Re: 1957 CORVETTE SEBRING RACER MULE CAR
 

Thanks for the visit Darryl,
I did not realize we burned up so many phone minutes. 140 to be exact. Your ownership history will be well received by the current owner. I have sent you some photo history of the engineering Nassau and Sebring race cars. I will keep you up to date on the history as we all find more. Thanks for coming forward. We are only caretakers of these old cars, and their accurate history of ownership keeps the hobby honest.
I have added a picture of Jim Jeffords at Milwaukee in April 1957 AFTER Sebring and Marlboro races. He bought this car and drove it home to Wisconsin. He painted the car maroon (Candy Aplle Red ?) and continued racing it thru 1957. He sold it thru Dick Doane Chevrolet around Christmas 57, as in January 28, 1958 he bought the Harley Earl blue 56 SR-2 race car. Who knows, but your car may have started life as this car. My guess is that is the history, but time will tell as more of the puzzel is uncovered.

Re: 1957 CORVETTE SEBRING RACER MULE CAR
 

HD NET is getting ready to have a special on about an Airbox car... a black one. It was delivered and driven directly to MD for a race. Is this the car?

Re: 1957 CORVETTE SEBRING RACER MULE CAR
 

No.

The car that my partner and I owned 30+ years ago was build very early in the 1957 model year whereas the majority of the air box cars were built around May of 1957.

Back in 1977 when we took this car to an NCRS meet where the late Mike Hunt (pretty much the authority on these cars at the time) sermized that the car had to be a mule car (test car for the later to come Sebring cars) It is now suspected that this car along with a couple of other cars raced at Nassua earlier in the year.

I sold out my interest in the car to my partner about 1 year after we purchased it. He sold it to the previous owner of the current owner. When it was sold to the current owner it was represented to have been a Sebring racer of a certain number/driver. That is probably unlikely but that does NOT mean that the car was not also raced at Sebring as a "P" car. I personally think the the previous owner to the current owner made a mistake in representing the car as he did and that the car as the true Nassau racer I believe it was/is is more valuable than any of the other regular Sebring racers.

Re: 1957 CORVETTE SEBRING RACER MULE CAR
 

The one on HD NET is supposed to be a PILOT car.

Re: 1957 CORVETTE SEBRING RACER MULE CAR
 

this is the car...
http://www.corvetteblogger.com/index.cfm...to-Former-Glory

Re: 1957 CORVETTE SEBRING RACER MULE CAR
 

I believe THAT car is V.I.N. 4007 which is much later than my old car which is V.I.N. 834. 4007 MAY have been the earliest air box car of the cars that were available for public sale or order in May.

I believe that there is an eariler V.I.N. than my old car that has surfaced according to member VettefinderJim that he says would likely have been built the same day or 1 day either side of mine which would have also been a "P" car and raced at Nassua prior to Sebring. Those cars were not available for sale to the public and were built for race testing, hence "mule cars" These questions are better answered by Jim. I will let him know about this question and he can correct anything that I have mistaken here if so. He knows far more about what has been uncovered since I owned this car 30+ years ago and knows all of the people in the article you linked.

Re: 1957 CORVETTE SEBRING RACER MULE CAR
 

cool....

Re: 1957 CORVETTE SEBRING RACER MULE CAR
 

As an related aside:
I used to work at Rochester Products; my manager in Product Development was the guy who developed and patented GM's fuel injection system. I don't recall his name right now, but it wasn't John Dolsa. I also remember pulling up the patent and seeing my manager's name on it.
He was a inventive-type genius with a good memory. That was 20 years ago, I'm not sure he's still around.

They also had an original mechanical fuel injection system in the lobby, next to all the new-fangled electrical ones. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...lins/smile.gif

Re: 1957 CORVETTE SEBRING RACER MULE CAR
 

[ QUOTE ]
A friend and I owned this car back in the mid-late 70s.

It was the first factory 57 Fuel Injected car built and had the famous cold air box, big brakes and suspension. It was the rest car for the Sebring racers and was supposed to have been destroyed, however as was the custom back then it "slipped out the back door" later to show up at Elkart Lake racing.

My friend bought me out on this car and collected all of the very rare hard to find parts for the car and later sold it to Tim Partridge who owned Lectra Limited repo wiring harness company. The last I knew of the car was painted up to appear as a Sebring racer and offered for sale.

Does anyone know where this car is today and who owns it?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not sure if it is the same car, but Tim Partridge still owns a factory fuel injected 57 with extensive race history that he showed at the Chevy Vettefest show several years back after I met him and invited him to be a special feature, right up front.

Tim is not the owner of Lectric Ltd, as Ken Hannah is, and Ken is also the former co-owner of the Chevy Vettefest show. Ken has owned many 57's Corvettes over the years and he now has a really neat "Resto-Mod" 57 Corvette that sits on a modern chassis, that is white with blue coves and Halibrand style wheels.

Cool car, any way you look at it!

Bashton
MCACN managing Member

Re: 1957 CORVETTE SEBRING RACER MULE CAR
 

[ QUOTE ]
As an related aside:
I used to work at Rochester Products; my manager in Product Development was the guy who developed and patented GM's fuel injection system. I don't recall his name right now, but it wasn't John Dolsa. I also remember pulling up the patent and seeing my manager's name on it.
He was a inventive-type genius with a good memory. That was 20 years ago, I'm not sure he's still around.

They also had an original mechanical fuel injection system in the lobby, next to all the new-fangled electrical ones. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...lins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Would that be FRANK SCHIBKA ? Frank passed a few years ago. He was a welth of information.

This 834 car has great past history. And this history search is on going for all these cars as all we do when we buy one of these cars is care for it until it is time to pass it to the next generation of collectors. I think it is really neat that Darryl has come forward to tell us about the past.