These Can-Am kitted Corvettes are impossible to ignore and always good for daydreaming as to whether you’d ever have the gumption to drive around in a car that looked this wild. The seller’s car is a 1974 model that had to have been a bruiser back in the day, equipped with a 454 and a four-speed manual transmission. Of course, the engine is gone, and there’s an interesting story about that. The kit looks to be in good shape, and the green paint job with black hood stripe looks surprisingly good – but wallflowers need not apply. Find the Corvette here on craigslist for $24,000.
The Can Am kit used to seem so exotic to me – like it was some exceedingly limited-edition creation of which five were only made. This is hardly the case; as any of us know, these kits show up quite often on craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. And sometimes, the kits aren’t even finished, and you have to wonder how you find the missing pieces these days. Fortunately, this ’74 seems to be complete aside from its engine, and the bodywork appears to be in good order. The paint job even looks pretty nice, truth be told, but seeing the mismatched wheels suggests this has been a back-of-the-shop project for some time.
Now here’s the odd thing: the seller claims they sent the block out to be rebuilt and that’s the last they saw of it. This would presumably mean no attempt has been made to track it down or ask the machine shop why they absconded with someone’s desirable motor, especially one that already had a home in this ’74 Corvette. More odd, however, is the fact that the seller doesn’t seem too worried about it, and it doesn’t sound like they intend to give chase any time soon. If I were a potential buyer, I would want the name of the machine shop to see if I could possibly find the whereabouts of a 454 that may even be numbers-matching. Fortunately, the interior appears to be in good shape.
We’ve all lost parts or had vendors make off with small items, but I can’t imagine being OK with an entire engine going missing, especially one that belongs to a genuine 4-speed manual Corvette. Perhaps if you call the seller, he’ll give you more of the backstory behind this widebody Corvette and the missing 454. The asking price seems ambitious for a car with no motor, and if I were the seller, I’d be trying to determine the whereabouts of the 454 before listing my widebody Corvette with a top-shelf price. Do you think that engine can be found?
A rolling chassis with a rough interior and dashboard, no set of wheels and a color that only a watermelon would love for 24K? Don’t think so. Lot of good ’70s Corvettes out there for not much more than that.
I can hear it now,you paid $24,000 for a car with no engine?Are you nuts?:-)
I know how engines or parts part ways-been there. In my h/s days i found a 66 ss chevelle ,engine gone. that story was someone at some point sent the 396 to a shop.Dont know where but it was done and waiting to be payed for. Nobody seem to know what shop it was at. Me being a h/s lad didn’t have any money so i didn’t pursue the motor.another story. Highschool still I got a 71 duster 340 with the blacked out hood and that big 340 wedge on the hood .I called it a wedge car,all stock4sp. anyway the motor needed rebuilding so i took it to the local napa shop. I get a call that a inspection the shop dude told me the block was no good-cracked. He said the heads-top end where ok and said he could get rid of theshort block,so isaid ok.At the time I worked at a wrecking yard they let me clean thetop end stuff and put the stuff for sale in the show room. That same day I watched a guy looking at the heads .10 min. later i was helping him take the stuff to his car I asked him why he was so interested. He showed me the X on the heads those where hard to find even back then so the orig. engine was special. found out he knew the machine shop guy who told him where i worked thats how he knew of the parts.The guy with the heads said the shop guy raced 340,s and was proud of his latest build and said he got the engine free from a young kid-aka me. I dont even remember getting any money.I got jacked twice and the motor was probley good. of how parts like this go awall. But another 340 came from a 72 cuda that came to our yard.got it for couple hundred ran great so things turned out ok although wish i didnt loose the original 340 .Way better then the 72.
Engine or not, don’t care for it. I’ve seen those CanAm kits before and never felt they did the car justice.
Once I found out the “machine shop” was owned by the Hell’s Angels I also would have stopped asking questions about the engine.
Someone did a good job of ruining a could be decent Vette.
I might have told this before but full on CRS has taken its toll. My best friend since 2nd grade @ Catholic elementary school had a job with a municipal water company as a high bill investigator . On one of his jobs he is looking for defects at the customers house when in the way back yard he sees the nose of a ’66 “B” body Plymouth in the over grown brush. He asks the lady of the house who’s car it is and she says her husbands old race car, she says go look at it, he wants to sell it. He goes back there and sees that its a red Belvedere II 2 door hardtop. The body is straight as an arrow , no rust, not hacked up and its sporting 426 HEMI emblems with the added bonus of “hp2” emblems. He is beyond overjoyed but its sitting high in the nose, he opens the hood and sees there isn’t any engine in the car, a 4 speed is there. He asked the lady about the car but she didnt know enough of the particulars. He gives the lady a deposit and says he will come back later that evening to talk to the husband. It turns out the guy had a partner in the car and they decided to pull the motor to get it redone so it could be more competitive on the 1/4 mile. The partnership dissolved for some unknown reason and life was getting in the way for the guy so after the motor was finished it was not picked up. Botch went ahead and bought the car for an undisclosed amount, (he’s very much a tightwad) got the info as to which shop the motor was bought to. The next day he drives to Patterson New Jersey where the engine shop was in Gasoline Alley and inquires as to do they still have that motor, They had the motor and was more than happy to sell it to him for the original fee (undisclosed also). From what he told me the car was raced in ’66 & ’67 motor taken out in winter of ’67. Botch bought the car & motor in ’78 , raced it , had fun with it & sold it when he got married and life was getting in the way.
Oh yeah, I think the widebody Corvette might be a bit overpriced for a roller.
When I bought my COPO Chevelle in 1985 from the original owner, it was freshly overhauled, sitting on his basement floor. He said when he had it fixed, he went to pick it up and the machine shop said it was lost or had been stolen. The owner, who was a large speciman of a man, told them he would be back the next day to pick up his motor. When he returned the next day, they had somehow, luckily, ”found” his engine. Another story. My son bought a 68 SS Chevelle, with the motor in the shop. When we went to the shop to get the engine, they went and searched for it but it was gone. We called the seller of the Chevelle to inform him that the deal was off. He said let him check on it. He called us within the hour and told us to go and get the engine at the shop, which we then did. He had called the machine shop and I would aqssume, lit a fire under them. Point being, some machine shops are not entirely honest, NOT ALL, just some. Caveat emptor.
luckily” found his engine.
Maybe $2500.00 – $5,000.00 .Why is there holes in door cards for window crank and also has switches for electric windows on the console. Lots of small parts, heater controls, door lock knobs , mirror knobs and cables etc. Besides the body , the rest of car seems neglected. Wheels and tires ??? Looks like it might have been a parts car because no motor and all missing small parts. Is someone is now trying to it put back together??? Good luck
Way too much money for a go-kart!
These Greenwood conversions were the thing back in the ’70s. I might be crazy but I like this car. Just not for $24K. Not with all the work it probably will need. Including that engine, to finish. I would efinitely pursue an answer to the “lost” engine. This car needs that 454! The car as it sits looks pretty good. The paint even looks in good shape but I’d have to get rid of that puke green! Repaint in a more subtle color, drop in that 454, add a set of period correct American Racing 5 spokes along with some wide tires to fill those bulging fenders. Then drive it ’till the wheels fell off!
The stupidity continues and we advertise for these people?!?!?! I don’t get it. Are we promoting the continuance of driving up prices to no mans land even though it is pretty much there even now. No matter what, they are just cars. I continue to lose my appetite for classic vehicles every time I see the asking prices being asked today.
Have you looked at new car prices lately? Unfortunately, everything is going up. If you are in the market for a Corvette but want something unique, you could drop a crate engine in this and still be way under the cost of a new one.