Options are everything when it comes to Corvettes. Corvette buyers can option out a car to be a luxurious boulevard cruiser, a dragstrip dominator, or a racetrack terror. This triple black 1960 Corvette for sale on the Pro Team Corvette Sales website is optioned out to be an all go, no show beast on the road or the track. This perfectly restored convertible is ready for its Bloomington Gold or NCRS Duntov Award. Can we call this perfectly optioned Corvette a bargain, an investment, or both at the $169,000 asking price? Thanks go to reader Larry D. for this amazing tip!
Let’s start with the facts. This Corvette left the assembly line with the following paint and interior options: black exterior, black cove, black top, and black interior. Mechanically it is a fuel injected car (283 ci with 290 hp), a T-10 4-speed manual transmission, and a 4.11 heavy duty rear end with Posi traction.
In addition to all of the goodies above, you can add to that RPO-687. Commonly known as the big brake option, only 119 Corvettes in 1960 were built with this box checked on the order form. It consisted of heavy-duty shocks, finned brake drums, metallic brakes, air scoops, deflectors, vented backing plates, cooling fans, large diameter sway bars, and a quick steering adaptor according to the folks at Pro Team.
The car also boasts an aluminized off road exhaust, dog dish hubcaps, and 6.70×15 black wall tires. To round out the general Darth Vader level of meanness that this Corvette exudes, it was ordered without a heater or radio. To say that the original owner meant business would be an understatement.
The ad tells us that the car has been completely restored and is ready for Bloomington and/or NCRS level judging. As most of you know, this would require all of the part numbers to be correct for the build date of the car. This is no easy or inexpensive task.
Add to the complexity the possibility that this car was raced at some point, and you can see how rare a car with these options in near perfect condition can be. Race cars are obviously driven hard, wrecked, beaten on, passed down when they aren’t competitive, etc. In short, a car like this could have led a hard life, leaving broken and discarded parts in its wake.
Sadly, we don’t know much about the car’s history after it left the factory to crush its enemies, see them driven before it, and hear the lamentations of the other drivers. The earliest date in the ad references the first receipts in the restoration binder. This binder documents a flow of restoration cash that started in 2011 and ended this year.
The good news is this Corvette has not been shown previously and is ready for the next owner to write a big check. At $169,000, that is an awfully big check, but think of all of the restoration headaches that money insulates the buyer from. You also have to think of this car from an investment standpoint. If the documentation is correct, then this car will be a very safe place to park a big wad of cash. If it isn’t worth $169,000 right now, it will be soon with the current rates of inflation.
You would, of course, have to resist driving this Corvette as it was meant to be driven. That would be the excruciatingly hard part of all of this.
If this car were in your garage, could you resist driving it in anger? Tell us how you would handle ownership of this triple black beast in the comments.
Beautiful car. We’ve owned over 70 cars and not one of them was a garage queen. Plan on keeping it that way. As most of you have said over the years “why buy it if you don’t drive it”. In total agreement on that.
conan! what is best in racing?
I’ve commented before that, with a handle of “Euromoto”, I’m just not that in to American Muscle but, sometimes a Corvette or Mustang really hits a nerve. This car is just bitchen’ (to use a phrase from my junior high yearbook). But, like bobhess, I couldn’t take pleasure in owning something that I couldn’t drive without reservation (not to mention I couldn’t afford this car in any event). That’s a lot of scratch for something that’s going to be rarely, if ever, driven. Maybe duplicate the murdered-out cosmetic idea with a 1960 driver and a bunch of non-original parts for a quarter of the price?
I”m sorry, but a $169k car at a well known dealer does not qualify as a ‘Barn Find’. Are real barn finds getting that hard to come up with these days that just picking cars from dealers sites qualifies?
Now get off of my lawn…
I’m not sure if its just the lighting in the photo or how my device displays images, but it looks like it’s painted a very dark green, with black wheels, top, and interior.
This is an interesting problem, that I am sure a lot of us have experienced, maybe not on the level of this Corvette. I think it just depends on the owner’s personality. Can the pride of ownership be satisfying, even if you never drive the car. My solution was to sell the car, which always caused seller’s remorse.
Then what happens is, History repeats itself. I have built another car and done exactly the same thing. The only way you can remedy this problem is to plan your build very carefully. Build it to the level, that will make you comfortable driving it.
That also creates a problem, because you start thinking you should have done more. I don’t know about other guys, but I haven’t got it right yet, but it hasn’t stoped me from trying.
if you’re young – only 2 or 3 more ta go Joe…
Chrisful, Unfortunately I am not young. My next birthday starts a new decade, and the first number will be an 8 ,and I still haven’t figured it out and I have had more cars, than birthdays. I keep saying the last build is going to be the last. I am not even sure if I believe it?
Saw one of these at the Horton museum in Nacona Texas a few years ago. Same color but it was a 61with red interior. Love the dog dish caps. Beautiful car. Redline tires anyone?