Oy ’Vette!
Russell Purcell checks out a Penticton man’s beloved 1973 Stingray
Ernie Blumke is, and always has been, a dedicated car guy. At last count, the Penticton man has owned no less than 70 cars and trucks during his lifetime. As the station manager for a country music radio station, Blumke is a man who appreciates the value of entertainment, and the sensation derived when behind the wheel of a high-performance automobile is one form of entertainment he relishes.
Like his 1973 Corvette Stingray.
“I am the fourth owner of this car, which was originally silver, and purchased it in 2006 with the intent of driving it for a few years before getting something else,” Blumke said as we walked around the slinky machine, admiring its bold curves. “I had always wanted a 1973, as that was the last year of the simpler, and much cleaner, ducktail body design.”
The next year General Motors added more bodywork, deep front fascias and valance extensions which make the later cars look rather awkward and heavy.
“It was also the year that I got my driver’s licence, so I wanted to get a 1973 model to commemorate the year that I started driving,” he added.
Blumke has a voracious appetite for muscle cars and currently owns nine such vehicles.
“The 1973 is interesting in that it was the only year where the Corvette had a chrome rear bumper and a plastic front, as prior to this the mako shark look cars had, chrome bumpers front and rear…
“Although it is just a bone stock car fitted with the original 350 V-8 and a four-speed manual, I have to admit it is one of my favourites to drive,” Blumke said with a wry smile. “These cars originally came fitted with the T-gate shifter, which was sloppy, so one of the previous owners swapped it out for an aftermarket Hurst unit, which I like a lot better.”
Cars from this period are quite easy to work on, so its owner does most of the basic maintenance — although he did have the carburetor professionally rebuilt.
He stressed he’s been careful to preserve this car’s survivor status, so most parts are original to the car and, whenever possible, original OEM parts have been used to replace worn items.
“The leather seats are original, as is the carpeting,” he said.
He is particularly proud of the fact that the car has its original Rallye wheels, as well as both the fibreglass and smoked glass roof panels; the latter were still in their leather pouches when he got the car and had never been used.
Speaking of fibreglass, amazingly there is no sign of spiderwebbing anywhere on this car, which is really impressive considering the slinky Chevrolet is 42 years old.
Due to the Okanagan’s rather mild climate, the Stingray is licensed year-round.
“I get a chance to drive it on a regular basis, and I tend to throw it around corners, so I had some work done to the front end and also monitor the condition of the brakes,” he said.
A leisurely road test through the waterfront community of Peachland introduced me to the car and allowed me to get comfortable with it before a second blast at highway speeds to the beautiful wine region of Okanagan Falls.
As I wound my way through the winding back roads, it became obvious Blumke’s Stingray was a capable handler for the period, but it also reminded me how far cars have come in the four decades since. I had travelled to the region in a 2015 Porsche Boxster GTS, one of the most dynamic-handling automobiles on the road today.
The Corvette felt nimble but floaty, and the car exhibited mild understeer when pushed hard. The nose would gently rise as I pressed my foot on the accelerator and its big rear tires clawed at the asphalt and shuttled me forward. Steering inputs required substantially more thought than when I was piloting the Porsche, as the rear-wheel-drive sports car had a slight penchant to lean as gravitational forces subjected the body to lean and roll as I swept through the curves.
The third-generation Chevrolet Corvette, often referred to as a C3, was produced for a period of 15 years from 1968 to 1982 and represents the longest span of time between significant model revisions.
The 1973 Corvette Stingray features a unique design element that came about due to government regulations: The chrome front bumper was changed to an eight-kilometre-an-hour unit with a moulded urethane bumper cover, while the rear remained a two-piece split design. The latter was replaced with a polyurethane system the following year. This added a little weight to the car over previous models, as did the addition of structural guard beams in the doors.
The designers at Chevrolet also selected that model year to give the Corvette a new level of refinement, so a wealth of insulation was added throughout the cabin to reduce the effect of both body and road noise.
“This is just a nice survivor car that I enjoy getting out to drive,” Blumke said. “Sure, it doesn’t have the high performance of the earlier LT1 cars, but it definitely has the looks — and I can still pull 25 miles per gallon on the highway!”