1965 Corvette roadster an instant show-stopper
Classic used to pick up wife on first date, deliver roofing supplies
When Rick Ambrose was invited to put one of his eight collector muscle cars in this year’s Crescent Beach Concours d’Elegance in Surrey, B.C., he reached into his toy bin to select the car that means the most to him.
That would be the 1965 Chevrolet Corvette roadster he bought 40 years ago in a local bar.
Ambrose took over his father’s contracting business to begin Arbutus Roofing when he was just 20 years old. He had worked part time for his father doing renovations and had purchased a new 1973 MGB for $3,825 when he was just 18.
Within two years, he had the itch to buy a 1972 Corvette. Ambrose sold his MGB and put together $6,000 and began the search, but fate would intervene. While having a beer with his brother-in-law at the Richmond Inn, they ran into a local classic-car upholsterer who happened to live next door to Ambrose’s brother-in-law.
“You don’t want a 1972 Corvette,” the upholsterer said when the conversation turned to the quest for a Corvette. “You want a 1965!”
He told them a customer had dropped off a red 1965 Corvette for some work and inexplicably never came back for it. The upholsterer subsequently took ownership of the car for the unpaid bill. They worked out a deal and Ambrose bought the car. And he still has it.
“I picked my wife up in that car for our first date,” he said. “I also used it to deliver roofing material to job sites in the early days.”
Since then, he has treated the car to a full body-off-frame restoration to turn into a true showpiece, a fitting selection for display at the Crescent Beach Concours d’Elegance.
He also has a concours-quality 1966 Corvette, a blue coupe with the optional 427-cubic inch engine, which puts out 425 horsepower. The car has almost every option, including side exhaust and knockoff wheels.
Ambrose has been collecting and restoring cars for 40 years. To select a car for the Crescent Beach Concours on Sept. 5, he could have reached deeper into his man cave for other muscle-car magic. For instance, he has a concours-quality maroon 1968 Oldsmobile 442 with the W30 option. It delivers 360 hp and has a four-speed manual transmission.
Then there is the 1962 Chevrolet two-door known as a “bubble top” because of the shape of the roof. Under the hood lurks a 409-cubic inch engine, which delivers a pounding 409 hp, hooked to a four-speed transmission. This car is about power versus weight, so no heater and no radio were added.
Beside the Chevy is an arrowstraight 1965 Mustang Fastback with the optional K-Code 271-hp engine. Four-speed manual transmission, of course.
Above, on a lift, is a meticulously restored red 1965 Sunbeam Tiger with its original 260-cubic-inch Ford V8 engine and four-speed manual transmission. The car is equipped with an optional hardtop.
At the show, Ambrose’s Corvette roadster was displayed beside some other notable collector cars, including some that had been preserved for years in storage. One of the best woody station wagons in existence, a 1940 Ford standard wagon, was among them. Owned by Bob and Sharon Lee of Coquitlam, B.C., the all-original museum piece had been stored in a Seattle garage for 35 years, having travelled just 112,000 kilometres. Another display piece was a 1955 Cadillac owned by Bill Miloglav, which spent more than 20 years stored in a North Vancouver garage.
Historic cars at the show included a 1965 Shelby Mustang, the first street-driven Shelby of its kind, a 1935 Chrysler Airflow, one of the most controversial designs of the 1930s art-deco period, and a 1959 Watson Indy roadster known as the Simoniz Special No. 16. It set two course records at Daytona International Speedway and came second in the Indianapolis 500.
Crescent Beach Concours d’Elegance founder Brad Pelling brought the event to Blackie Spit at Crescent Beach five years ago after it had been held in Vancouver’s Gastown for eight years. All proceeds from this year’s world-class car show went to support the local Alexandra Neighbourhood House charity.