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CORVETTE TODAY #196 - Dr. Mark Davis & 6 Of His Favorite Corvettes
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Jul 11, 2025
Every Corvette owner has a story! And when you have owned over 150 Corvettes, you've got a lot of stories! Dr. Mark Davis was on CORVETTE TODAY #188, which was the Mecum Kissimmee preview show. Mark talked about the 3 prisine Corvettes up for auction at Mecum Kissimmee. Your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett, invited Mark back to the show to talk about a few of his favorite Corvettes he has owned of the 150+ he's had. Mark's theme for this show is Red-Red Corvettes. He tells you about his favorite Corvette ever and some of the more memorable ones he's had the pleasure to have owned. Every Corvette owner has a story-Dr. Mark Davis' stories are significant and very memorable!
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0:00
[Music] Welcome to Corvette Today, the show that
0:06
talks about everything Corvette with your host Steve Garrett, lifetime member of the National Corvette Museum,
0:13
president of the Corvette Club of Kansas City, Missouri, and radio disc jockey at the number one radio station in Kansas
0:20
City for over 45 years. Here's Steve Garrett.
0:28
Thanks for listening and watching Corvette Today, the show that talks about everything Corvette and the only
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current podcast dedicated to Corvette. I'm your host, Steve Garrett. I appreciate you tuning in. Corvette Today
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is brought to you by Wheelcraft. Want to dress up your Corvette with bright chrome or black chrome wheels? Visit
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wheelcraft.com and learn about their advanced PVD chrome finishing. They can refinish your wheels or offer a wheel
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from around the world. As you know, a favorite saying of mine is every Corvette owner has a story. As a matter
3:20
of fact, we've done two shows with that theme in mind. Well, continuing on that theme is a man that I talked to in the
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middle of November in episode number 188. He's Dr. Mark Davis, and Mark has
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owned over 150 Corvettes in his lifetime. I can imagine the Corvette stories he has. Well, Mark is back on
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the show and he's going to talk about some of the most significant Corvettes he's owned. First, Mark, welcome back to
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the show. And I guess I would be remiss if I didn't ask you right off the bat. How many Corvettes are in your garage
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right now? Well, Steve, first of all, thanks again for having me back on your show. I
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sincerely appreciate it. And you know, I want to say too that God blessed us with an amazing sports car in Corvette,
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America's true sports car. And I have to say he's blessed us with you, too, because you help share the passion that
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we enjoy so much with all us Corvette guys. So, thank you. Thank you, buddy. Now, to answer your
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question, and this could be considered a top secret question, but
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currently in my Corvette barn, I call it, I have eight Corvettes here, and
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then I have six at another top secret location. I like that. That's really cool. All
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right, so tell me about the oldest one and then the most recent acquisition. Okay. The oldest one I have right now is
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one of the three cars that I'm taking to Mikum CM that we've talked about on your previous show. That's the 1962 red
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lowest mile first generation Corvette in existence. So that's the oldest one I have right now. But my newest edition is
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a brand new I took delivery in June at the National Corvette Museum of a 2023
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Z06 3LZ with Z07 race package. It's a
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white coupe with black interior red stitching. Very nice. That's my newest edition. That's awesome. Well, I'm sure the most
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memorable Corvette of yours would be maybe your first Corvette. Let's talk about that car first. Where did you get
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it? When did you get it? And do you remember why you picked that specific Corvette as your first one?
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Well, I can. Our topic today is significant Corvettes that I've owned. And I must say this is the most
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significant Corvette that I've ever owned in the fact that we wouldn't be talking today if I hadn't bought this
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Corvette. That's right. It started everything. It all began when I was 5 years old. I spotted my first
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Corvette and went on from there to start working at the age of 10. My goal was to
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be able to buy a Corvette by the time I got my driver's license at 16. I didn't quite make it, but by the time I was 17,
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I bought my first Corvette. That first one was a red convertible, black top,
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two-top convertible, 350 350, 1969. I had spotted it in town. It was, of
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course, at the time used. This was in 1972. As I said, I was 17. The couple in
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town had it and they had it for sale. So that's what I purchased. That was a very, very significant car because I
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went on to learn everything about it. I learned how to drive it. I went to a little driving school and worked on it
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myself and learned everything about the car inside and out. And it proved to me
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that a Corvette was everything that I had dreamed of as a young kid. And I have to say it was probably the most
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significant Corvette in my life because it cemented that passion for Corvette which I still have today as strong as it
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was back then. Absolutely. And it was a manual transmission too, wasn't it? Yes, it was a 350 350 with manual
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transmission, four-speed, and I believe it had a 370 to1 gear ratio. And I'll tell you, even to this day, after all
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the Corvettes I've owned, that was just one of the best combinations of drivetrain to learn on and to really
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perform well. And matter of fact, I have two of those today. I have a 69 coupe and a 69 convertible like that same
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first Corvette that both of these have the 350 350 with manual transmission and 370 gear. And it's just a great
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allaround good driver. It really proved to me that Corvette was all it was said
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to be and then some and that I would have to have one the rest of my life in my life. That made you a Corvette guy for life.
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For sure, didn't it? For life. And now here we are 51 years later and I've been blessed to have
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owned, as you said in your intro, 150 or so Corvettes, and I love them as much as
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I did 51 years ago. That's amazing. Now, let's talk about the Magnamera Corvette that you've
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owned. It's a well-known Corvette and this car is kind of what gave you the reputation of being the lowmile original
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Corvette guy, didn't it? It did. You know, I was known in certain circles as the low mile original guy,
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but this really put me on the radar of a lot of people, I guess you might say. For the listeners out there, you can
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Google the Magnamera Corvette or do a YouTube search for Dr. Mark Davis 2,996
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milei Corvette. And you'll see all kinds of stories and videos about this car. It
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was just an incredible piece of automotive history that was significant in the fact that it's still to this day
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probably the most pristine all original like brand new lowest mile 1967 Corvette
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427 Stingray in existence. Wow. Now, there is one supposedly that
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has a few lower miles on it, but it has been disassembled and reassembled for
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the fact that it was bought new to race back in the day and then the guy didn't race it and then years later it was
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reassembled. So, it has lower miles, but it's not a true original car like that McNamera Corvette truly is.
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Now, why was it called the McNamera Corvette? I name all my Corvettes and I named this one Big Mac appropriately
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after the original owner whose name was Donnie Magnamer. Okay. Donnie was a young man in 1966 that
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lived from Colorado Springs and he went to Vietnam but like so many guys did
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back in the day. He survived a tour of Vietnam for our country. When he returned home, as I said, lived in
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Colorado Springs. So him and his buddy celebrated their return from the war by going to Las Vegas for a weekend. He
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would also often go on to tell before he passed it that was the only time he ever went to Las Vegas in his life.
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But he happened to win, believe it or not, Steve, he won $5,000
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playing a slot machine. Wow. That was a ton of money in the fall of 1966. For sure.
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So he returned home. As I said, he came back from Vietnam. He lived with his parents and his father was a used car
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salesman there locally in Colorado Springs. So he took the $5,000 to his
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dad and said, "Dad, please help me buy a new Corvette and I want a 427 and I want
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it to be white with red interior." He said, "They're coming out with a third generation Corvette and I don't like it,
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so let's hurry and order this car." So his dad says, "Well, I don't think we can get a new 67427
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with $5,000, but I'll try." So he did. And long story short, he found a dealer
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in Lamar, Colorado that sold him a brand new white 67 coupe, 427, red interior.
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Donnie was a very patriotic guy, and he wanted this white with red Corvette. And
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as soon as it came home, he took the black walls off and put a tire that was
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popular in the day that had two blue pinstripes. You may have remembered it, Steve. Yeah.
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So, at that point when he put those tires on, he had a red, white, and blue Corvette. It was somewhat special. Going
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back to the story of the car. So, Donnie drove it for about 10 or 11 months, licensed it, insured it, drove it
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sparingly. But after that, the license came due, the taxes came due, the insurance came due, and he just told
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everybody that he'd sold the car. Huh. He tucked it away in his onecar climate
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controlled garage and kept it there for the next 40 plus years. Wow. And would sneak it out at night, put a
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few miles on it to keep it exercised, then put it back in the garage. So when the odometer got to 2,996
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mi, he didn't want it to cross over the 3,000 barrier, so he never drove it again. And he literally laid red carpet
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around it. Amazing. Going back to the significance of that
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car, it's just a true benchmark of how exactly a 67 Corvette rolled off the
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assembly line in 1967. That's really cool. Now, how did you acquire the car, Mark? I acquired it.
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Actually had a broker call on me that was trying to buy one of my Corvettes and he happened to have just heard about
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it a day or two before he called me inquiring about another one of my Corvettes. And he proceeded to tell me
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about it. He said, "You're the first person I've told." He then asked me, "Are you interested?" He said, "All I
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know is it's white, red interior, and it's supposed to have only 2,900 miles on it." And I said, "Yes, I'm interested
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under one condition." And he said, "Okay, what's that?" And I said, "I'm the first one there."
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Nice. And he said, "Okay, we've got a deal." I said, "Good. I'm shaking your hand over the phone." So, I was the first one
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there. Donnie had passed away, so I purchased it from his estate. Do you still own that car?
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No, it was sold at Mikum, Houston in 2014. I sold the car there and I've kept
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track of it since. A friend of mine actually bought it who lives near Chicago and he still owns the car today
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and it's exactly the way it was how Donnie left it. That's fantastic. Well, Mark, let's take
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our first break. When we come back, we've got two more Corvettes to talk about. One is named Ziggy and the other
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I'm your host, Steve Garrett. With me is Dr. Mark Davis. We're talking about some of the most significant cars Mark has
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owned out of the 150 plus Corvettes he's owned in his lifetime. In segment number
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two, we're going to talk about Siggy and also a red 66. Mark, let's start with
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Siggy first. Let's talk about it. It's a 1958 and it had a unique color combination on it, didn't it?
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Yes. Hence the name Siggy. This car was signant red with red interior, Steve.
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Mhm. And the reason that it was so significant is that it is believed to be
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the only all original signant red Corvette with original paint in existence.
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Wow. Yeah. 1958 was a unique year for paint colors on a lot of cars, especially
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Corvette. I think there was three or four colors that Corvettes were painted in 1958 that were only used in 1958.
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And one of those colors was signant red. And if your listeners aren't familiar with signant red, it's a real creamy,
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pale 50s style red that in the Corvette world, they call it the tomato soup car
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because it literally looks creamy like a bowl of Campbell's tomato soup. Wow. It's a very hard color, by the way, to
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duplicate if you are restoring a Corvette. And once again, going back to the significance of this car, which I
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named Siggy, is the fact that it was believed to be the only signant red Corvette in existence that had 100% of
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its all original paint. Wow. And it was just a little cream puff. It was a 283 230 3-speed signant red with
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red interior. It had only 37,000 miles. A friend of mine who was a National
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Corvette Restore Society regional director at one time and has been a judge for multiple years purchased it
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from the estate of the original owner and then I purchased it from him. I went
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on to take it to have it judged. It won a Bloomington Survivor Award. There's only been three 1958s ever to win the
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coveted five-star bow tie preservation award by the NCS. Wow. This is one of those three. And not
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only is it one of the three, it's the only five-star bow tie award winner in signant red, of course, man.
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So, it was just a very significant car. And for people that own 58s or were
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restoring a 58 to actually see, hey, that's how that color really truly looks
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and looked in 1958. It was a fun, significant car. And I must say, too,
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the ladies seem to love that car. Nice. And they only made like 1,400 of Signant Red, didn't they?
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Yeah, I think actually it was 1399, I think they made. Okay. There was some other colors that were
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unique to 58, like Panama Yellow, and then there was a tan as well. So, it's
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one of those rare Corvettes that you hardly will ever see one, but once you do, you know, hey, that's a tomato soup
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car. That's funny. Do you still own that car, Mark? No, I sold it in 2021 at Mikum
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Indianapolis along with some other red red survivors. Very nice. And speaking of Red Survivors, we've got another C2 here
19:26
that we're going to talk about. What's the spec on this Corvette? Oh, well, going back to nicknames, as
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you tend to gather, I name most of my cars, and my wife has fun helping me. But this next car we're going to talk
19:38
about was very significant. so significant that I named it Zora after the Corvette founding father Zora Arcus
19:45
Dunto. The reason it was significant, this car is believed to be, if not the
19:51
lowest mile, one of the lowest mile 1966 Stingrays in existence. Of course, it
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was the first year for 427 in Corvette, and this car was a 1966 Corvette
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convertible. 427, 390 horsepower, four-speed red. And then this is the
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kicker. It had red leather interior. Oo. Yes. And you know, red with red leather
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was rare back in the 60s. Most guys in the 60s wouldn't order leather interior,
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let alone red leather interior. One of the significant things of this car is it was ordered new by a female. That's why
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it ended up with red leather interior. Oh, very nice. And it's won a lot of awards as well, hasn't it? It's probably
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the most awarded 66 Corvette in the world. It also had won an NCR's
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five-star bow tie preservation award. I took it on to win Bloomington survivor
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gold and benchmark. It also won bestin class at the second ever Greenbryer
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Concords de Elegance in preservation class and was on the cover of their magazine and it was also used by them in
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their promotional marketing for their concourse the elegance. So, it was a very, very special car and I must say it
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was a beautiful car. The red with red leather convertible with black top. It was stunning. Had to be a showstopper, that's for
21:14
sure. Yes, absolutely. And a little story about the car. I told you that it was ordered new by a female, hence the red
21:21
leather interior. I had a couple letters that I'd received from the original owner, and I must say, she was a little
21:27
spitfire. She was from the Pittsburgh area and a wealthy lady that had a lakehouse. in 1965 she had a 65 Mustang
21:36
that she would keep at her lake house and drive around and play with. She heard in the fall of 1966 that Corvette
21:43
had come out with a 427 Corvette that would outrun her Mustang. So, she had to have one. So, she ordered this car red
21:50
with red leather interior and replaced her Ford Mustang. And then she would go on to say in her letters and fast it
21:57
was. She said, "I got two speeding tickets in the car and almost lost my driver's license. That's awesome. Now,
22:03
where is that car today, Mark? That car, I sold it in the red red survivor collection at Mikum
22:09
Indianapolis. It was bought by a private Corvette collector. To be honest, he was anonymous and I don't know where that
22:15
car is today. Gotcha. Gotcha. Well, buddy, let's take our final break. When we come back, we have two more Corvettes coming up next
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I'm your host, Steve Garrett. Every Corvette owner has a story. I'm with Dr. Mark Davis who has owned over 150
25:30
Corvettes in his lifetime. In this final segment, we've got more red red Corvettes. Mark, let's get the first one
25:37
up here and talk about the backstory on this red C2. Absolutely. Glad to, Steve. And
25:43
continuing, as you said, with the red red theme, I tend to like red cars, but I do like other colors as well. But this
25:50
next car we're going to talk about was another significant Corvette as per the theme of this show. And the significance
25:56
of this car is it happens to be the only red red 1965 396 known to have ever won
26:04
a Bloomington Survivor Gold and Benchmark awards. Wow. As I said, it was a 1965
26:12
red convertible 396. Both tops with a four-speed. What made it special? It's
26:19
the only one in red red a 396 to ever win those awards. So, it was very
26:24
special. I may say this too, as a young kid, I always thought that 1965 was a
26:30
special year and the fact that, you know, that was the first year of a big block and the only year that a 396 was
26:37
put into a Corvette. I was going to say the 65s had a lot of firsts in them, didn't they?
26:43
65 had a lot of firsts, not only for Corvettes, but for the automotive world in general. As I said, it was the first
26:49
year for a big block engine ever put in a Corvette, which debuted as a 396 with
26:54
a 425 horsepower rating. It was also the first year for such items as disc
27:01
brakes, teakwood steering wheel, power antenna, gold line tires, I believe,
27:06
comfort and convenience group. As I said, there was a lot of first in Corvette for that year. And speaking of
27:13
that 396, when they put the 396 in the Corvette, they had to make some extra
27:18
room for it. So they had that new bulging hood on a 65 396. That was just
27:25
kind of cool. As a kid, if you saw one, you'd think, "Wow, that's not a normal Corvette. It's got something bulging out
27:32
from under that hood. It's got to be something special." Yeah. You know, you just can't beat a good midyear C2 Corvette, Mark.
27:39
You can't. I mean, there's nothing like them. And if you've driven them, they're very special to drive.
27:44
Yeah. And it was just cool the fact that 65 was the only year for a 396. And I think
27:50
they only built something like 2,150 some of them. Wow. And they were just very cool. They had a
27:56
unique sound, unique feel. And believe it or not, I've had so many of the 65s. I think I've had four or five 65s. And
28:04
they even have a unique interior smell when you get to know them. So it's kind of cool. That's really cool. Now, you touched on
28:11
some of the awards that this car has won. Let's talk about the awards it's won and some of the national accolades as well.
28:17
Yes. As I said, it's the only red red 396 1965 Corvette to have ever won
28:22
Bloomington Survivor Golden Benchmark. And in 2009, it was displayed at the
28:28
Bloomington Gold Special Collection, which was very cool. In addition to that, Sports Car Market magazine founder
28:36
and publisher and TV personality Keith Martin, I'm sure you know Keith.
28:41
Oh, yeah. He declared in one of his magazines back when it was in the special collection
28:46
that it was probably the finest example of an original 1965 396 425 convertible
28:54
in existence. Obviously, this was a very special, historically important Corvette. Yeah,
29:01
absolutely. All right, so let's go from a red C2 to a red C3. You've got another
29:06
big significant C3 Corvette for us. Another big red significant Corvette. This was a 1968
29:13
also red red 427435 convertible that I appropriately named
29:19
Red Baron. And again, speaking of low miles and lowm original, this car was all original. Of course, it was a
29:26
two-top convertible. It had the of course the 427435
29:32
and is believed to be the best lowmile all original and most awardwinning 1968
29:39
427435 in existence in red red. Wow. So very special car. It had been used
29:46
and continues to be used at multiple judging training seminars to train
29:51
judges on how 68s were built. They were a unique bird in the fact that it was
29:57
the first year for C3. So, there were quite a few things a little different on the 68 that changed in 69 and later
30:04
years. The judges are always really interested in seeing one that's all
30:09
original and still in pristine condition so that they can study and learn from that car.
30:15
Yeah. This had a rare build spec on it too, didn't it? It did in the fact that it was red red
30:21
two top convertible 427435. So, they didn't make very many that way.
30:26
I mean, I'd be willing to say there was maybe only a handful red red 427435
30:31
convertibles left. Yeah, absolutely. And this one happened to have only 27,000 very well-maintained, documented
30:39
original miles and was simply in just immaculate, pristine, all original condition. The convertible top has been
30:46
pictured and studied for the judges manual because it was so pristine and so
30:52
like new that it's been used as an example. That's really really cool. Where is that
30:57
car now, Mark? That car was sold also at a Mikum auction in 2021. It went to a gentleman
31:04
in Florida who has several Corvettes. And he's continuing to keep it preserved and calls me from time to time to check
31:11
in and let me know how it's doing and also ask me preservation questions on what he should do and shouldn't do. And
31:17
I want to also add that that car, talking about the significance, Steve, I think there's only been 11 1968
31:25
Corvettes to have ever won an NCS five-star bow tie preservation award.
31:30
And this is the only one in red red to have ever won that award and only one of 11 to have ever won the award in
31:37
general. So that's very special. And I also might add that it also has won a
31:42
preservation class award at the Greenbryer Concords the elegance along with Bloomington survivor gold and
31:49
benchmark awards. It was also displayed in Bloomington gold special collection
31:55
of shark corvettes in 2019. Once again, just a very special and significant
32:01
piece of Corvette history that's just fun to look at. Very cool, buddy. This has been so much
32:07
fun listening to hear you talk about all these Corvettes that you've owned. This has just been absolutely fantastic.
32:13
Thank you so much for taking the time to come back on Corvette today. Steve, thank you again. You and Corvette
32:19
today, I really appreciate all that you do for our passion. And I meant what I said uh in the beginning. and God has
32:25
blessed this with you to share this passion and it's greatly appreciated and I enjoyed it and please call up on me
32:31
anytime. Thanks again for listening and watching Corvette Today. And be sure to tell your family, friends, and other Corvette
32:37
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