TIME MACHINE, OR ’66 CORVETTE

The usual time machine in movies is a box you walk into in one era and walk out of in another.

It’s some kind of portal used to go back and fix something.

Things go wrong when the fix starts a domino effect that changes everything else, so you have to go back for a better fix.

A 1966 Corvette is that better fix.

I was eleven years old in 1966.

The cars I knew anything about were found in Hot Rod Magazine.

It was years before my cohort decided the most important thing in life was a set of wheels.

The highlights at sixteen were one guy’s Dodge Charger (hey Neil) and another’s ’69 Malibu 396 SS (hey Terry.)

Both had the growl. What did they ride like? I don’t know.

But what I do know is what a ’66 Corvette rides like, thanks to the J & J Garage.

How does a car from 1966 still look showroom perfect, like a Hot Wheels replica right out of the box?

Because someone cares enough to keep it like that with all matching numbers on the parts and an engine that says, “Let’s Go.”

 

Baby Boomer Ride Of A Lifetime

Car collectors come in two varieties:

The first is Jay Leno and his garage full of vintage cars.

Or Jerry Seinfeld and his garage.

It’s their money, their garage, but how can they truly have ‘their baby, their #1?

The other variety of car collector is a car driver, not a car mannequin standing next to one automobile among a hundred.

I understand the collector point of view from my days as a museum collection manager.

We had every goofy thing imaginable in over 85,000 objects, including an early car built in Oregon.

 

The Benson automobile ended up being stored in a shed behind Benson’s home on NE 92nd Place.

It was sold to neighbor William McAllister in 1951 and then to Walter Rusk in 1973. Rusk restored to automobile in 1973-74 and donated it to the Oregon Historical Society in 1999.

Today, the Benson automobile is on display at the Oregon Historical Society’s Museum in Portland.

 

I didn’t take a spin in it.

 

The Sound Of A Picture

This is a a big one.

 

 

A unique hood graces certain of the 1966 Corvettes. Under it lies 427 cubic inches in either of Corvette’s two new V8s that can be ordered for 1966.

The top-output engine is a 425-hp version with a 11.0:1 compression ratio, a very large 4-barrel carburetor, extremely free-breathing intake manifold passages and a special camshaft with mechanical valve lifters.

The milder version uses hydraulic lifters, a different 4-barrel carburetor and 10.25:1 compression. It develops 390 horsepower from the 427 cubic inches and gives it to you in a way that’s deceptively quiet.

The engines’ official names are 425-hp Turbo-Jet 427 and 390-hp Turbo-Jet 427, respectively.

 

This is the engine you hear at a stop light through rolled up windows, the kind of sound you roll your windows down for.

It’s rare sight, like a seldom seen bird, and stunning when you do.

When the quarter-windows work it’s car heaven.

 

 

There I was back in 1966 watching the coolest car in town roll by, except it’s 2025 and I’m riding shotgun with the warm desert air flowing past and the engine sounding like it’s coming out of the pits at Daytona.

What did it feel like?

 

 

We cruised the two lane highway and stopped at a guitar store.

Not just any guitar store.

We stopped for strings and there it was, the dream come true guitar hanging on the wall.

Did I ask to hold it? Noooo.

Did it call my name? Noooo.

It was a big Gibson cut-away, the kind of guitar you never find when you’re looking.

And there it was.

 

PS: You can’t always get what you want.

 

PSS: But if you try, you might get what you need.

 

Riding around town in a classic growler, and just seeing that guitar on the same day filled me up like a tick close to bursting.

If you’ve had similar feelings and wonder how you look with a happy face?

If it doesn’t look like this, you may not be happy enough.

Give it a try.