The Corvette Hunter. Tyler Greenblatt

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      This little sticker helped Kevin immediately nail the identification of the Rebel Corvette. Its teammate, the #4 Corvette raced by NART, competed at Le Mans and both cars were given these commemorative stickers.

      “I have a picture of the car on the cover of Corvette News and it’s got the sticker,” Kevin says. “Bingo! Son of a gun!”

      Unfortunately, the Rebel Corvette was such a highly modified race car that it didn’t qualify for entry into the GT class. Team owner Toye English put together another Corvette to race in France, known as the #4 Rebel Le Mans car. Because both cars were owned by Toye English, he received a commemorative 1972 Le Mans sticker to put on each car. Even though #57 didn’t go to Le Mans, it still got a sticker. After the two cars raced together back in the States, the Le Mans car was later sold to Alex Davidson as well, and was later discovered by Jack Boxstrom and restored by Corvette Repair.

      Kevin turned to Dr. West and said, “Doc, I’ve gotta buy this car.”

      But the good doctor wasn’t interested in selling. After Kevin asked repeatedly Dr. West asked, “What do you want to do with this car, Kevin?”

      Kevin told Dr. West how he wanted to restore it back to its heyday. Dr. West knew the car was special but didn’t otherwise know a whole lot about it. What he did know was that he liked the idea of seeing the car restored, and what he really wanted was to once again own a Porsche that he used to race and had been thinking about buying back. The Porsche would cost him $7,000.

      He offered Kevin a deal. “If you give me enough money to buy my old race Porsche back, I’ll give you this car. It’ll cost you seven grand.”

      “Deal.” Kevin handed him $1,000 in cash as a deposit and said he’d be back in the next couple of days with the rest of the money and to pick up the car.

      “He said, ‘You really want this car?’” Kevin remembers.

      “I said, ‘Yeah, I know it’s a wreck, but it’s real and I’d love to have it.’ I remember that I was so numb I couldn’t believe I found this damn thing. So I went back to the show the next day and then got home quickly.”

      Once back at Corvette Repair on Long Island, Kevin hired his friend Billy, who operated a flatbed truck, to bring back the remains of the Rebel race car.

      “I’ll tell ya, that was one of the happiest days of my life, finding that car, because that car is probably the most significant C3 on the planet. They put a 1973 nose on it, but the car was intact. Was it rough? Absolutely, but it was real.”

       Kevin’s trophy, as it sits securely in the Corvette Repair lot after being secured. The high-mount mirror is long gone and the front end was replaced with a later-model bumper. The headlights were also covered up, meaning that this car was used exclusively for short, daytime races.

      Restoration Begins

      Once the junkyard find arrived safely back at Corvette Repair, Kevin grabbed his dossier and began comparing the notes, photographs, and documents that he had amassed on the car to what was actually sitting in front of him. He then began the arduous process of compiling the complete history of the car, starting once again at the beginning with Or Costanzo. Costanzo this time suggested that Kevin contact Walt Thurn, the original public relations manager and photographer for the Rebel team.

      Kevin called him and told him that he had found and currently had in his possession the Rebel Corvette. Thurn more or less laughed him off. “Yeah, you and everybody else thinks they have that car,” Thurn arrogantly stated over the phone. “Mr. Mackay, if you’ve got that car I’ll know you have it because there are some very unique things on that car that only I know about and I’ve got the photographs to prove it.”

      Although confident that he had the car, Kevin relished the opportunity to prove it and leave no doubt. He welcomed the expert critical evaluation that Thurn could provide. He suggested that he would shoot a 36-frame roll of film (before the time of digital photography) of the car and its details and overnight it to Thurn.

       When Kevin sent a roll of film to original team photographer Walt Thurn, it was this image that sealed the deal. Thurn immediately recognized the steering wheel and switch console as having been removed from Dave Heinz’s boat. In addition, all the gauges were original to the #57 car.

      “You son of a gun!” came Walt Thurn’s voice over the phone just a day later. He was out of breath. “You got the car! I can’t believe you got the car! I developed your 36 prints, Mr. Mackay, and let me tell you, that car is so significant and I can’t believe it survived.

      “The interior of that car is exactly СКАЧАТЬ