Final missing Briggs Cunningham Le Mans Corvette discovered

From AB

Iconic Race Car to be Unveiled at Corvettes at Carlisle

Whereabouts Unknown for more than 50 Years - See Automotive History on Display

Thursday, August 02, 2012

When Chip Miller co-founded Carlisle Events in 1974 and launched Corvettes at Carlisle in 1982, his heart and mind overflowed with his love of family, love of work and love of the Corvette. In a 2011 film by Michael Brown called "The Quest," Miller's pursuit of an historic racing Corvette from the 1960 Le Mans 24 Hour Endurance Race was well chronicled. Also told within Miller's story was that of a trio of cars commissioned to race by American entrepreneur and sportsman Briggs Cunningham. Miller found his historic racer, the #3 Cunningham car, and it now resides in Carlisle, Pennsylvania as part of the Miller family's private collection. The #2 car, after multiple owners and a drop off the radar for nearly 20 years, is part of a collection owned by Bruce Meyer in California. The #1 car, which also raced at Le Mans at 1960, was, within two years of the race, lost...until now!

Lance Miller, Corvettes at Carlisle, Kevin Mackay, Corvette Repair Inc. and Larry Berman of BriggsCunningham.com are excited to announce that the #1 Cunningham Corvette has been found and will be available to be seen for the first time in over 50 years as part of the 2012 Corvettes at Carlisle event. The car will first be unveiled to a limited audience Thursday night, August 23 at 7 p.m. just off grounds and will then be on stage all weekend long where enthusiasts and event attendees can revel in this piece of automotive history.

Discovered in the St. Petersburg area of Florida, the #1 Cunningham Corvette was the last of the three Cunningham cars to be located. How the car was found, however, is a unique story. Though the search was on for many years, the trail always turned cold. Finally, in June of

2012 the heat was on as the car owner actually researched its VIN number online, which led him to the BriggsCunningham.com website. At that point, site representative Larry Berman called and then emailed Miller, a friend of his and owner of the 1960 #3 Cunningham Corvette, to inform him of the lead. From there, conversations took place with the owner of the #1 car and many of the details from that call fit aspects that had been researched prior. Through multiple phone calls, many questions and even a site visit by the car's current owner, buyer and seller became friendly and within a month, the sale was complete.

Since Sunday July 22, 2012 when the initial payment request was made until now, the car has traveled from Florida to the northeast where it will reside for the foreseeable future. Not only will it be on display at Carlisle in "as found" condition later this month, it will also go through a vigorous restoration process, which may take upwards of two years. Throughout restoration, it's expected that the car will annually return to Carlisle so that enthusiasts can track its progress. Further, Miller hopes that he can work with Loren Lundberg, owner of #4 Camoradi Corvette and Bruce Meyer, owner of the #2 Corvette as well as the new owner of the #1 racer for a reunion of the three Cunningham cars. If that feat were to be accomplished, it would be the first time since approximately 1960 that all four racing Corvettes were together in the same place at the same time.

Finally, as part of the grand unveiling, Miller and Mackay will share the full story of how the car was found, who owns it and what all went into the acquisition of it. These details and more will be told in grand fashion Friday, August 24, 2012 on stage during Corvettes at Carlisle.

Reply to
MummyChunk
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"MummyChunk" wrote in message news:gLidnQAbBO6Xn_7NnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com...

Old news snipped

When this unavailing was to take place an owner with a Florida title came forward and claimed the car. It then was removed by one of the claiming parties and is now at an unknown location. Now the lawyers will share the prize.

"A Florida businessman, Dan Mathis Jr., filed both a stolen-vehicle report and a lawsuit against Carlisle Events co-owner Lance Miller and others, claiming that he is the rightful owner of the famous car. Mr. Miller filed a countersuit in Cumberland County Court in Central Pennsylvania. Both suits were filed last month."

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Reply to
Dad

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They will likely over restore it too. They should keep it as found. Just clean the dirt and dust off.

Reply to
uncle_vito

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Have you seen it? It is not the configuration it was when raced. It was put back to stock form and sold to the public and lived a very hard life. It was so bedraggled that it was just another Corvette being raced on weekends. The only thing that is left of importance is the serial number that identifies it as the Cunningham car. It would not be like cleaning the mud from Sophia Loren after a mud wrestling event and she would look terrific again.

Reply to
Dad

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Thanks for filling me in. I hope some of the fiberglass is the same as well as the chassis, otherwise they could just move that serial number to another car. Putting the racing paint and the racing parts back on would be good too. Seems it would be impossible to have matching number anything. Matching diff, trans, engine, alternator, carb are long gone, although all these were likely replaced by Cunningham for racing, anyway. The car would definitely be worth a million, but not on the same terms as a matching number car.

Reply to
uncle_vito

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Most likely they will be able to save the frame with the header frame. No way will they move the numbers only. Most, if not all, fiberglass panels could have been damaged during its racing days and will be replaced.

Guess what, when you race a car like that you will lose an engine, transmissions, rear ends, and most other parts that are hung on like the generator, alternators were still 3 years away. It will become a matching numbers car as it was raced or it won't be worth the price they paid for it. There is a place within 30 miles of me that will supply you an engine and transmission setup to match any date and size engine you want to puke out the bucks for, and it will be large.

Reply to
Dad

I know you can buy matching number parts, but according to NCRS rules, you have to say that although the numbers match, the components are not original.

I have a short block for my 64 with correct casting date and number stamping on my garage floor. Not original, but purchased like you mentioned.

I do not understand how they could get matching numbers as raced. I do not think anyone recorded the component numbers with the race parts in them. Perhaps for the engine, the pad would be blank since it was never in a new car. Other parts do not have serial numbers but need to correctly dated. They can get that too. So the car could be 'matching numbers' as close to correct as possible.

Reply to
uncle_vito

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