57 Air Box Barn find

[Jim S.]

I'm sure most have already seen this but I thought I would post it just in case. I also have the newspaper article from the Dayton Daily news if anyone wants it.

Hope to meet some of you in Orlando.

http://www.middletownjournal.com/m/mplayer/m/48886

[Don S.]

Re: 57 Air Box Barn find

Jim-- thanks for sharing. it was interesting.

[James G.]

Re: 57 Air Box Barn find

This is one of the most significant finds in this old Corvette hobby. Those of us that have followed the rare high performance history of Corvette and the Rochester Fuel Injection systems are very proud to welcome Bill Connell and this milestone car. There is a lot of research going on with htese special cars, so stay tuned for some interesting updates in 2008.

[Richard M.]

Re: 57 Air Box Barn find

A fascinating car and story. It's great to know it was resurrected and saved. Beautiful car. Love the color too.

See you at the regionals....Rich

[Tom P.]

Re: 57 Air Box Barn find

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, I find this comment most interesting, coming from an NCRS person. Particulary since NCRS would not acknowledge nor accept John Neas 56 SR1 after so much time, research, documentation and restoration was faithfully dedicated to returning the car as closely as possible to its original delivered configuration.

"This is one of the most significant finds in this old Corvette hobby. Those of us that have followed the rare high performance history of Corvette and the Rochester Fuel Injection systems are very proud to welcome Bill Connell and this milestone car. There is a lot of research going on with htese special cars, so stay tuned for some interesting updates in 2008."

[James G.]

Re: 57 Air Box Barn find

Not trying to create any "DRAMA" Tom. I feel, as you and a few others do, that much history of the Corvette could be expanded in any model year group when it comes to unknown history.

Some of us more senior people know history of these cars differently that of a new younger member. And that is only because we were at the race tracks in 1959-65 playing with people like Doug Hooper, Dick Guldstrand, Don Yenko and Jim Jeffords. These people 'raced' these special cars, and I am very lucky as I met all of these men and many are good friends today.

Zora Duntov came to many NCRS events over the years, and he, above all, told us all about 'special' Corvettes that were made for racing purposes and went to special people. In order for these vechiles to meet SCCA requirements, they had to be offered to the general public as RPO Options thru your friendly Chevrolet dealer. Zora's peak engineering time was 1960 when he had cars at LeMans. Again at Daytona and Sebring in 1959 thru 63.

If the NCRS Board, Judging Team Leaders and Judging Chairman are asked, I believe they will acknowledge that special cars were made. If they "AS A GROUP" do not acknowledge the facts, then the club membership needs to ask why not?

With over 50 years of Corvettes to worry about today, I understand if no one wants to go that deep in the judging. We are having problems getting judging rules for 1990 and beyond.

All I can say, is that there is a group of people like myself that love the history of 1956-62 high performance Corvettes. And as a group, we are all very active tracing the history and SHARING IT WITH ANYONE THAT CARES. The event at Bloomington Special Collection last June proved that.

You may be interested in a new venture that Jan Hyde and Wayne Elwood and I are working on. A CORVETTE RACE CAR REGISTRY. http://registryofcorvetteracecars.com

We are all long time members of NCRS. We are just taking our knowlegde a step further. I want to share before I die as much as I can. The site has not been formally released as it is an on going research project. But it sure has been fun......especially when we find a new car like the AIR BOX car that started this string.

[John D.]

Re: 57 Air Box Barn find

Hi Tom, I enjoyed the video old friend. Joel and Bill's car was loaded with prototype FI related parts also. The distributor is one of a kind 908 with quite an stamped oval tag. Not a typical date coded tag. Their air box car was one of the more exciting restorations I have been involved with. John D.