1970's Chevrolet Racing

GCorvette

CCCUK Member
@teamzr1
In response to the fabulous videos of your 1999 C5, you did indeed correctly pick up on that I like that throaty race car rumble. :cool:(y)

My father raced British sports and saloon cars in the 1950's, 60's & 70's, so from birth I was always at a race track and by the age of 7, I had latched onto the thundering V8 Camaros that were causing a storm on the UK scene.

The likes of Frank Gardner, Martin Thomas and Stuart Graham were my racing heroes.
SCA Camaro.jpg
73MM_15_JochenVC_04981D.jpg

Ironically, some 35 years later, I would buy my first Corvette (a C5) from Stuart Graham's brother Chris proving what a small world it is!

My first introduction to the Corvette didn't come until 1972 then aged 9 when I saw them race both in the UK and at Spa in Belgium.

This 1968 C3 was brought over in '72 and converted into a race car and campaigned very successfully by Rhoddy Harvey Bailey in the British Mod Sports class.
He set a new lap record and won in the Corvette's first outing with a further 5 wins that season.

1647524967578-ba89bb95-6a8b-4788-adff-6e1b6b3b88e8~2.jpg

A trip to Canada in 1978 aged 15, sealed the deal for me, my first time spent around road going Corvettes as this extremely 'period' photo of me shows. πŸ™ˆ
1626898034710-f13e2b45-f1d8-420c-8dcb-747de4822c19~3.jpgBy 1982 I was out of school and out on my first full rock n roll tour with Genesis and I grinned from ear to ear every time a thundering Corvette pulled up under my window on the tour bus.

The Texan sound and light crew found this most amusing! πŸ˜‚πŸ€£

So that's the backstory on why my C3 (when I get it later this year) will reflect both the road and racing heritage and sound as throaty as I can legally make it!

Thanks again for sharing those videos!
 
Last edited:

teamzr1

Supporting vendor
Your Welcome GCorvette
and thanks for this nice write-up and photos !
Clearly, you're a Corvette junkie ! :)

Mark should put this in the next CCCUK newsletter
 

Roscobbc

Moderator
Remember going to Brands Hatch in the late 60's (perhaps even 1970) watching Camaros and Boss Mustang's racing........that wonderful open exhaust sound could be heard all over the circuit (unlike the Brit stuff) - fantastic memory!
 

Nassau65

CCCUK Member
Those early 70-73 camaro’s sure look good. In about 1975 a friend of a friend who was a few years older than us had a 71-73 ( can’t remember exact year) 396 in dark metallic green. Nice car.
 
Top