1976 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe
Personal story and photograph submitted by owner Gary Allen - courtesy of the National Corvette Museum website - for participation in the National Corvette Museum 2008 Historic Motorama II.
Gary Allen grew up in a Chevy family. His father Bob worked in Chevrolet dealerships in Northeast Wisconsin in the early 1930's to the early 1960's until his health forced him to retire. Between his father's love for American muscle and watching the television show Route 66 Gary's life long desire to be a Corvette owner was ignited. Of course as his neighborhood friends got a new Corvette each year because their father owned the Chevy dealership, Gary knew he too would one day own a Corvette. His wife Joyce, who he's known his whole life, therefore came to have the same aspiration.
October, 1975 the Allen's bright yellow Stingray Coupe was brought into this world in St. Louis, Missouri. The car was originally ordered for our local dealership owner's wife. As fate would have it, she did not take delivery of the car because Joyce had told a salesman she wanted a yellow automatic Corvette. And that was exactly how the car was ordered.
In the mean time, both Gary and Joyce were waiting patiently to turn 25 years old so they could afford the insurance for a Corvette. (But, don't feel too bad for the Allen's, because they were able to make due with a 1974 454 SS El Camino and 1973 Gran Sport Stage 1 Buick. (Remember the first fuel crisis!)
Joyce drove the car off the show room floor accompanied by their one-year-old daughter. Gary was working as body shop manager for a local Ford dealership and was unable to attend. Believe me it made a big statement when Gary drove the brand new Stingray Corvette to work the next day.
The car was 1 of 46,558 coupe Stingray Corvette's produced for the 1976 model year. It has a 350 cubic inch engine, and a three speed automatic transmission. The statistics are as follows:
Base Corvette Sport Coupe
Bright Yellow Paint
Dark Brown Leather Interior
Custom Interior Trim
Rear Defogger
Air Conditioning
Optional Rear Axle Ratio
Power Breaks
Turbo Hydro-matic Transmission
Tilt – Telescopic Steering Column
Power Steering
White Letter Steel Belted Firestone Tires
AM-FM Stereo
Heavy Duty Battery
Map Light on Rear View Mirror
Aluminum Wheels
Thirty years, and three children later, Joyce once again drove a new yellow Corvette coupe off the show room floor. This time it was a new 2004. The 1976 has survived all these years without a scratch. There has only been maintenance that would be expected for a 30 year-old vehicle. Even the paint is original. This can only be attributed to the love and respect for this car. The car has never seen snow or salt in the 33,000 miles it's been driven and has always been stored for the winter. The Allen's have all the original documents form the purchase in 1976.
As this bio is written, and Allen's reminisce, they both think that it's probably good that this car can't talk. They know for sure that it's faster than the average deer and their local law enforcement…but, that's another story.
When GM celebrates the beginning of its next 100 years on September 16, 2008, 55 Corvettes will be on display outside its World Headquarters at Detroit’s Renaissance Center. The Corvettes are in fact the Historic Motorama II, a caravan from the National Corvette Museum (NCM) which is comprised of one example from each of the 55 years of Corvette production. The caravan will depart from the National Corvette Museum on September 10th with stops along the way. People attending the GMnext Day activities on September 16th will be able to view the Corvettes before and after the official program.
Look at the next Historic Motorama II Corvette participant, representing a cross-section of Corvette enthusiasts from across the country.
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