OVERDRIVE
Mustang man meets a Corvette Stingray; celebratory Jaguar F-type; hybrid Lamborghini
TRADITION HAS IT that you can be a fan of either General Motors or Ford, but not both. Having been brought up in a family that drove GM-built Vauxhalls – HC Viva, Chevette, Mk1 Astra – it might seem a little odd that I’ve since crossed over to the dark side. Three of the six vehicles in my Octane Cars fleet are Fords and at the moment I’m using my 1966 Mustang as a daily driver. But when a particularly nice-looking Chevrolet C3 Corvette turned up for sale at a classic car dealership near my house, I couldn’t resist asking if I could have a go.
For sale on behalf of a customer, the Corvette is a 1970 Stingray with a 350ci V8 and four-speed manual ’box. It’s painted in a very handsome metallic blue – actually a Dodge Viper colour – and looks absolutely immaculate, as befits the 38,500 recorded mileage. Fortunately, I’m mates with both the owner and the guy who’s selling it, Ben Mather, a young, upcoming dealer who is a proper petrolhead, and he was happy to toss me the keys.
Now, I’ll confess that I’ve never previously been a fan of the C3-generation Corvette. I always thought it over-styled and, as a victim of 1970s emissions laws, underpowered – probably unfairly in the latter case. But this example could change my preconceptions. The blue paint may not be original but it is the perfect colour for this car, highlighting its contours without being in-yer-face garish. And the closer you delve into the Stingray, the more characterful it becomes. This really is a concept car – the 1965 Mako Shark II – made real, seemingly having gone straight from drawing office to showroom without passing the accounts office on the way.
It starts when you open the driver’s door by pressing a flush-fitting panel, before slipping into a comfortable ‘tombstone’ seat. The saddle-coloured interior is reminiscent of my Mustang’s both in its shade of brown and in its unbridled enthusiasm for the use of plastics (remember the advice given to Dustin Hoffman by a family friend in The Graduate?), but it has a bubblegum brio that makes the Mustang’s seem comparatively clinical. It’s stuffed with rather cheap-looking dials that include a massive speedometer and rev-counter pairing set deep in a soaring dashboard that arches over your knees like a medieval cathedral roof. Never mind the quality, feel the quantity.
The saving grace is that this interior has flair in abundance: it uses a lot of plastic but splashes it around with confidence. The thin-rimmed, three-spoke wheel is a nice touch, too. You’d never mistake the Stingray for a European car but that wheel, those deeply cowled instruments and the sheer flamboyance have a certain Italianate zest to them.
Turn the key, though, and you’re left in no doubt that this Chevrolet is as American as apple pie, as the 350ci V8 instantly fires with a thrilling rumble. You could
‘All-round independent suspension and careful attention to weight distribution, plus steering that’s pretty direct and not over-light, make it genuinely fun to punt along British B-roads’
order Corvettes with a variety of V8s but this car, as the rockercover stickers proclaim, was retro-fitted with a replacement GM Goodwrench crate motor some time ago. That means that it could well have more than the 300bhp (gross) that a stock 350 would have left the factory with – and it certainly feels like it.
Ease away in first, and you need barely a whiff of throttle; it will pull from idle speed in any of its four forward ratios, in fact. But find a clear bit of road, press hard on the loud pedal, and you’re rewarded with proper kick-in-theback acceleration and a glorious twin-pipe soundtrack that has just the right amount of V8 voice without shouting too loudly. Top speed probably isn’t that high, in fact, but the upside is that all the performance is right where you want to use it.
What’s really surprising is just how compact and nimble the car feels, the view forwards sharply delineated by the peaks of the swelling front wings – sorry, fenders. All-round independent suspension and careful attention to weight distribution, plus steering that’s pretty direct and not over-light, make it genuinely fun to punt along British B-roads. The suspension copes well with the big bumps but its secondary ride – how it deals with all the little niggles and jiggles – isn’t quite so good; I found out later that the dampers are aftermarket gas-filled units, so perhaps they’re responsible. It doesn’t lollop along as comfortably as the Mustang but then it’s not as floaty, either.
I brought the Corvette back to Ben’s with a vastly increased sense of respect and admiration. I’d certainly love to have it in my garage alongside the Mustang – and, in fact, that’s exactly the situation its previous owner enjoyed; John Worker also owned the stunning 1966 Mustang GT that graced the cover of Octane 207. Moreover, as we go to press, Ben has provisionally sold both cars to the same new owner. Quite right, too: it’s hard to think of a better complementary pairing.
THANKS TO Ben Mather at Mather Collectable Motor Cars in Blockley, Gloucestershire, mathercollectables.com.