The 25th Anniversary is traditionally celebrated with silver. Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Corvette is a Silver Anniversary edition, and part silver, but is not quite up to partying just yet. Will that make its price anything worth celebrating?
With a 455 in the bed, many of you considered yesterday’s 1949 Chevy Five-window to be akin to Amber Heard... in a chastity belt. What was the point, right? Well, just like a chaste Ms. Heard, that truck would get you noticed wherever you go, so there is that.
Full disclosure - you’re not going anywhere with Amber Heard, locked-up goods or not. Not only that, but few of you wanted to go anywhere with that Chevy - at least not at its asking - and it dropped in a 75% Crack Pipe loss.
Maybe it was the odd mix of Olds engine and Chevy truck that snatched defeat from the jaws of victory for yesterday’s candidate? I mean, I’ve got nothing against such mixed marriages, but I’m just saying. Well, we’re not taking any chances today, and so this 1978 Silver Anniversary Corvette has an honest to goodness SBC under its fiberglass hood, I checked!
Nineteen seventy eight wasn’t just the Corvette’s 25th anniversary, it also represented a year when a number of notable things happened to Chevy’s iconic sports car. For the first time (but not the last) the Corvette paced the Indy 500 that year, an event that was feted with a special pace car production model.
It was this year too that the Vette’s body received its first major non-government regulated change with the adoption of a bubble back window. That offered a panoramic view into the car’s still annoyingly difficult to access cargo area. Other updates for ’78 included a revamped interior with new gauges and a proper glovebox, and an increase in fuel capacity from 17 to a non-stop kegger 25 gallons.
All ’78 Corvettes are badged as 25th anniversary cars - hey, they were all invited to the party - but there was a special metallic silver over metallic charcoal paint scheme that was offered as celebratory duds. Those cars also received - gulp - a silver interior.
This ‘78 Vette is two-toned but the refreshed paint is dark on top and light on the bottom in the fashion of the Indy pacer not the 25th party car. The car presents well in the ad - at least on the outside. That paint looks awesome, and the car doesn’t have any goofball commemorative signage on the side. It also lacks the aggressive nose and tail spoilers of the Indy Pace Car.
Once you start opening things up however, the car looks a little less fresh, although there’s nothing there to really scare you off. Yeah the interior is a little tired - and the driver’s throne a lot tired - but at least it’s not spaceman spiff silver. There’s also a stick shift for the Muncie 4-speed in there, which should make the modest power offered by the 350 under the hood entertaining at least.
That 350 is claimed to be a 4-bolt main engine and doesn’t seem - although I could be wrong - to be the mill that came with the car. If it is, it’s probably the L-48 which in ’78 brought 185-bhp to the Corvette party. This one has a new water pump and relieves itself of heat though an aftermarket aluminum radiator. It’s a grunge concert in there, but the ad says that the car runs and drives so there you go.
Apparently there you stop is another story as the ad notes that brake pads are still on the party planner’s to-do list. That’s about $50 and a Saturday morning’s work so no big deal. While you’re at it, you could throw in a new battery and adjust the Edelbrock carb and set the car’s timing (I like advanced) as those are also issues noted by the ad. The missing A/C compressor on some other hand, may take a little more effort.
The other issue noted is that the vacuum that keeps the headlights down isn’t working, which sucks because it doesn’t suck. At least the lights work while they’re up there.
Okay, so this 25th Anniversary ‘Vette needs some lovin’ and it’s not exactly all original, but it’s also damn handsome and a 4-speed to boot. Does all that balance out? More importantly, does the car as it’s described in the ad balance out its $5,700 asking price?
You decide!
Charlotte Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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