At first glance, the $30,000 asking price on this 1957 Chevrolet Corvette had me scratching my head – and I may not be done scratching yet, in all honesty. However, there is some justification as it seems to come with a fairly generous load of parts and some nice upgrades already performed, including a Doug Nash 5-speed and Jegs 350 short block. Check out the listing here on craigslist and determine for yourself if this heavily modified ‘Vette is worth the asking price.
I find drag cars like this such a conundrum, because there’s obviously a whole contingent of Corvette fans who would love to see this car returned to stock condition. However, the seller seems adamant that this car is too heavily modified to ever justify a return to stock configuration. In a way, that’s a good thing – otherwise, we’d never see any early Corvette drag cars on the strip.
Aluminum heads, “Mother Thumper” cams and lifters, your choice of a “…freshly polished dual quad tunnel ram or freshly polished single quad tunnel ram,” Wilwood brakes, wheelie bars, new wheel tubs – the list of parts either installed or ready to be installed is extensive. Even more surprising is that the Corvette comes with a clean California title and registration. Show of hands, who would track this ‘Vette?
The clean title gives me pause, however, as that could justify a tedious restoration to return the Corvette to stock condition. If you’re looking for a Corvette that hasn’t been drastically modified, then remember to check out a recent Barn Finds Exclusive post for a 1974 Chevy Corvette convertible listed here on Barn Finds, complete with the L82 and a 4-speed. We just dropped the price to $18,200!
If one want’s to build an old straight axle Corvette drag car, aren’t there complete repro bodies, probably priced quite a bit less than this too?
The Corvette bodies they make for race cars are mid-60’s models and have extended front clips and modified quarter panels. I don’t know the price of the body only, but they would be well into the five figures. The roadster bodies are popular in Super Gas, the coupe bodies for Top Sportsman. New builds will routinely cost in excess of six figures, but they are state of the art race cars when finished.
Steve R
Having “lived” 2 C1 Corvettes. I kind of like it as the ride is probably about the same! And yes I agree that we need to see more C1s at the drag strip. (Maybe I should go some time as it has been 46 years since my last visit!)
It’s an old race car that someone tried to convert into some sort of Gasser clone. With the parts included it’s not meant to be a “race car”. I’d stay away, it probably won’t do anything well and will cost a lot of money to finish as a street car.
Steve R
How much for the EF Civic in the background? Better deal
Not worth 2000.
Alas, who would buy this “Frankenstein”?
2 schools of thought, seeing it on a trailer at a car show you wow thats really nice and the other thought is im going down the highway and this thing comes up behind me and keeps going. I tend to lean toward the Frankenstien 10 out of 10 times, its in my nature to take it apart and put it together, sometime i do regret taking it apart, keep em comin
Has a cool “Hotrods to Hell” vibe. That was a great movie!
This pile is a bad joke. Run awwaaaaayyyy!!!
Frankenstein’s wife may bid soon
I need small car on left side/ I like it
Cool as hell but I would want to make it streetable and I’m sure that would cost a small fortune!!!