A Barn Find Like No Other

Ad in a small town newspaper leads to an amazing custom 'Vette find.

The world is full of undiscovered treasures. Some people use metal detectors to dig up lost wonders, and others hunt garage sales for that pot of gold at the end of the proverbial rainbow. Gearheads, however, search the classifieds for their automotive lost treasure. This is that story, but this time around it wasn't the high-tech interwebs, it was a printed ad in a small-time newspaper. Yep, those still exist.

As Todd Evans explained, "I was browsing a little-known local newspaper that serves the High Desert areas of California and the Lake Havasu, Arizona, area on a Sunday evening when I ran across the ad. 'CAR COLLECTION FOR SALE: 1963 Corvette cpe, 4 sp, SCCA race car w/spares.' That was it, a small text ad with no pictures in a little newspaper. The ad had a few other cars listed, a trailer, and two motorhomes that I didn't even pay attention to. However, it did have a phone number, which, in today's online advertising world, where people refuse to even talk to you unless it is via text or email, was like gold to me. Unfortunately, the ad said not to call after 9 p.m. It was 9:30, but there was no chance I could wait until morning. I would have gone clinically insane."

Evans continued: "I called, and a great old guy named John Lloyd answered, laughing after I apologized at least five times for calling past his 9 p.m. deadline. John began to tell me the story of his Corvette that he had purchased as a stock split-window back in 1968, before turning it into his dream racecar in the early 1970s. Honestly, I'm not even entirely sure I heard what he said during most of the conversation. My mind was racing so fast it kind of reminded me of having a chat with Charlie Brown's teacher. He said it had big flares, big turbine wheels, big-block hood, side pipes, and a 'cage. He knew a lot of people wouldn't like all of those things, but I assured him, in the calmest voice that I could muster, that I loved all of them. He's telling me all of this and I still haven't even seen a picture of it yet! I was crushed when he proceeded to tell me he already had a deposit on the car!"

"John had raced it extensively throughout California in the '70s, and Riverside Raceway was his home track. He owned Rialto Wheel & Tire at the time and was a weekend warrior, as opposed to being a big-dollar, sponsored racer. He had some success, won some races, and had a blast with all of his buddies, racing every chance that he got. He finally retired the car in 1978 and switched to a much lighter tube-chassis Camaro, along with taking care of his now growing family. He parked the car in his friend's yard outside his garage after the last race that day and it never moved again for 44 years," recalled Evans.

"Back to the phone conversation-it was now about 10:30 at night and I offered to come out immediately. I would bring cash and a trailer, but it would have put me in Riverside around midnight. I didn't care. I wanted it. After much convincing (also known as begging), John said I could come out first thing in the morning to look at the car in case the guy that had put a deposit on the car backed out. No problem. I'll be there. Remember waiting on Christmas morning as a kid before you got to open your presents? That's what the rest of my Sunday night and Monday morning turned out to be."

"My good buddy Ken from Moreland Choppers and Hot Rods and I loaded up the trailer while it was still dark the next morning and met John at a coffee shop in Temecula. He wanted to sit down and find out who I was before we would even go see the car, which I completely understood. After shooting the breeze for about an hour, my Christmas came even earlier than I expected. John said the guy that supposedly had given him a deposit was a friend of a friend of an acquaintance, who knew about the car from years ago. Turns out, he had been saying he would send a deposit for over a month and hadn't done anything. John was ready to move on and I was even more ready!"

Evans recalled to HOT ROD, "We arrived to see the car out in Riverside, and the Corvette was so much cooler than we ever could have imagined. Aside from fading on some of the paint, it was just as it had been that day when he parked it almost 50 years ago. The interior, while obviously dirty, was like a time capsule, right down to the melt-in-the-sun, annoyingly sticky early-'70s SS steering wheel. I didn't want to negotiate. I didn't want to haggle. I had already told John numerous times that I would pay more than his asking price if he just let me buy the Corvette. John isn't that guy, and said if I wanted the car, I could have it for the original asking price.

After digging the Corvette out from its resting place and finding, surprisingly, that the Firestones all held air, we winched it up onto the trailer with huge smiles on our faces. I think the common phrases on the drive home consisted of a lot of 'I can't believe that just happened.' We were given a bunch of old pictures of the car back in its heyday, even some in its former red-white-and-blue paint scheme. John being the guy that he is, he even threw in the rat poop, mice nests, and raccoon skulls for free!"

So, what's next for this rescued vintage racer? Well, cleaning will be kept to a minimum, but Evans will be removing the critters, rat droppings, and bones from the interior and engine bay. As for the rest Evans told us, "I've never done much road course racing, so I would leave it just like it sits and make a nasty street car out of it. It still has the original VIN and title so it could be registered. We have a Hilborn-injected small-block sitting here in the shop begging to be put in something anyhow. It would be impossible to not love a streetcar that looks like it belongs in one of the best movies of all time, The Gumball Rally."

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Source: Steven Rupp - MotorTrend

Posted 8/19/22