Even More Unseen Vintage ‘Vette Pictures From Forum Threads

Even more photos, some of them never before seen online, from a true Corvette lover.

It wasn’t all that many weeks ago that we last published a gallery from CorvetteForum member Mike Furman of Criswell Chevrolet, who goes by Mike@Criswell in forum postings. For 40 years, Mike has been selling Corvettes but he has been a true fan of them for even longer than that, and has collected a huge pile of pictures of his favorite cars.

While a few of those are factory file photos or collected from various sites online, most of them are originals that you won’t find anywhere else. Just to make things simpler, we’re going to break the nearly 80 shots into a trio of galleries: Barn finds, race cars, and everything else.

Barn finds that will break your heart

A neglected Corvette left to rot in a field or barn is simultaneously heart breaking and exciting, not to mention intriguing. First, there is that excitement of discovering or uncovering hidden treasure, buried under decades of dust and household detritus. Then there is the intrigue as you wonder how it got to this state and who could possibly neglect such a great car. Finally there is the heartbreak as you see just how much work is going to be involved in restoring the car, or even making it a road worthy driver again.

Here’s a gallery that ranges from well preserved C1 Corvettes, to C3 cars returning to their component elements as the Earth reclaims them.

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Corvette racers from back in the day

The Corvette was conceived and engineered to be a sportscar, which is just one step removed from a racecar, and they have been taking them to the track since they first appeared. The early C1, with the Powerglide and Stovebolt Six, was not much on the track, but the compact size and light weight made it a popular drag race platform in later years with some modifications. Of course, Briggs Cunningham famously took on the Europeans in endurance road racing at Sebring, and Le Mans, first with Cadillacs, then his own cars, and finally C1 Corvettes. John Fitch drove the ‘Vette to a land speed record on the beach at Daytona (145.5mph) in 1958, managed the factory team a win at Sebring, and co-drove the #2 to a win at Le Mans in 1960.

The C2 Corvette Stingray was the equal of anyone on a road course in the 1960s with high revving small block, and later monster big block power. When the C3 premiered it continued to dominate on the track, even as the street version had to be declawed to meet smog laws.

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Something for every type of Corvette fan

A nun taking a drive in a relative’s Stingray, a kindergartner in the driver’s seat making vroom-vroom noises, three happy customers in a two seater, and a new bride in a bright red ‘Vette – this collection of pictures has plenty to love.

Also included are custom cars, prototypes, and and a period car show display. One of the custom cars has a very interesting louvered rear window treatment, that may be a factory prototype that never entered production. The black and white image with the striped roof is an original C1 fastback mule built to explore aerodynamic shapes for the upcoming C2. The car show appears to be the 1958 Chevy display at the GM Motorama, and it really gives you an idea of how sleak the C1 was even compared to the 1958 Impala sports coupe.

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