Whenever Dan Baker hears “Good Vibrations” on the radio, he can’t help but get a little sentimental.
You see, the Hastings, Michigan man has more than the usual connection to the Beach Boys, especially when it comes to Brian Wilson, one of the founding members of the band who passed away earlier this week at age 82.
Back in 1993, Baker was able to purchase the Sunfire Yellow 1966 Corvette Sting Ray convertible that the music legend had purchased new on July 15, 1966 – only three days before the Beach Boys released their hit single “Wouldn’t It Be Nice.”
Though the vintage C2 Corvette has passed through three owners since then, it remains in the same condition it was when Wilson drove it.
“It’s got the old paint on it, the steering wheel, the seat that Brian Wilson sat on, and the stick shift that he grabbed and shifted,” Baker tells Fox 17 News, noting that Wilson even called the ’66 Corvette his favorite car he ever owned.
Baker recounted the history of the car since Wilson traded it at a Mercedes dealership in 1970, where a Jenison, Michigan man named Jim Snyder bought it and then sold it three years later to former Grand Rapids assistant prosecutor Gary Wallin.
“I knew Gary had it so I bugged him and said, ‘If you ever want to sell that car, I’d like to buy it’ and he said ‘OK’ and he’d just smile,” Baker says. “So one day I’m driving out of town – it’s about the 10th of July, 1993 and I see an ad for the car. It says, ‘Former Beach Boys Corvette,’ so immediately I called the phone number, which was Gary Wallin’s house in East Grand Rapids. He goes, ‘Oh, I was supposed to call you when I sold the car, right?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He says, ‘What do you want to do?’ I went back on (the next Monday) and picked up the car, and I’ve had it for 32 years.”
Not surprisingly, decades later, Baker says he likes owning this historic Corvette and even has a photo of a youthful Wilson smiling beside the car. “I like to share it with people. I love the Beach Boys sound and the music. It’s just a piece of Americana, you know? Whenever I hear ‘Good Vibrations,’ I just kinda stop and I think of him driving this car.
“It’s gonna be a different world without him,” he said this week, after pausing a moment to collect his emotions, “but we’ve got his music and the gifts he left, so we can enjoy what he gave us.”
For Baker, that includes the musician’s vintage Corvette, too.
The video of this interview is on FOX-17’s YouTube channel, but you’ll have to watch it there as they do not allow embedding on third-party websites.
Source:
fox17online.com
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Saw the Beach Boys and Chicago at a concert in the late 70s. Sat near the front and will never forget it.
I always wondered what happened to Brian’s 66, pleased to know it’s still cared for. NOW, what happened to Dennis’s 63 dark blue Split Window Coupe, on there album cover????
‘66 small block convertible is the epitome of what a Corvette should be.
VERY cool! This is a true treasure Corvette in my opinion….I wonder where Dennis Wilson’s blue 1963 split window coupe ended up….So wonderful, bless all three of the Wilson Brothers and may these amazing songs be brought out, held onto and studied by students world wide as the years unfurl….
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