Turbo-Jet

Jim Gibson
Times Colonist

Saturday, July 26, 2003

The rumour had grown to near mythic proportions among Corvette club members. Somewhere in a garage in Greater Victoria supposedly languished the great granddaddy of every model that's gone down the road for the past 50 years -- a 1953 Corvette, one of the original 300 off the line at Flint, Michigan, in General Motors' first stab at creating an all-American sports car.

Nobody had actually spotted it on the streets of Victoria. Still, members of the Victoria Corvette Club talked about the possibility in reverent tones.

Longtime Corvette club member Larry Eastick remembers first hearing about the local Corvette crowd's answer to the Holy Grail more than a decade ago. Some heard it was owned by a firefighter. Some were more specific, believing it was an Oak Bay firefighter.

Earlier this year, Eastick decided it was time for the club to run down the rumour. It was an opportune time to try. This year is The Chevrolet Corvette's 50th anniversary, a celebration of the first American sports car.

Besides, the Victoria Corvette Club is hosting the Canadian Council of Corvette Clubs (Western Region) annual convention on the B.C. Day long weekend. About 150 cars are to arrive from as far away as Fort St. John and San Diego. Imagine, organizers thought, a '53 on display nose-to-nose with Eastick's own 50th-anniversary special edition 2003 Corvette. It would be the undisputed centrepiece of the Sunday morning Show 'N Shine at Gorge Kinsmen Park.

The rumour turned out to be true -- right down to the car belonging to an Oak Bay firefighter, assistant chief John Hermans. Until Eastick and club member Rod Bushby came calling this spring the car had been in storage for nearly two decades.

Hermans bought it in 1971. He was a single guy just out of the RCMP with a bit of cash to spend. He believes his #86 of 300 '53 Vettes is one of only three in Canada.

Hermans won't say what he paid for the car he first spotted in View Royal. Nor will he reveal its current insured value. However, he has heard of a '53 selling at auction for $170,000 US. He'd "probably" take that for his, he concedes with a smile.

Eastick recalls his first glimpse of the firefighter's legendary Vette was almost upstaged by another car when Hermans opened his garage doors. Parked right behind the white '53, then literally under wraps, was a red and white '57 Corvette.

"Holy cow! He's got two Vettes!" thought Eastick. It was as though he had found the Holy Grail side-by-side with the Shroud of Turin.

Hermans dubs the younger Corvette his summer car, the one he drives to the fire hall instead of his 1967 El Camino. The '53 had been in storage since the early '80s, when he stopped showing it. By then, he had a family and free time was in short supply. Besides, he already had boxes of trophies and plaques stored in his garage.

He retires this fall, which will give him time to bring the '53 back to show-shape, although showing it no longer has the same appeal for him that it does for Vette-ophiles such as Eastick, now on his third Corvette.

A retired theatre technical director, Eastick spent nine hours readying his anniversary edition Corvette for last weekend's Richmond show. He drove away with the top award.

"Mine was cleaner," he says, justifying his win. But nine hours is nothing, according to him. He spent at least that prepping his first Vette for its debut show, only to be teased by Bushby that he should have started his serious cleaning and polishing two weeks earlier. Victoria police officer Bushby estimates it takes him 70 hours to bring his '86 up to show standard.

Eastick managed to keep last weekend's preparation down to the minimum because his $84,700 car was almost fresh from the showroom. Even so, he borrowed a friend's hoist in Surrey to spiff up the car in places only he and his mechanic would ever know intimately. He zeroed in on those hard to reach spots using an improvised swab-tipped kabob. "They don't make Q-Tips a foot long," he explains.

He even waxed the car's under-carriage, he continues, not the least bit embarrassed about what many would consider compulsive behaviour. Both he and Bushby joke about being "****" -- or obsessed -- with the minutiae of their cars.

One owner even goes so far, says Eastick, as to fit the tires with fabric booties to keep the rubber tips of its pristine factory issue tires from wearing down.

"A real Corvette owner has the original air in the tires," deadpans Eastick, repeating an often-heard zinger among somewhat less fastidious Vette owners.

But what's hard to peg is why a Corvette as opposed to another car. "Because I didn't go out and spend $135,000 for a two-seater Porsche," quips Eastick.

Particularly the early Corvette models have sensuous lines. Certainly they easily underscore mass media theorist Marshall McLuhan's contention that the automobile is the North American male's "Mechanical Bride."

The 30-member Victoria club is decidedly boys-with-their-toys. Their female partners have associate-member status. In the past, there have been two Corvette-driving female members. However, one did join as a male and later underwent a sex change.

But there's more to a Corvette for Bushby than its great -- and curvy -- lines. He's equally drawn by the car's history as "it developed over the years into America's sports car." Eastick labels the Corvette the epitome of the American dream. "It's like, if you're British, you have to own a Rolls."

Route 66, the 1960 television series that iconized the Corvette, seems an obvious source for this American automotive dream for, at least, the baby boomers. The series chronicled the weekly adventures of two buddies going down the road in their Corvette. Bushby and the others all remember watching the series but don't credit it with sparking their love affair with the Corvette. At least, they don't admit it.

As a baby boomer, Bushby is among the younger members of the club. Most of the membership now is pre-baby boomer, retired from places as diverse as the post office and a bank.

"It's a time when we've got disposable income," says Eastick, explaining this demographic ability to indulge in the hobby.

But Corvette clubs particularly offer members something more than mere reverence for these fast fibreglass cars. It has an active social side, combining various car events and rallies with on-the-road camaraderie.

This is one reason Eastick convinced his older bother, a retired provincial highways supervisor and new widower, to become involved. "He needed a focus other than sitting at home and feeling sorry for himself." He found it in a '99 Corvette.

The two brothers drive their Vettes in tandem to conventions throughout western Canada. Next stop? Edmonton, Labour Day weekend.

© Copyright 2003 Times Colonist (Victoria)

Stewart's74

:thumbs:

74-Roadster

Thanks for sharing. Great story!

BUT WHERE ARE THE PICS? :lol: :lol:

Noggles

Neat story! :cool:

zwede

Canadians!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

1978Vette

:chevy :thumbs:

1house3kids0vette

Sounds like you guys found Yeti, the Abominable Snowman and Bigfoot all in one garage. Great story.

rexx78

Great story. Thanks for sharing. :thumbs:

yellowvette837

Great Story
:cool:

barkingowl

Great story! :cheers:

Jaybo

I'll stay fake. :jester Mine's a driver. :thumbs:

page62

We have one local club member who's rumored to lick the underside of his C5 clean before entering it in a show. Win at all costs -- that's his motto! :lol:

corvettemaster

:cool: story

WPEDirect

What the heck...?? :mad I don't know about you guys, but I bought my Corvette to drive. I bought one because I have grown up admiring them and always desiring them. I absolutley DID NOT buy my car just to have a better sports car than anyone else - this kind of mentality is what gives Corvette owners the 'Stick-up-the-you-know-what' stigma. I can't believe a 'true Corvette enthusiast' would say such a thing! Apparently, his is just owned as a status symbol - a reason to brag.

Hey, I think I'll go buy a hamburger and put in it in the fridge - but never eat it. I'll just open the door to admire it every now and then... maybe show my friends. Make sense...?

73- 454 Monster

Sure sounds like another Barn Story :lolg: :lolg: :lolg: :lolg:

Down8

He was joking - making fun of the same type of person you assume he is.

I plan on driving any C3 I buy, but a '53 can wear the trailer queen badge with pride.

-bZj


[Modified by Down8, 2:05 PM 7/29/2003]

SuperFast80

:troll cough, troll, cough :troll

Dwayne 76

Superfast, your killen' me :lolg:

Steven P

:cool: :cool: :cool:

Viss1

A '53 is worth a heck of a lot more than CAN$170K...