The car movie scene in the 1970s and 1980s was likely the peak of gearhead-friendly cinema. Outside of the Fast and the Furious franchise from the late 90s and early 2000s (don’t talk to me about the seemingly endless stream of “action” films that have come out in recent years), it doesn’t get much better than the era of Smokey and the Bandit and Cannonball Run. The film, Corvette Summer, is another classic from the same entertainment playbook where the car’s the star, and in this instance, you can buy the actual car. The listing for this 1977 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray listed here on Facebook Marketplace for $75,000 claims it’s the original vehicle used for promotional purposes.
The opening scene of Corvette Summer is near and dear to me personally, as the movie’s protagonist, a young Mark Hamill, is seen wandering around an absolutely massive California junkyard courtesy of a field trip arranged by his shop teacher. A field trip to a junkyard! Can you imagine today’s academics taking impressionable minds to the confines of a scrap heap? It sure seems like a world we won’t return to unless we begin teaching kids how to mine for raw materials in the carcasses of old laptops and cell phones. Fortunately for filmgoers, Hamill finds something much more interesting: the carcass of a Corvette, rescued from the crusher and delivered back to the shop behind a sweet Chevy Suburban tow rig.
If you enjoy car spotting, Corvette Summer is loaded with eye candy, reflecting the awesomeness of the 1970s car scene. Everything from shorty VW Type 2 single cab pickups to classic American muscle on hydraulics to an assortment of Japanese pickup trucks and even vintage Greyhound buses appears in this movie, which was an overwhelming box office success against a very modest production budget. The transformation from a junkyard wreck to a bona fide show car is a bit of movie magic, as it would take an incredibly talented shop team to pull off this resurrection. The seller notes the Corvette is powered by a rebuilt 350 paired with a 4-speed manual transmission.
The Corvette has been a display piece for most of its life, with the listing noting that it has effectively lived in museums and other such venues. It was housed in the Imperial Palace in Las Vegas for a spell and is now owned by an apparently renowned collector of movie vehicles. The bodywork appears to be in good shape overall, and you always wonder, with these vehicles built for the big screen, whether the build quality was a priority versus just making sure it looked good on screen. Regardless, this is an instantly recognizable car for enthusiasts of a certain age and will make for a killer car collection centerpiece. Thanks to Barn Finds reader Tom Magnuson for the find.
Yuck ..!!!
This type of custom is easier to take if you lived the lacquer-slathered street freak era of the mid-late 70s.
I just thought Annie Potts was adorable in Corvette Summer.
Who’s was most awesome car ever when I was 8 years old. To gawdy for me at 56.
As a Corvette owner and fanatic, I can honestly say that this car should be sold with hot forks for your eyeballs. What a horror show it is …
My parents took me to see this movie when I was a kid. It’s what started my interest in and fondness for Corvettes.
I just thought Annie Potts was adorable in everything she ever appeared in – even now in “Young Sheldon”. A babe for the ages! Sorry to get off (primary) topic, but someone mentioned Annie Potts!
Same could be said of the movie.
I think it’s a fantastic looking car and if I had the chance to buy one I think I would but 75,000 is a little too much for me right now but if I had it I’d gladly pay it
Calm down.
He spent all summer chasing down the guys who stole it – what a waste of a summer…
If I had been the owner, my biggest fear would have been that the guys who stole it would return it.
As goofy as it looks now.
As I kid I loved vettes because of this car/movie
Hilarious!
That is possibley the ugliest Corvette on the planet, but I suppose if one had absolutely no sense of fiscal responsibility, it might be kinda cool as a quirky addition to your garage.
It’s either a Salvatore Dalley abstract, or a Andy Warhol impression
Salvador Dali (proper spelling)
For someone to take a work of art and do this to it, should have his @%$ removed.
That car is so goddy! Shouldn’t even be called a Corvette! Who would pay anything for that fiberglass pos?
Think you mean gaudy not goddy!
But he lost his virginity LOL
Never seen one before.
Never want to see one again.
Didn’t see the movie but I have seen this car before
Movie star car or not, this Corvette is absolutely hideous.
Shouldn’t this car be right hand drive?
The movie car was right hand drive. This was a promotion for the movie car. Looking under the hood and inside reveals many non period correct items. I believe there were kits of this custom body offerd too years ago. I am sure this car is polarizing to many people-either you like it or hate it. Goiing back to the late 70’s early 80’s, this was a 70’s period correct custom. I remember the first time i wathced the movie and i just watched it againa few months ago. It stirred a desire for a corvette when i was a kid and still has a corvette on the top of my bucket list. I have a c4 but not my bucket list car. someday I will have it. This car while a promo vehicle has ties to the movie, but is not “THE movie car”. With the documentation and association it may be worth the asking price to the right guy. The big $ question is what is THE movie car worth?
Same. This movie is one of the reasons I’ve always wanted a Corvette. For me, I don’t think it was so much because of the car itself, but because of the story of him finding a junked car, seeing a vision, and building it the way HE wanted (maybe for worse than better in this case).
If I had the money or space or understanding enough wife for this, I’d buy it, ask Mark Hamill to sign it, then drive it across the country to California.
Thank God, you have a great wife!!
I agree with Poncho. The car that we used in the movie was right hand drive. I can’t tell from these pictures if it is right hand drive or not.
I can’t open up the Facebook marketplace ad because I don’t have Facebook. But just from what I see here it’s hard to tell if it’s the original car used in the movie or if it was just a second car that was used for promos.
In the 1980s they actually auctioned off the vehicle used in the movie in a silent auction, and I received the information package for it. The car is right hand drive and I believe they used a chain from Harley Davidson to connect the right hand steering wheel column to the steering box that was on the left-hand side of the vehicle. Also, at least in the movie, the Corvette had a tunnel ram set up not a supercharger. It was modified by a customizing company called Korky’s Kustoms.
I know for myself and for other people this was a really cool movie and I think a lot of people could relate to Kenny Dantley, the main character of the movie, as we dream about resurrecting something from the junkyard and making it into our own personal thing of beauty. The van that Vanessa drove and also the black Trans Am were cool vehicles. Will have to watch this movie again!
Several years ago at a Motor Show that George Barris attended here in Sydney there was a Corvette Summer Vette – RHD as in the film. This vehicle was apparently brought to Australia to promote the film and claimed to be the one in the film. Once its duty had been done was sold and history lost.The guy who owned it had it restored and this was it first public showing. I have photos of the vehicle at the show, which was probably 8 – 9 years ago.
The car is still in Australia and doing fine. It was in a bad crash on the transport truck that was moving it and was heavily damaged. It was rebuilt to a high standard, a mechanically much higher standard then for the movie, with a proper RHD conversion, but of course, so originality was lost. I’ve heard tell that it needs some freshening, but it looked great in the pictures I saw.
I have to agree with Poncho that based on the statements in the ad, this is not the car used in the movie
“Used as the Promotional Vehicle to advertise the “Corvette Summer” Movie (1978) starring Mark Hamill and Annie Potts”. IMO that says it all, it’s just a movie advertising prop. Whether there was one or one hundred IMO doesn’t make it worth any more than what the basic car is worth, and it’s not one I’d want in my garage.
I like the Trans Am better
This is possibley the ugliest Corvette on the planet, but I suppose if one had absolutely no sense of fiscal responsibility, it would perhaps be a good conversation starter
I actually saw that movie at a drive-in, many years ago. I loved it then, not so much anymore……
I saw it at a drive-in, too, but my date kept me from watching very much of it. There was a Corvette in that movie? Oh, what a night!
1st that ugly white 2 seat car yesterday and now this.
I loved the movie and the car too when I was a kid. Now I think it’s just hideous. The car I mean. The movie is still kinda ok to me. It had a good story line.
It was nasty then and even worse now!!
When I saw the movie in the movie theater when first it came out, I disliked the car back then. Did barris have his hand in this?? i think he did
LOL, thought it would have been sent to the crusher by now. But hey it brings back a lot of memories.
I love cheesey car movies and movie cars, maybe it’s the weed..
Make it stop!!!
If the owner paid ME $75000, I would consider taking it.
Tuff crowd. The world is full of enough stock corvettes. I’d drive the hell out of it.
Reminds me of the MatchBox MakoShark
Right?
From the time that movie came out, to this day I have always thought that was the most God awful thing anyone has ever done to a corvette.
Even for the 70s that thing awful.
The original corvette used was a 73 that was found in a junkyard. The front end was a clamshell design. So when looking at the motor, the whole front end of car would go up.. One major point that made the car special and unique was they made it a right hand drive! The original car is a automatic transmission too..
Corvette you say? Really?stone
Imagine Zora Duntov’s & Bill Mitchell’s reactions when they 1st saw it.
Could that too tall hood be an issue driving around in some states?
I cried when they wrecked the T/A in the chase scene! Korky’s Kustoms made the original. Think they made one in red and the other gold one…
You better not watch Cannonball (1976) with David Carradine.
1978! That’s how things were. Haircuts, moustaches, pants. It was a time when it seemed 10 year old boys chose what was stylish.
Cheap for a movie car, but to quote someone here from a few days ago; “I just threw up a little in my mouth”.
The vw-vette in Death Race 2000 is even more ridiculous.
In the movie it was right hand drive
Does anybody ever read the comments here?
YES, right hand drive has been pointed out only a gazillion times already.
Maybe I need a mental evaluation but I used to hate that car now I’m kinda digging it. I really liked the black Firebird Formula with the Trans Am shaker added to it, I think it later after a color change became Poncherello’s car on Chips.
Firebird was a movie car rental, a true ‘100-footer’…
I love the original Corvette Summer car, but this isn’t one of them. Two were made for the movie. Apparently, one was made by Korky, of Korky’s Kustoms, as a replica back then. But again, this isn’t one of them.
Was the 2nd one a gold one ?
Corvette Summer… the movie in which we learned Mark Hamill couldn’t really act…
I’m a Steely Dan fan also .
The original was right hand drive. Funny story, I was in Jr. High and I was walking home from school and in the distance I see this wild Corvette. As I got closer I realize it’s in the driveway to our house. My older sister was seeing the guy that built it. He showed me the car and told me that it was going to be in a movie coming out the next year called Corvette Summer. Sure enough it was!
Your sister dated Korky? Awesome story.
Right hand drive? Gee, you don’t say. I wouldn’t have known if you didn’t mention it……….
Great pic of this car, google ‘hideous’…
We all know the Gumball Rally is the best of the 70s menagerie of awesomeness car movies (Vanishing Point a different breed). The candy paint jobs of the 70s actually impress me. Appreciate the 4-speed.
I love this car. Haters are gonna hate. Although it’s not the one I would want, the right hand drive version is the one I quitos take. Let’s not forget Gas Money Garage got taken for a ride on a fake corvette summer car that they bought and that one didn’t even look as accurate as this one.
I love the original car and would take it in a Chevy heartbeat!
Reminds me of the old Matchbox toy MakoShark
I’d still rather have the Blues Mobile.
This vette was ugly back then and nothing has changed. I do like the built-in seats in front of the headlights.
Its for taking it to the Drive-In on warm summer nights.
I’m willing to bet that if this car was given to most of the heaters in here they would enjoy it and take it to shows for a while before selling it to another caretaker
Heaters???
Just imagine pulling into your local car show with THIS ! A very polarizing ride for sure. As a teenager, going to the theatre to see Corvette Summer sparked a fire inside for all things Corvette. I’ve owned 3 in the past, I’m now retired and I have a gorgeous ’93 convertible that I am keeping stock. I guess what they say is true, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder’.
The car in the movie hand right hand steering. That’s not the car.
a 3 piece polyester bell bottomed outfit and a can of hair slickum and you’d be known all over town
Almost 60 comments in and there is very little love for this car.
I saw the movie when it first came out and my eyes bugged out when I saw that one of them was for sale. It’s not really about the looks but that it represents a time when personalization of vehicles was a big thing. Same goes for the vanning craze that happened at the same time.
I can really appreciate this car for what it is.
Very strange. 5 minutes later, this listing is removed from FB Marketplace.
Most Vette folks just like the Cookie cutter rides, Hot wheels and Barris type cars are a different beast. I think it needs more gold leaf graphics on the front end and hood
> Very strange. 5 minutes later, this listing is removed from FB Marketplace.
Yeah, someone called them out on the dubious claims of this being used for movie promos and having a “tilt frontend” like the movie cars did. IT WAS NOT, AND DOES NOT. The “certificate of authenticity” is fake too.
It’s a wild-lookin’ “tribute” to the movie car that some fan could have a lot of fun with. But if the seller wants to ACTUALLY sell it, they’ll have to stop misrepresenting and grotesquely overpricing it.
Lots of comments for a car most people seem to dislike.
In the inimitable words of Big Enos Burdett, “Anybody who would drive something like that would wear feathers to a preachers funeral.”
I wonder if Mark would have taken & drove it – if it was GIVEN to him.