1977 L-82 is National Corvette Museum’s New Blue Bombshell

Corvette was donated to the museum by its one and only owner, and marks the first 1977 first model for the museum. 

Bowling Green, Kentucky’s crown jewel, the National Corvette Museum, has received more than a few unique cars to its collection over the past 25 years. There was the first-ever car donated, a ’53 white-on-red car owned by Ray Quinlan. There’s the prototype C8 which made its debut at the museum’s 25th anniversary. There’s even the sole 1983 C4 to make it out of General Motors alive.

And now, another unique car joins the family. The NCM took possession of its first-ever 1977 model, donated on October 25 by Elizabeth “Libby” Smith of Garrison, Kentucky. And like all of the museum’s Corvettes, this one has quite the story to tell.

“My parents, in order to keep me in college, they told me they would get me a new Corvette if I would make all A’s, and a few B’s were acceptable,” said Smith. “My parents were not car people. My mother and daddy knew they had to dangle something in front of me – they’d say, ‘We have to keep her going!’”

Smith was a student at Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky, and had been in a steady relationship with a guy, so steady that she thought about marriage. Rather than see her studies go to waste, her parents trotted out the promise of a Corvette if all conditions were met.

“The reason I ordered this was because it looked better with the white,” Smith said of the blue-on-white Corvette. “I wanted these seats to always look good, so when the car came in, I told the guy to leave plastic on the seats, that I was gonna get seat covers made.”

Smith ordered her Corvette in October 1976 from what was then-known as Larry Fannin Chevrolet in Morehead (now known as Eagle Chevrolet Buick GMC). Her new car came with the L-82 350 V8 and a four-speed manual, plus the gymkhana suspension for extra fun on the country roads.

“I got a puppy, an Irish setter, and the Irish setter, he was so small that he could ride standing up behind the seats when I first got the car,” said Smith, who got her dog at the same time. “As he grew, then he got to come to the front seat.”

Smith got into Corvettes at an early age, thanks to her uncle and his ’62 ‘Vette. She says she remembers going for rides in the car, with him proclaiming that his car was “a real sports car.”

“I’m single, I have no children,” said Smith. “I do have family, but I know it would be an inconvenience for them to take care of it. I’ve been to the Museum several times, including when it opened. I’ve always been a strong promoter of it. If I was going to put my car some place, I’d want it to be where it would be appreciated, viewed and taken care of.”

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