Just Restored 1961 Corvette Crashes Into Car on Final Test Drive

[Rob]

Anyone who's restored an old Corvette, knows the tremendous amount of blood, sweat and tears it takes to undergo the restoration; especially if you're shooting for an official certification from Bloomington Gold or the National Corvette Restorer's Society.

A 15-year restoration process came to an unfortunate end yesterday, when a 1961 Corvette in Mason City, Iowa was hit by a black Chevrolet Impala during it's final test drive.

The crash happened about 9:45 a.m. on South Delaware Avenue near First Street Southeast on Tuesday. Police say the driver of the Impala accidentally swerved into the Corvette while attempting to change lanes. Luckily, no one was hurt, however based upon the image above, the same can't be said for the Corvette.

A good sized chunk was taken out of the Corvette's right rear as well as the front.

The driver of the Corvette, Ray Shimak, who has been restoring the Corvette since he bought it in the 1970s, said he was about to ship the car to its owner, Lee Snell, in Florida.

The Corvette had been stripped down for use as a drag racer, and Snell had spent years tracking down parts for it in order to start restoring it in the 1980. Snell gave it to Shimak in 2006 to take over the restoration.

"All restorations take a lot of time, especially when you start with one that's just a shell," Shimak said. "I just feel for him...he waited so long to get it back."

Shimak hopes to have the car fixed and back to normal around the first of the year.

Source: Quad City Times

 

[Tom Bryant]

Very sad.

 

[c5vetter]

tru dat - but, wonder why someone would be out with a car just restored on a busy interstate like that - would think there had to have been better roads for a shakedown drive??????? Mason City is a very busy trucking hub, etc.

 

[Tom Bryant]

Your right. I'd have a back road route laid out for such things. It looks like he was in the city someplace. I see a crosswalk by the left front fender.

Tom

 

[kpic]

That is seriously sad..

I have a Fall, Winter and a Spring in my C5's engine, trans and diff. Someone hitting her would make me sick..

c5vetter
We live in a rural area and idiots come around a corner here taking their half of the road from the middle.. My former director of engineering was hit riding a sport bike by an idiot taking their half from the middle..

 

[2dogs]

Fink's car

I'm sure by now everyone has seen the picture of Fink's SWC. What a mess. At least he walked away from it. But give some credit to the cars designers. I do not think it was part of their plan back then but if you saw the picture of Fink's car, it was a head on crash and it looks like the car took all the energy out of the hit and left frank OK.