Vehicle Description
1974 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe
It's a great tip.... "Getting to know a Corvette has got to be one
of the great pleasures in life." 1974 Corvette sales brochure.
For consignment and your visual pleasuring, a 1974 Chevrolet
Corvette. Due to federal safety regs moving up to the 5mph crash
bumper, the rear became rounded and rubberized just like the front
to meet the regs. Sans chrome bumpers, this car presents nicely,
particularly with its contrasting shiny rocker trim pieces.
Purchased by our consignor in 1981 and then passed to his brother
before coming home to roost in our consignor's garage, this Vette
was well loved and benefitted from a respray in the original color
and a drivetrain rebuild shortly after his initial purchase. A
numbers matching engine and of course those sculpted looks from
1974 have this car embedded into classic as its genre.
Exterior
The first year without the chrome bumpers and bowtie designers have
taken rolling sculpture to another level. Curvaceous lines use
hidden headlights, a shark-like open mouth front grille in black
and front fenders that take on the feminine form to create the line
of this car. Let's bathe all the fiberglass in an older respray of
Medium Red, maroon if you will, just so it catches a few more eyes
to look a few seconds longer. Slight cracking on the paint can be
seen on the nose and some chipping appears on the sides in front of
the rear tires. Sides are exaggerated coke bottle design, a
Corvette cove within the front quarters, a removable T top in body
matching Medium Red and the vertical rear glass framed on either
side with the flying buttress B pillars and it's looking fine. The
rear uses the Corvette round taillights although now they are
deeply embedded into a roll over rear which is total neoprene and
gives the required protection as per the 5mph crash law from 1974.
Deep dish rally wheels are all dressed up and wrapped in wide Indy
500 raised white letter radials are on all 4 corners. The new
definition of PONY car.
Interior
A sea of silver leather buckets, carpet, dash, and door panels,
with just a few areas of added silver textured panels make up the
original interior. Silver leather wraps the twin high back bucket
seats and presents well but not without a few tears and overall age
wear on the driver's cushions and bolsters. Original deeply sunk in
round gauges front the steering wheel, center of dash, and even A/C
is installed in the console controlled by horizontal wheels for
temperature...modern! The 3-speed automatic transmission shifter is
here as well. Just above is an aftermarket Corvette badged
AM/FM/Cassette player and a series of 5 round gauges in a central
panel with some upper warning lights. The passenger dash has a
leather pouch for storage. Silver carpeting floods the floors and
the T panels are showing no water leakage around the seals which
are supple and shiny.
Drivetrain
Lifting the front hinged hood, we see a reveal of the power plant
for this curvy gal in the form of a 350ci V8 L48 mill. It is
numbers matching and includes a single 4-barrel carb on top of all
the orange goodness that is the block, valve coverings and intake
manifold. On the back is a TH400 3-speed manual transmission, and
the rear axle is set at an AW stamping code 3.08 ratio. All is
clean and nice under here kids!
Undercarriage
Some surface rust on the frame but overall, structurally sound with
strong steel and solid fiberglass for the flooring. Independent
coil spring front suspension with power disc brakes compliments a
fully independent rear suspension with transverse leaf springs and
power disc brakes. Very aero under here as white coated snake light
headers pour down from the orange block and dual exhaust runs to
the rear of the car with stock replacement type mufflers.
Drive-Ability
She fired right up and on the test track it performed beautifully.
Nice smooth acceleration, smooth shifting and good brakes. It
handles like it's on rails and the T top option is a nice feature
without having to fuss with a canvas mechanism. All functions were
working well during our test driving experience but we did notice a
rough idle when we first started the car that did not go away once
we were up to operating temperature.
A rounded rear version from 1974, in nice condition mechanically, a
good solid interior, and just a few flaws on the fiberglass and
neoprene. A known ownership history and well maintained here's your
chance to get onto the game for little money. I'm not sure if you
should frame it and put it into a museum or just drive and enjoy
the heck out of it. I'd take the latter.
VIN DECODE
1Z37J4S403043
1-Chevrolet
Z-Corvette
37-Coupe
J-350ci L48 V8 4bbl 195hp
4-1974
S-St. Louis, MO Assy Plant
403043-Sequential Unit Number
TRIM TAG
B19-September 19th 1973 Build
TRIM 407-Silver Leather
PAINT 74L-Medium Red
Classic Auto Mall is a 336,000-square foot classic and special
interest automobile showroom, featuring over 650 vehicles for sale
with showroom space for up to 1,000 vehicles. Also, a 400 vehicle
barn find collection is on display.
This vehicle is located in our showroom in Morgantown,
Pennsylvania, conveniently located just 1-hour west of Philadelphia
on the I-76 Pennsylvania Turnpike. The website is
www.classicautomall.com and our phone number is (888) 227-0914.
Please contact us anytime for more information or to come see the
vehicle in person.
