[PICS] Unique Corvette Barn Find Reveals a Forgotten NHRA Drag Racer

Here’s a barn find with a still-developing story.

The mystery all starts innocently enough with a poster seeking help on Corvette Forum.

Hello, I’m new to the Corvette world and have purchased a 1971 convertible that has been in a barn since around 1972. So this will be the first of many questions. Paint code is 984 but the car is Red? I see no signs of it having been painted as the mileage is extremely low and can find no yellow anywhere. Thoughts Thank you.

The man goes on to explain that he discovered the C3 Corvette buried under boxes in a friend’s garage, but the car has some mysterious traits. For example, it looks like a 1970-72 but features a mixture of different model year parts. The odometer reads 00024, and the car is now red after originally being yellow.

The help begins:

Hi P, WELCOME! First Post! It sounds like you’ve come upon an interesting car. Many folks would be very eager to read about it and see some pictures of it. The color…. while it’s CERTAINLY possible that the trim tag code didn’t match the car’s color when it left St.Louis, it really not very LIKELY. If the car is indeed quite untouched from about 1972, or so, please be very careful what you do to it and with it until you’re certain just what you have!!! PICTURES! and INFO! please! Regards, Alan

The original poster then continues:

“I have know of the car for 20+ years as the owner was a friend. I couldn’t see the car as it was surrounded by stuff. My friend worked with GM (no for) developing racing engines…. He told me many stories over the years and seeing the car and the motor everything has checked out so far. Sadly my friend passed a year or so ago. The car was a race car from day one. I have a lot of digging to do, there are a lot of extra parts…. Research […] I’ve attempted to add a pic of one set of the extra heads. As for the yellow, I don’t know but it’s now red white and blue.”

The mystery begins to unfold further after he posts two pictures, one showing the car’s roof, blue with white stars, and another showing a set of 427 cylinder heads.

The Corvette turns out to be an NHRA drag racer, called The General, with a rare original ZL1 crate engine. That would explain the extremely low odometer reading since drag races are just 1/8 to 1/4-mile long.

If you keep reading the posts, you’ll discover that The General had a promotional tow car, another C3 Corvette that looks like an LT1 car, and see a photo from the Kentucky Motorsport Hall of Fame website.

One of the most recent posts in this thread sums up the overall Corvette hobby very well in our opinion:

Overall, I think your friend would be proud to see how much the vette community has appreciated his hard work. There are many vette and car enthusiasts that have never been around what your friend has built and to have chevy behind him makes the stories that much more legendary. You’ve been putting plenty of time into this thread, already. Thanks for keeping us updated and please keep taking and posting pics as you rediscover more.

Read it all for yourself from the beginning at Corvette Forum.

Source:
Corvette Forum via Yahoo

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