Pinnacle Auto Appraisers' Blog

1954 Hot Rod Corvette Gets a New Lease on Life

To paraphrase country singer George Jones, this is one old Corvette that's not ready for a rockin' chair.

John Muller of Arizona always liked the way first generation Corvettes looked, but motoring down the highway in the 1955 he once owned wasn't the ultimate driving experience.

Then he found a 1954 Corvette on eBay that he called "nearly a basket case."

By the time he got through with a two-year project at Hot Rod Express in Blue Springs, however, it was a different story. Hidden under that classic body now are a 5.7-liter, Corvette LS1 engine and a six-speed transmission, along with new brakes and suspension.

Unfortunately, one of his friends drove the car into an old oak tree a few years later, and it was time for another restoration, this time at Carriage and Motor Works in Kansas City, Kan.

Workers there completely took the car apart and repaired or replaced just about every body panel. In all, the work took about 1,700 hours and included a period-correct metallic blue paint on top of a fawn colored leather interior.

From the outside, clues are few that this is a super resto-mod, other than magnesium wheels and a lowered body. Under the hood, the original six-cylinder has given way to a late-model V-8.

Chevrolet knows damn well how to build a sports car. Evidence: the Corvette. Ever since the mid-1950s, it has defined the very idea of what an American sports car is. Attempts to create a second Chevrolet sports car, however, have been met with less success. Excepting the Chevelle SS and a handful of Camaros -- and maybe the Corvair Monza if we're being generous -- it's been rare to find a performance Chevy as inspired as the Corvette. The 2010 revival of the Camaro raised our hopes, until its sloppy handling and performance-numbing obesity torpedoed our expectations. The 2012 Camaro ZL1 changes all of that with huge power, sophisticated technology, and exceptional handling.

As the Camaro to redeem all other Camaros and a car that can run against Chevy's icon, the ZL1 sets the stage for the most dramatic sibling smackdown since my sister dropped a log on my four-year-old head. The Chevrolet marketing folks are adamant that no one will cross-shop a Corvette and a Camaro, and that may be true. Problem is, someone dropped a log on my head as a child, so I can't help but draw imaginary parallels between two bow-tie sports cars with mid-$50,000 prices and four-second 0-to-60-mph times. When Chevrolet invited us to drive the Camaro ZL1 for the first time, we showed up with a pair of driving shoes, our Vbox test equipment, and a Corvette Grand Sport.

Read more: http://www.automobilemag.com/features/news/1203_2012_chevrolet_camaro_zl1_and_2012_chevrolet_corvette_grand_sport/viewall.html#ixzz1jvFjyU5A

Detroit, Michigan

http://www.detroitautoappraiser.com/