Posted on 03/21/2014 10:39:13 PM PDT by servo1969
People generally buy a Chevrolet Corvette planning to drive the wheels off it, but examples with absurdly low mileage have to come from somewhere. Cars suffer a small breakdown and are parked for years, owners suddenly pass away and their children don't know what to do with the cars, vehicles get donated to museums... the list of usual suspects for something like this is pretty limited. But the story of this unrestored and completely original 1967 Chevrolet Corvette with just 2,996 miles on the clock is a new one for us. Here's what we know:
Don McNamara turned 30 in 1966, and celebrated his retirement from the United States Marine Corps with a trip to Las Vegas. Unlike a great many visitors to the city, McNamara actually hit the big time right out the gate, winning $5,000. That was big money at the time, and McNamara knew what he wanted to buy when he got home to Colorado Springs: a brand new Chevrolet Corvette. His father was a car salesman, so ordering a Corvette was a done deal. McNamara bought his 1967 example equipped with a four-speed manual transmission, a 3.36 Positraction rear end, tinted glass, a telescopic steering wheel and an AM/FM radio. The car came with an ermine white exterior with a red stinger strip over a red leather interior. The young veteran got the car of his dreams, and by all accounts enjoyed driving it. At least for a while.
McNamara drove the car very sparingly during the first few months... and then his friends never saw it again. When asked about it, he told people that he no longer owned it. But the truth of the matter was that the car was still in his garage, with the odometer showing just a little over 2,000 miles. And so it sat in his garage for the next 45 years.
McNamara passed away in 2011, and only then did the neighboring couple who inherited his entire estate find out that he had a Chevrolet Corvette with 2,966 miles on the odometer in his garage all this time. The car had accumulated most of those miles just during its first year of ownership, and evidently when it came time to renew the registration, McNamara simply chose not to. McNamara reportedly drove the car for the last few times in the mid-1980s, only driving it late at night. So why wouldn't someone drive their dream car after essentially getting it for close to free?
By all accounts, McNamara was a very private individual, never had kids and never married, portraying himself to the few friends that he had as just barely making ends meet. Whether this was indeed the case is undetermined, though we do know that McNamara never had a credit card and never opened a checking account. The car left the garage for the first time in years in 2012, having been found wrapped in a car cover with a blanket decorated with Marine Corps flags draped over it.
The Corvette is said to be completely original throughout, aside from the addition of polished Edelbrock aluminum valve covers and four Corvette emblems mounted on the air cleaner. The car was purchased by Dr. Mark Davis from the estate in 2012, and has subsequently only been displayed at the entrance to the Bloomington Gold Great Hall.
Despite the lingering mystery (a Corvette couldn't have been that expensive to run in the '70s and '80s given the fact that McNamara owned a house), what we have is one of the most well-preserved low-mileage examples of a 1967 Corvette anywhere in the world. The car comes with all the accompanying items like the original window sticker, a showroom brochure, a Chevrolet warranty book with Protect-O-Plate, the original keys and fob along with a duplicate set of keys, as well as the original owner's manual. Only three people are known to have ever sat in the car, and it is said that no one has ever even sat in the front passenger seat!
Mecum Auctions is slated to offer this Corvette during its April 10-12 sales in Houston at The Reliant Center, and they're estimating this car to sell between $600,000 and $800,000.
Holy cow! That is a sweet, sweet ride.
Pretty car.
Think I would have liked to have known him
The car is simply amazing. The mileage is shockingly low.
A used car in such nice shape. I’d pay full MSRP for that one, even as old as it is.
How many times has the odometer been rolled over?
I have an ‘84 Ford F150XLT with 448,000 miles on it, which is a much better return on the investment.
Can’t get a new one now, until I hit a half million miles.
Ping.
An old used Chevy. Might be worth a few hundred bucks.
Had to give it up less than two years later, just could not afford the insurance, payments, and maintenance. The thing ate motormounts and U-joints constantly.
Oh, to be a rich kid and just have tucked it away for sunny days and waxing it.
It’s not unusual to find very low mileage Corvettes that have been garaged and babied, men (mostly) tend to buy them as sort of a trophy car, a reward, and keep them for weekend driving, always have. I’ve been admiring the later C4’s of late, pretty cheap, engine and trans were sorted out by then, nice proportions, clean lines, fast, fairly reliable and easy to service.
But, this one is bizarre, he just parked it practically new. There’s a story there, the why. Something he couldn’t deal with but couldn’t get past, imho. Maybe a girlfriend or fiancé? Don’t know but it was a time capsule for him.
Eh, afterall, it is a used car...
Haha! In your dreams! The manufacturer won't have any say in the suggested retail price for that baby. :-)
And it’s a BB to boot! 427 ci
If it were a convertible, it would bring in well over 1 Million dollars.
Too bad it had a red interior though.
And I bet the build sheet is in near-perfect condition and still attached to the top of the gas tank.
Considering the condition, I don't see it going for less than a million, probably a little better than a million.
I saw a license plate on a nice Corvette that was being driven by a good looking woman. It said:
“WAS HIS”
At least it wasn't a Lamborghini or Ferrari :)
Beautiful car. My cousin would freak out. He had one similar.
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