This 1973 Corvette is Magical Says ‘Pawn Stars’ Magician Murray Sawchuck

Sep 18, 2015

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This 1973 Corvette is Magical says Pawn Stars Magician Murray Sawchuck

You may have seen Murray Sawchuck at a show in Las Vegas or on “Pawn Stars” where he shares his knowledge of magic history with the “Old Man” and his gang there.

But you may not be aware that this world-famous stage illusionist and magician also loves old cars, including his 1973 Corvette Stingray that he recently bought from an old farmer in Greeneville, Tenn.

Sawchuck says he gets his love of cars from his dad, who would identify old vehicles as they traveled down the road when he was a kid.

The magician says he always wanted a Corvette and singled out the ’73 because it was the last Stingray with a chrome bumper, at least on one end.

“I love old cars because they have so much style,” Sawchuck said in an interview with Auto World News. “Cars today – every car – looks the same.”

He bought his new ride from an old Tennessee man named Raymond who lived an hour away from the nearest airport. “He loved the car … and was in the process of restoring it” when he became too feeble to climb in and out of it, Sawchuck says.

His dad loves the Stingray. “He always liked those cars,” Sawchuck says. “The only problem is that it’s a sports car, so you only can fit a briefcase in it [laughs]. But he really liked chrome and I wanted one I can work on. Old cars are easy to fix, with the new cars it’s almost impossible with the computers in them now.”

He praised our friends at Corvette America, saying it hasn’t been hard to find necessary new parts for his Stingray.

“The Corvette America site has a full line of original parts,” he points out. “They also have knock offs and they’re cheaper. But they only make the parts once every couple years, like the panels. I had to look for someone to remodel and put them on the actual car. It was a little hard to find, but when I got the car, it was half restored. I had to search online and keep an eye out for a couple of things.”

Thanks to Raymond, though, the Stingray was already in pretty good shape with “a great paint job and a great interior.”

“All the stuff he [Raymond] did was the fun stuff,” Sawchuck says. “All stuff that I did was to keep it running because it was pretty weathered.”

Now that it runs and looks like a champ, Sawchuck says it definitely has not turned into a trailer queen.

Still, he’s won an honorable mention at one Halloween car show after he dressed up the Corvette with a devil tail and horns, and it also placed “second or third” for Best Classic Vehicle in a show at a little bar in the middle of nowhere in Nevada.

“A lot of guys who compete don’t drive their cars,” Sawchuck says. “I like to drive mine in the evenings to an event or a show. These guys drive their cars on a trailer. We use our car – it’s no fun having it if you don’t drive it.”

That would be like having a hat and not pulling a rabbit out of it, huh?