On this day in 1966, a 28-year-old man named Phillip who had recently won a new 1966 Ford Mustang in a Johnson & Johnson sales contest walked into Rohrer Chevrolet in Camden, New Jersey and traded that Mustang in for a new 1966 Corvette Sting Ray Convertible. That young man was my father and today we are officially celebrating 60 years of Corvette ownership.

The Sting Ray wear’s VIN #22891 and it’s a base Corvette Sting Ray Convertible with the 327/300-hp V8 and a four-speed manual transmission. The options were limited to just the AM/FM Radio and Posi-traction. The car was born on May 28th but for some reason I have always celebrated the delivery date as it has a little more meaning (and it falls just one day before the Corvette’s official birthday of June 30th).

The sales invoice from Rohrer Chevrolet shows both the VIN for the 1966 Mustang that was traded in, as well as the fact that my dad made payments via GMAC financing for $70.28 per month for 36 months. My mother once referred to the car as “Phils’ last fling” and says the purchase delayed their wedding until 1967.

I’ve told the story several times over the years about how that seemingly innocuous action of buying a new car would have on Phillip’s unborn son (ME), who came along two years later. I like to say I grew up in that car. Going to a local show or just making a run to the speed shop for a part or two as the engine was removed and rebuilt sometime in the mid-1970s. Those were great memories and even more so now that dad has been gone for all these years.

My dad passed away in 1982 when I just 14 years old. Living in a very small town in Indiana, my mom was known as the widow with a Corvette in the barn. He had other cars which were eventually sold off that included a Candy Apple Red ’66 Mercedes 230SL and a 1929 Ford Model A. Despite the offers for the Corvette, she kept the car and one day out of the blue offered it to me in 1993 as I was starting my adult life in Florida. “You can come get that car if you want it,” she said. Three weeks later with a borrowed pick up and a U-Haul trailer rental, I picked up the ’66 and hauled back to Florida.

When I became the car’s caretaker in 1993, she had been stored in an Indiana barn for 11 years and it showed. If you wonder why we like barn finds so much around here, now you know! I was also just 25 years old at the time, and being a younger owner of a Midyear was a great experience in those early days.

The 1966 Corvette has been mine now for 33 years, which is twice as long as the 16 years that my father got to enjoy the car. But to this day I still refer to it as “my dad’s Corvette.” Hopefully, the car will remain in the family for another few decades if all goes well.

Unfortunately, she doesn’t drive at the moment. I can start her up, but the Holley carb leaks gas due to some stuck floats, and last month after backing her out for a new garage door install, I found out the brakes were no longer…braking. Since the mid 1990s when I first got her and we did the mechanical fixes to get her back on the road, I have witnessed a succession of expert Corvette mechanics who have all aged out on me and retired. If you have any recommendations for a Corvette shop in the Tampa Bay area, let me know!

Related:
Happy 50th Birthday to My 1966 Corvette Sting Ray
59 Years Ago Today…
Decoding a Corvette’s V8 Casting Numbers and Engine Stamps

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