45 Years & 914 Miles Later
Jim Kevan paid $6,000 for his Bryar Blue 1972 Chevrolet Corvette convertible with white top, 454 block engine, and four-speed transmission.
He was 21, and the muscle-car scene was big more than four decades ago. "I would race my 1967 [Pontiac] GTO across the McKees Rocks Bridge, and the only thing that would beat me was a Corvette," he said. "So the Corvette became a dream car of mine." When he got the car home from Grabiak Chevrolet in New Alexandria, though, he was shocked to learn he couldn't afford to drive it.
"I couldn't afford to pay the insurance. It made me absolutely sick that I couldn't drive the car," said Mr. Kevan, 67, who would not divulge where he lives in the Pittsburgh area.
It would have cost $1,200 a year to insure the Corvette. Not wanting to risk driving the car uninsured, he parked it, figuring he would start driving it when he was 25 and the insurance would drop to $400 a year.
"Four years later, I had a wife, a son, a daughter and a new house. At the point, even $400 a year was too much to pay," he said. "But I didn't think I'd be putting the car away for 45 years."But he did.A friend pointed out after it had sat idle for a decade that the low mileage on his car would make it more valuable."I got to thinking that if I kept my Corvette under 1,000 miles I'll have a one-of-a-kind someday," he said.
After several trips back and forth to the dealership, the car sat in storage, its existence known only to friends of Mr. Kevan, until recently. It has just 914 miles on it.
In July, "Vette" magazine published a story in their Rare Finds section on a 1972 Corvette with 3,749 miles discovered in Canada. Mr. Kevan called the writer, Jerry Heasley, and told him about his low-mileage convertible. They followed with a feature story that has generated a lot of interest.
Source: Jessica Federkeil - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette