How many times have you heard 'Oh, my uncle had one with the rare xxxxxx
option'? We have all heard those stories but never seen any documentation
to authenticate it. In 1968 one Corvette Convertible came off the assembly
line with paint code 001 - Special Primer. It also appears that this car
may have sit on the assembly line over the Christmas holiday break as it went
into production on December 12, 1967 and came off the line on January 2, 1968.
The car has since been painted white. This is the story as told to the
present owner by the original owner.
Present owner: In the 60's when muscle cars were
heard rumbling on every street corner, the most important thing about your car
was the beast under the hood. The fact that one car out of thousands that came
off the assembly line could be a rare, one of a kind car that had no twin was
only heard of but never seen.
Because of its rarity it's hard to believe that one family would be
responsible for two of the most iconic cars ever produced. Both cars are one of
a kind, special order, special paint and specs purchased from the same car
dealer by the same family in 1967 and then again in 1968. Now over 50 years
later here is the story of those two special cars told to me by the original
owner.
Original owner: It started early in the summer
of 1964 in Scotsdale Arizona. Scotsdale was just the northeast edge of Phoenix
at that time. It had an old west themed downtown, a few fancy shops and 4-way
stop signs at most corners. You didn't need a billion dollars to live there.
My buddy Paul and I had just graduated from high school. Paul had a 1960
Corvette (283, dual 4-barrels, 4 speed, 4.11 positraction rear end, red and
white with a removable hardtop) that he had for a year or two. He was headed to
college in LA and wanted a bigger car. I really wanted his car, so I talked my
father, Leo, into buying it. It wasn't a hard sell. Leo's terms to me were that
Leo would drive the car for a year and give it to me after I finished my
freshman year.
I took the '60 Vette to school in the fall of 1965. By the summer of 1966,
Leo was feeling the effects of a year without a Corvette and proposed doing it
again. He would buy a new '67, drive it for 18 months, and give it to me after I
graduated in 1968. I'd give him the '60 in exchange.
I had fallen in love with a picture of a 1966 Corvette in a Chevy brochure.
It was a light green convertible with light tan interior parked under a leafy
tree. We went to the dealer (Brown and Hoeye Chevrolet in Mesa, AZ) where I was
seriously disappointed to find that the color (Mosport Green) had been
discontinued for 1967. Leo managed to talk the dealer into making it happen (he
was good at this). It also had a non-standard wide-ratio 4-speed with a 4-11
posi differential. I cannot recall why I or maybe both of us, wanted this but it
sure knocked you back in your seat in first gear. The car was delivered late in
1966 after I was already away at school. I drove it when I was home for
Christmas break and again during the following summer.
Sometime during the summer of 1967 the '67 was stolen from the street in
front of the apartment where Paul lived with his mother. It was eventually
recovered out in the desert north of town with enough striped that the insurance
company declared it a total loss. So we did it again, which resulted in the 1968
Vette that you have now. This time the factory couldn't (or wouldn't) do Mosport
Green paint, but agreed to ship it in primer with a Saddle interior
(discontinued for 1968). The paint job was done by the dealer (Brown and Hoeye)
who couldn't do the color either. Looking at paint charts now, I think it might
have ended up Ash Gold Metallic. The other options were standard stuff like
327/350 engine, headrests, shoulder belts, a/c 4.11 postraction rear end, tinted
windows, power steering and brakes, telescoping steering column, am/fm stereo
radio. The car was registered in Arizona early in 1968. We moved to California
(SF Bay area) in Sept. 1968 and registered the car there. The original plate
number was YJC-142 or YJK-143. I owned the car until I sold it to Ken Loveland
in 1979.
In January 2013 I was amazed to get a phone call from a fellow in Detroit
asking about my old Corvette. I assumed he was asking about the '68, but no, it
was the '67. Someone had acquired it from the insurance company and it
eventually made its way to him. Reviewing the emails last week gave me the color
name. I searched the web for pictures of Mosport Green Corvettes and was even
more amazed to find my
old car for sale.
It's just like it was when I had it except for the addition of a removable
hardtop and side exhausts. From the description of the car I learned the name of
the dealer and about the COPO (Central Office Production Ordered) program. Both
the '67 and '68 came through that program.
