The 1966 Chevrolet Corvette may not be the rarest American classic, but it’s becoming increasingly hard to find hidden gems like this that are locked away in barns, sheds, or garages. Famed YouTube restorer/collector Dennis Collins got a call about such a sports car hidden away in Niwot, Colorado, and decided it may be worth buying.
As with most finds of this type, there’s a sad human element to the story. It was obviously somebody’s pride and joy. The owner passed away, and I really like how Dennis decides to bring the car over to his window and let her reminisce, tell a few stories about her beloved husband. That’s one heck of a class move, especially considering how much time the collector had to spend getting the Corvette out of its storage facility.
This 1966 Corvette has been sitting in a garage since 1987. Those 35 years have really done a number on the red paint, reminding you that the Chevy sports car’s body is different from a muscle car from that era. The fiberglass is obviously going to need work, but the red isn’t original anyway, as the VIN indicates this left the factory in Nassau Blue Metallic 976.
Seeing this in the daylight for the first time almost makes me sad that they’re going to paint it blue. With the red paint and those oversized tires, she kinda looks like Letty’s Corvette from Fast and Furious. That was also a 66, though the spec was obviously more extreme.
Getting the Vette out on the road required it to be towed across the whole snow-covered yard. It’s a good thing Dennis Collins managed to find a cheap Jeep Gladiator Rubicon rental car, which came in extremely handy.
This 66 Corvette left the factory with a stock black interior and doesn’t have many interesting features to boast about, like a telescopic wheel. However, it does come with a radio, which was introduced in 1963, and the fenders have been flared out.
That year, Chevy began offering the Corvette with an even larger Big Block, the 427 (7.0-liter). However, that would obviously change the look of the hood. Being a base model, this probably comes with one of two 327 small-block V8 producing 300 hp or 350 hp. The more powerful version has higher compression, a larger exhaust, a larger 4-barrel carburetor, and a different camshaft.
Chevrolet made a total of 27,720 Sting Ray Corvettes in 1966, 17,762 convertibles, and just 9,958 coupes like this one. It’s a good thing Collin was careful grabbing the grilles because those are specific to the model year, adding an egg-crate grille insert to replace the previous horizontal bars.
