Alfred,
Pleasure to make your acquaintance.
A good friend of mine performed the restoration on the LeMans Corvette you
referred to. It is currently owned by Mike Yeager of Mid America Designs, a
Corvette restoration and accessory supply company. This particular car is
feartured in the May 98 issue of Corvette Fever magazine. I'm sure if you pick
it up, it'll bring back some good memories.
The paint scheme you asked about was the same one as raced in LeMans. It is
painted in the Ferrari colors, red with a blue stripe (w/white borders) the
length of the center of the car. You were 100 % correct about the Goodyear
influence. Beyond tires, I'm not too sure about what other monetary commitment
Goodyear had with the Ferrari Team, but it was enough to force them to pull
one of the four Ferrari's originally scheduled to go to LeMans, to make room
for the Corvette. Apparantly, Goodyear was not about to not have the Vette
stay home and, supposedly the word was that if Ferrari didn't make room for
the Vette, they would pull the sponsorship for the whole deal. (That kind of
leads me to suspect that there was more than tires at stake). Thus, the
Corvette was painted identical to the other three Ferrari's.
The restoration was complete down to the last minute use of a Peugot spare
tire and the TWA decals covered over with the BP decals.The decal situation
was the result of Bob Johnson crashing in practice and TWA (the transportation
sponser), suddenly realizing a possible potential liability exposure,
requested the decals on the quarters and hood be removed. Instead of removing
them, Johnson covered them over with BP decals.
After LeMans, the car was repainted in Stars and Bars. My friend owns the
"other" rebel car and would be very interested in any photos you may have of
the car. You mentioned slides. Would you consider repints from the slides?
Also, on a personal note, I own the Vince Gimondo (ex-Bruce Behrens) 69
Trans Am Camaro. According to Vince, he and Bob Johnson, Dave Heinz, and all
the guys down in the South east were good freinds..sounds like one big family.
I was wondering if you, too, knew VInce or had any photos of my (Vince's)
Camaro. It was subsequently sold to Gerry Lipke, then Ray Mummery, then Ralph
Noseda, and then back to Ray Mummery.The car has lots of Sebring and Daytona
history and spent most of it's life in the Orlando or Winters Park area.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Fred Greco
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