Today is the 59th Anniversary of my father purchasing his 1966 Corvette Sting Ray Convertible. Mom called it “Phil’s last fling,” and said it delayed their marriage by a year. I would come almost two years after.
People ask me how long I’ve been into Corvettes, and my simple one word answer…”forever.”
If you haven’t heard me tell the story, my dad won a sales contest for a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary and the prize was a new 1966 Ford Mustang. The story goes that my dad picked up the car at the Ford dealership and then drove it down to Rohrer Chevrolet in Camden, NJ where it was traded in for the Corvette. The trade-in nearly halved the MSRP of $4,988.48 and the rest was financed through GMAC for 36 months at $70.28 per month. You can see those details on the sales invoice including the VIN of the Mustang:
I’ve written about this previously, and you can read my original post from 2007 here.
Dad passed away in 1982 when I was just 14 years old, and mom sold his other cars (1929 Model A, 1966 Mercedes 230SL, 1970s Lincoln Mark V) but she always kept the Corvette. I graduated high school, went to college, moved to Florida, and got married. In 1993 my mom out of the blue said, “you can come get that car if you want it.”
I’ve now owned the ’66 Corvette for 33 years which was longer than he got to enjoy it, and I will always think of it as my dad’s Corvette. I have since added my own Corvette to the garage, a 2025 Corvette E-Ray. It’s fun, fast, and has really cool features like AWD and a power convertible top, but my heart will always be with the Black/Silver Sting Ray purchased 59 years go.
It’s amazing when you think about a man’s simple decision to purchase a new car and how that decision would eventually impact my life in such a positive manner. It’s a pretty cool story.
Related:
Join CorvetteBlogger’s Keith Cornett at the 12th Annual Corvette Invasion Show in Texas on July 18-19
A Long Time Coming: CorvetteBlogger’s Founder Finally Gets to Order His First New ‘Vette!
41 Years Ago Today A Young Man Buys A 1966 Corvette…
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