prince who recently did a 6 month detailing of the car in preparation for Bloomington. Later that morning we were to unload our cars at the hall.

This year was my first participation in the Special Collection event..with the debut of the unrestored 1957 Nassau/Daytona team car.

Upon arriving at the drop off location with trailer and car..my son and I were greeted by Bill Locke and his crew and received all the help we needed to carefully unload and move the car into position.

A month ago when Bill and I discussed putting the car on display..I was hesitant because I was nervous about what the public reaction might be of having this important but repainted unrestored 48 year old car on display along with 24 finely restored super cars..including Grand Sport #1, a 67 L88, the recently completed Mclean SR2, Sebring race cars like Vic's and Marty Fowler, EX122 etc..

However I can tell you the reception to the debut appearance of this car in its unrestored conditon was overwhelmingly positive. I am now totally convinced that the Corvette community is hungry to see more original unrestored cars.

Yes..most if not all of us like, love or appreciate the results of a detailed restoration..but there is something about looking at an unrestored car that helps complete the picture.

During the event..I had several visitors that requested that I go out to the Corvette parking area to see their unrestored cars..one of which was an original 57 fuelie.

Bill Locke and his crew do a first class job and they too were saddened by the damaging of Vic's car.

If I get the chance to participate again in the Special Collection..I would not hesitate.

Thank you..to everyone..who showed me the their kindness and interest and I hope I was able to answer your questions.

A very special thanks to...Bill, Tyler, Doug, David, Wayne, Dana, Dave and all the Bloomington volunteers..thanks for your kindness to me and my son.

We arrived home at 5:30 am this morning and the 57 Nassau/Daytona car...is safe and sound.

Best Wishes

Joe Trybulec & Joey

[G A Bramlett (135)]

Restorer article?

Joe, it would be nice to see a lengthy article about your car with many photos in the Restorer.

Perhaps the new Restorer editor will SEEK OUT and personally PHOTOGRAPH more unrestored cars in the future. I don't think it's good enough to wait for the owners of original Corvettes to submit articles for publication. In most cases, that won't happen until after the cars are restored. To me that means ruined. Not everyone in the NCRS has a "clean 'n shiny" fetish.

Go ahead, everybody just climb up my resonator about this. It'll make my day.

[Michael Hanson (4067)]

Re: Restorer article?

Jerry,

I agree completely. I lost interest in restored Corvettes 25 years ago. The personality and character of an unrestored car is what is interesting to me. Once restored, they all look the same. All the history and valuable information is lost to the glass bead machine. I know we're by far the minority tho.

Michael

[Joseph Trybulec (930)]

Re: Restorer article?

Jerry

I was asked countless times at the Special Collection..what are you going to do with the car? Are you going to restore it?

Here are a couple of anecdotes!

Until about a month ago..I owned an unrestored Survivor Black/Red '57 245HP Corvette ( the very 1st Bloomington Survivor 57 ) . I resisted restoring that car for 20 years..prior to selling it.

I have an unrestored 15,000 mile 54 on the original 54 title that I have owned for 5 years without any change to it.

So..will I restore the Nassau/Daytona car? I don't know..but I do know..there is a place for certain cars to be left alone.

Mr. Hanna from Lectric Limited..studied the Nassau/Daytona car in detail and was shocked to see the original orange temp wire.

Before the Special Collection was open to the public...there was a preview showing..so Tony Delorenzo could see his former 69 race car. During this preview..his comment to me was..do not restore the car.

Regarding the Restorer. I will do a comprehensive picture story for a future article. Maybe someone would like to join me in doing the article..so it is not seen just as the owners view.

[Rob Dame]

Re: Restorer article?

You guys are not alone when it comes to appreciating an unrestored car.
Whenever there is one at an event it always seems to draw the largest crowd.

Having a 56 that was restored about 20 years ago now I follow most of the C1 threads and pay close attention to any 56 & 57 threads. I'm fortunate that it is a numbers car but a fully correct NCRS restoration it is not. I call it "The Heap". It's the wrong color red but it darn sure runs and drives well.

Joe I find the threads about your car especially intriguing and would look forward to a Restorer article in detail. There must have been massive amounts of internal GM paperwork associated with building that car. Assuming you have the docs I would appreciate it if you would include some of them in your article to help me grasp a better understanding just how many strings had to be pulled and how many departments were involved in building a factory race car in that day and age. Thanks, Rob

[Joseph Trybulec (930)]

Re: Restorer article?

Rob

I am proud to be the current owner/custodian of this amazing car...and I believe the fact that it has surfaced intact after missing for 47 years..it has created a sea wave of renewed interest in all things old.

As I was loading the car on the trailer for the trip to Bloomington..I noticed special tie rod ends that were cut and welded onto the bottom of each A arm. After a number of people looked at these while on display at the Special Collection..we think they were added either for an additional sway bar or another set of shocks.

We know that the car was shipped to Smokey Yunick and additional performance equipment was added as it was developed.

While I was at the show..I met someone who had the original 1957 Chevrolet press kit sent to dealers. The press kit included a slide film from Jam Handy. The film shows my car when it was the #9 car and it also shows the black widow 57 Chevies and goes on to exalt the racing exploits of Chevrolet beating the Fords.

I have to say..it is fun to have a car featured in that original 57 press kit and also featured in Corvette News Vol.1 #1

Lots more to come.

Joe