$1,800

[Bill H.]

I was rooting thru a box of old pictures. I took this one , pre-NCRS, in 1974.
I was putting on a Corvette show in Shippensburg, Pa. with our club, Mason-Dixon Corvette Club.

A guy shows up with this and told me he paid $1,800 for it. it was pretty ratty at that time.

[James G.]

Re: $1,800

I was offered the same car in 1983 for $40,000 and thought about it hard. I had the money and the desire, but my wife said ''What do you want with that ols show car......you can't drive it anywhere''

[Matt L.]

Re: $1,800

is that the same car that sold at mcdorman auction for around $400,000 ?
very cool.

[Matt L.]

Re: $1,800

is that the same car that sold at mcdorman auction for around $400,000 ?
very cool.

http://www.mecum.com/auctions/lot_detail.cfm?LOT_ID=OH1110-99531

[David G.]

Re: $1,800

True story, A local racer and Corvette enthusiast owned the car and apparently took it to the NCCC
show at Shippensburg university. I will forward this to him. He will get a kick out of it.
Dave Gray
Carlisle, Pa.

[Bill H.]

Re: $1,800

is that the same car that sold at mcdorman auction for around $400,000 ?
very cool.

I'm not sure but, IIRC (and it WAS a long time ago), the car had a non standard dash (flat) and gauges in the flat glove box door (I think).

[Bill H.]

Re: $1,800

True story, A local racer and Corvette enthusiast owned the car and apparently took it to the NCCC
show at Shippensburg university. I will forward this to him. He will get a kick out of it.
Dave Gray
Carlisle, Pa.

Hi Dave, Just to be correct, we didn't put on NCCC shows, they were strictly done by the club, MDCC.
At the time, I was so busy getting cars in the building and judging that I only had a chance to snap the one pic.
I was in the club for many years. Origionaly from Chambersburg.

Glad to see that you knew the owner at the time.

[Wayne W.]

Re: $1,800

True story, A local racer and Corvette enthusiast owned the car and apparently took it to the NCCC
show at Shippensburg university. I will forward this to him. He will get a kick out of it.
Dave Gray
Carlisle, Pa.

Tell John Hi for me. Offered it to me for $12,050 in the early eighties. Another mistake I made.

[David G.]

Re: $1,800

I'm not sure but, IIRC (and it WAS a long time ago), the car had a non standard dash (flat) and gauges in the flat glove box door (I think).

Bill, you are correct. It was flat dash panels on the left and right and both sides had gauges. I believe that there was an altimeter on the right side.
There were many unique features on the car. When I first saw the car in the 70s, It was in John Watts garage in Dillsburg Pa. John and Racing Partner Dave Walter owned the car together I believe. I thought about buying the car at the time, but after looking at all of the work needed to return it to stock condition, I didn't think it was worth the effort. Thank goodness some uninformed buyer like myself did not end up with the car and ruin it. I think that they sold it to Bob Gold and Joe Clark with the help of Ken Heckert. They actually figured out what a styling car was and the rest is history. I have to give Dave and John a lot of credit for not turning it into a race car. They built and raced some very competitive L88 powered corvette race cars from the 60s on.
Dave is still racing, but I believe that his partner John passed away several years ago.
I think this this is accurate, but 66 year old memories are tricky.
Regards, Dave Gray
Carlisle, Pa.

[Kenneth B.]

Re: $1,800

This thread should ansewer the question why the NCRS membership is getting older.
In the 70'S & 80's COrvettes were cheap even at the wages paid then & were cheaper than new cars. Most of the people in the hobby were not people with a lot of money. If you gor lucky once in a while you could find a rare Corvette to buy reasonably. Now they are almost all found & if not people want big money because they all saw BG or other auctions. Young people for the most part can't afford the old cars like we could in the day. Again like Pogo said We have met the enemy & he is us.
KEN

[James G.]

Re: $1,800

Different car. This is the blue 63 HARLEY EARL styling car. BOB GOLD called me and offered me the car at 40. I said no and bought my 64 B/P Race car. The DOMINO PIZZA king (forget his name but he had a lot of nice cars) bought it and then the values skyrocketed.

[Sydney G.]

Re: $1,800

Jim,

Do you know the whereabouts of the other H. Earl '63, Coupe #15,249 ?
I think I remember seeing an ad for it for sale or some other info years ago and it is also listed in the old L.Brooks '63 registry.

#15,249 is just 9 cars after my coupe #15,240 and I was always interested to find out if by chance it would have it's original engine to compare casting date and pad date with my car and about 5 others built close to it.

Do you regret not having bought this car for 40g? I think this is #14,012 originally Red/Red.

Syd

[Bill H.]

Re: $1,800

Bill, you are correct. It was flat dash panels on the left and right and both sides had gauges. I believe that there was an altimeter on the right side.
There were many unique features on the car. When I first saw the car in the 70s, It was in John Watts garage in Dillsburg Pa. John and Racing Partner Dave Walter owned the car together I believe. I thought about buying the car at the time, but after looking at all of the work needed to return it to stock condition, I didn't think it was worth the effort. Thank goodness some uninformed buyer like myself did not end up with the car and ruin it. I think that they sold it to Bob Gold and Joe Clark with the help of Ken Heckert. They actually figured out what a styling car was and the rest is history. I have to give Dave and John a lot of credit for not turning it into a race car. They built and raced some very competitive L88 powered corvette race cars from the 60s on.
Dave is still racing, but I believe that his partner John passed away several years ago.
I think this this is accurate, but 66 year old memories are tricky.
Regards, Dave Gray
Carlisle, Pa.

Thanks for the update, Dave.
I haven't heard Ken Heckert's name in a long time. I rode to some of the early NCRS meetings with Ken and Chip.
In the same box of pics that I found the car in, there's a couple shots of our Mason-Dixon cars lining Chips driveway....good times.

[Thomas H.]

Re: $1,800

I don't know anything about the car, but my daughter will be a junior at Shippensburg next fall.......................

(Sorry, proud father and you don't see Shippensburg mentioned too often here.)

Tom

[Patrick H.]

Re: $1,800

This thread should ansewer the question why the NCRS membership is getting older.
In the 70'S & 80's COrvettes were cheap even at the wages paid then & were cheaper than new cars. Most of the people in the hobby were not people with a lot of money. If you gor lucky once in a while you could find a rare Corvette to buy reasonably. Now they are almost all found & if not people want big money because they all saw BG or other auctions. Young people for the most part can't afford the old cars like we could in the day. Again like Pogo said We have met the enemy & he is us.
KEN

Define "old cars."

Currently, Corvettes in the 15 to 35 year old age are very affordable. They're probably older than what you're calling "old cars...in the day."
As the solid axles and midyears did then they have little "collector" value right now and for various reasons there are very few of them that are rare.
However, there still isn't a lot of interest in them and I think its for a variety of reasons.
The price is not the only issue - go check out what it costs to buy a nice used Honda, Acura or VW and you see the "younger generation" driving these every day.

Patrick