It’s loud, it’s brash and it “likes a lot of bling”.
Neal Walker made no excuses for showing off his absolutely stunning 1969 Corvette Stingray V8 at Beverley’s Classic Car Rally last week, and why should he when it looks this good?
Neal, 59, who lives on Swinemoor in Beverley, fell in love with the epitome of American muscle cars when he worked in the USA in the 1970s.
The memory of driving a 1976 Corvette never left him, but it took a chance encounter at the most inconspicuous of places to fully remind him that he just HAD to own one himself.
He told HU17.net: “Thirty years on I wanted to buy a sports car and I narrowed it down to either a Lotus Esprit or a Mistusbishi 3000GT.
“Then I was at the Swinemoor roundabout and I could hear it before I saw it – it was an 82 Corvette – but by the time I had got to the roundabout it had gone.
“I searched for the Corvette Club and asked if there was someone with a Champagne Gold Corvette and found out he was the Yorkshire region secretary who lived out in Walkington. I went to visit him and that was it.
“I started to look for one and it took three years, starting in early 2002, to find it.
“I had a specialist looking for a car for me and he said to go and see his mate in Leicester.
“So I drove down and he had five in his garage. I saw it, fell in love with and said look, I can give you a deposit but it will be six months before I can get the money.
“He said it doesn’t matter, give me the deposit and I’ll throw a cover over it and it is yours.
“He said as soon as I came in and looked at it he knew I really wanted it.”
With its 5.7 litre, 350 horsepower engine, and a throaty roar unlike anything else on the road, Neal and his Lemans Blue Corvette are easy to spot.
And it’s likely to stay that way too. Although he has tailored the car to his requirements, this is no show car. HU17.net even knew he was at North Bar Within this week seconds before he came into view.
To Neal, it’s a car that brings real enjoyment to him as the driver, as well as giving a huge amount of pleasure to almost anyone who sees it.
He continued: “I have it how I want it, American cars are loud, they are brash, they like lots of bling on them and it doesn’t look out of place. These cars have got the guts to take it and that’s what they were designed for.
“This is a nice, smooth drive. On the tyres I have on it, you get 19 miles to the gallon, which is not bad for a five litre car. On the original tyres, drive over a peanut and you would feel the jolt, but this is smooth with all the rubber underneath you.
“It’s fine in a straight line, but on corners it’s definitely easy in and power out.
“I average about 4-5,000 miles a year in it and it even goes down to the supermarket, although five bags in the back and it’s full!
“It always, no matter where it goes, and I think it’s American cars in general, does have that crowd-pulling factor.
“There were crowds round it here, kids sat in the car having their picture taken. I don’t mind doing that – some say, oh, you can’t sit in my car, but it’s part of it, bringing the younger generation up to appreciate things and them sitting in the car isn’t going to damage it.”
