1979 was the highest volume Corvette produced to that date. They were not especially remarkable amongst the other smogged up Chariots of Fire in that era. This one was remarkable for the following story. Note the plate is a manufacturers plate MFG. There were not too many car manufacturers in Connecticut, then or now - period!

This Navy/Doeskin 1979 L-82 4 speed Corvette was sold/delivered by a Chevy dealer in New York on May 2, 1979. The odometer showed 9 miles. Shortly thereafter it was traded? / wholesaled? / bartered? to a specialty car builder in Connecticut called Doval Coach.

Doval would take a brand new loaded Buick and basically strip off all the body skin and replaced it with their 1930's style Auburn Cord type look alike. The Excaliber was a similar Corvette based kit car.

When I went to look at this 1979 Corvette the owner at Doval said it was part of a deal for one or more of his kit cars. This Corvette and another were part of that deal plus ?? The factory in New Haven, (not West Haven) had two English craftsmen, he called them panel beaters and they indeed were using large throated powered presses to form Aluminum pontoon fenders on site. Recently I saw a sales brochure for a 1979 Doval Shadow "B" and that brochure stated the bodies were fiberglass but I distinctly remember those workers and his comments. Perhaps they were building metal molds to make uniform hand laid fiberglass parts or ??? If I recall correctly he claimed only producing 18-20 car a year.

This same Doval brochure identifies 3 models available: Doval Boattail 2-Door Convertible, Classic 2-Door Convertible and 302 (exact reproduction of Cobra 289). However, the only models I saw there were this 1979 Corvette and a new Buick being skinned.

We made a deal and when I returned he let me use his MFG plate to go to the Dept of Motor Vehicles for registration. The title was from New York, and the Connecticut DMV rejected it for some reason or another. I went back to Doval and he said he would get it straightened out and let me continue using his MFG plate. This began a delay of several month's, however eventually the title did clear.

The delay involved a "problem" with money owed to the replica builder by a customer that had their Buick kit car conversions and was also withholding titles to the Corvettes. One thing led to another and that customer somehow ended up with them, inside a room at the former Pequot Motor Inn in Southport, Connecticut. The motel itself was a dump, but located in a rather exclusive area of Connecticut.

What happened next is that the builders, tried to coax this fellow into paying his debts. Apparently he was reluctant, and they proceeded to beat the snot out of him. Then they literally, not figuratively, stripped him and Tarred and Feathered this fellow. That's right, Tarred and Feathered. Evidently he changed his mind, and even decided not to seek relief with the local police. However, there was something like $6,000 damage done to the motel room and the motel owner did press charges.

That's the honest truth. I wasn't there and I've got no pictures to show you. But it really happened and I'm sticking to my story. :-) If I can locate the newspaper story of that event at the Connecticut Post newspaper I will post it. Incredible, but true.

Other events with my olde 1979...

The water pump and fan ate the shroud and radiator while my wife was driving. My cousin blew the rear when I loaned it to him one weekend. In a slow funeral procession to my buddies fathers interment, it dropped a valve as we pulled into the cemetery and rapped like a pneumatic rivet gun. It was completely de-smogged with true dual exhaust. It ran like stink, but sold it when Connecticut said they would institute annual smog inspection.
My wife sold it for $4900 to a fellow who said he was going to "restore it" because he was familiar with fiberglass boats. I don't know where it is today but had several years of fun beating it up. C3's were fun cars back the, NCRS did not judge them yet. They were just old Vettes.

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