1976 Corvette

BEFORE & AFTER

I purchased this car in September of 1998.  From what I was told, the owner's daughter's boyfriend was driving it and got into some power-oversteer coming out of a parking lot and (typically) didn't know how to control it.  The car spun, hit some hard things and the left rear wheel was bent bad along with the lower strut rod, control arm and driveshaft from that wheel.  The alignment in the LR was so bad (extreme +camber and toe-in) that in order to drive it the 2 miles home, I had to first move the strut rod to the full negative camber position to keep the inside sidewall of the tire from rubbing on the spring.  The LF lower control arm mounting bracket had broken loose from its welds and that wheel had a lot of positive camber.  In addition, the LF fender had a hole in the front corner from the impact.  At any rate, I was excited to own my first corvette at 22. 

In the above pictures you can see the fixed LR suspension pieces and the hole in the LF fender.  I had a lot of fun with this car and installed a complete side exhaust system from a 1969 corvette on it which sounded awesome.  I autocrossed it a couple of times on some 8" wide slicks and even videotaped a run into the mountains.  I used Performance Friction street carbon metallic brake pads and never had a fade problem down the mountain.  It was the brake fluid that was starting to boil which caused the pedal to become mushy and went down a bit, however, the braking power didn't go down.  The engine had been replaced with a new Goodwrench one form the chevy dealer.  It made about 200net hp and 300lb*ft torque and would do 0-60 in the high 6 second range with a 3400lb car, 3 speed (TH350)automatic,3.08:1 rear gears and stock sized 225/70-15 tires which were 27.2" diameter.  I do miss this car, but there is always another one somewhere waiting to be purchased...