The modded ’73 Corvettes keep coming, but this one currently on Bring a Trailer brings something extra to the table — an international backstory stretching nearly half a century and a build sheet wild enough to stop any C3 fan mid scroll.

The listing, titled “572 Powered Widebody 1973 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe 4 Speed,” sits at $21,000 with six days left, and the comments section is already buzzing.

According to a December 1997 Vette magazine feature, the car was heavily modified almost immediately after being purchased new. The original owner didn’t think small — he commissioned a Greenwood four link rear suspension and brake setup, a widened body, and an alloy fuel injected big block engine. As seller ForzaV12 put it in the comments, “huge money went into the initial build” — and it shows.

But the story gets stranger.

The car reportedly left the U.S. for Argentina with its original owner, then returned stateside in 1983. A collision repair shop owner bought it in Arizona in 1995, got it running, and refinished it in blue. When the current seller acquired it in 2016, the engine was gone — a missing piece of a decades long puzzle.

That piece returned in 2024, when VanGordon Racing built and installed a 572ci V8 with forged internals, large valve heads, a 950 cfm Quick Fuel carb, Weiand Track Warrior intake, MSD ignition, Hooker headers, and a Fuel Safe cell. A Super T10 four speed, McLeod clutch, scattershield, custom driveshaft, and oversized half shafts complete the drivetrain.

As the seller noted, “the motor, etc. have less than 50 miles on them”.

The fiberglass body was widened decades ago, wearing a molded rear spoiler, widened bumper, tall cowl hood, side exit exhaust, and a front air dam (now cracked at the upper edge). Functional vents, brake ducting, and a flush fuel filler hint at the car’s original mission: speed.

Commenter CarDogThreePedals summed it up perfectly: “Style meets function in a seriously good way… now that’s a Corvette.”

PSE 15×10 forged wheels, BFGoodrich Radial T/As, Greenwood suspension, Koni coilovers, alloy sway bars, and Hurst Airheart brakes over drilled rotors round out the chassis. The seller even notes the car may be the only street car ever built with Greenwood IMSA suspension and brakes.

Inside, the Medium Saddle leather buckets remain, along with power windows, a heater, and an AM/FM stereo. The interior’s relative simplicity caught commenters off guard.

As johnjm put it: “The money must have gone into the exterior, engine, and chassis, because the interior looks surprisingly stock.”

The tach doesn’t work, the odometer shows 167 miles (about 20 added by the seller), and the driver’s seat shows some wear — small reminders that this is still a 50 year old Corvette beneath the madness.

The seller reveals the original owner contacted major motorsport names to help build “the fastest street car” of the era. Another commenter spotted a Ferrari P3/4 test car in the seller’s garage photos — correctly — prompting ForzaV12 to confirm it’s a hero car from Ford v Ferrari.

And then there’s the license plate.

CarDogThreePedals joked that DeLorean owners with “88 MPH” plates have nothing on this Corvette, adding: “As Mick ‘Crocodile Dundee’ would say, now that’s a license plate.”

Today, this Corvette sits as a rolling time capsule of ambition, experimentation, and cross continental travel — now revived with modern horsepower and offered with service records and a clean Arizona title.

As the seller summed it up:

“Yeah, the original owner wanted to build the fastest street car possible back then.”

With six days left, the bidding is only warming up. How hot would you go?

Source:
Bring a Trailer

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