Vehicle Description
Exterior:
The red exterior is in good driver condition. As one can see in the photos, the finish has fine gloss, smooth finish, and deep shine. The wheels and center caps are in good condition with a great finish. The tires have about 80% tread left and are correctly sized 225/70 R15. The chrome and other bright work shows well overall for a driver. There are some imperfections around the car that are visible in the photos. The typical rivets are visible above the headlights. As with many early C3 Corvettes, the door glass could be adjusted to fit better. The underside of the car is clean the frame is totally solid around the "key hole" area in front of the rear tire. We have included many photos of the underside to show how good it looks.
Interior:
The Saddle interior of the Corvette is in terrific condition. The seats are in excellent shape and look just as good in person just as they do in the photos with no rips, split seams, or excessive wear. The carpet is in nice condition as well with no holes. This includes the rear carpet, which is often neglected. The original radio works, and most importantly the dash has never been cut or modified for an aftermarket installation. The dash is in great shape with no fading or sun damage, there is on little chip that was too small to show up in the photos.
Mechanical:
This Corvette seems to be in good mechanical condition. It starts right away every time and runs well. The car is an great driver that feels nice the road and at highway speeds. In the video below one can observe the car accelerating on the highway up to about 70mph, shifting through all the gears, braking to stoplight, and going through some curves. Please note that there are no strange noises or vibrations and the car performs quite well overall. There is no blue smoke when starting or driving. The car runs cool and does not overheat. The transmission shifts well. The brakes are responsive and do not pull to one side or the other. This Corvette has plenty of power and is quite fast. Also, the engine compartment is clean and detailed as one can see in the photos. The air conditioning work and one can see the a/c compressor engaging properly in the video. The blower motor for the a/c and heater works on all speeds but high. All of the gauges work with the obvious exception of the clock. Some of the fiber optic system works. The entire vacuum system for the headlights and wiper door works from both of their respective switches on the dash and override switches; their complete operation from both switches can be viewed in the video. Occasionally the wiper door will open and close under acceleration. Not enough can be said as to how much of a pleasure it is to drive this car, especially with T-tops out on a beautiful day.
A note on the fiber optic light monitoring system. We consistently receive many questions about the purpose of this system; exactly what it is and what it does. The sole and main idea behind the fiber optic light monitoring system is to simply confirm that all of the exterior lights, headlights, indicators, tail lights, etc., are working and to make the driver aware of a a burned out bulb. Each lamp on the outside of the car has an actual fiber optic cable the runs to an indicator on the center console. There are nine small indicators on the console and each has its own finer optic cable. When the bulb goes on the light travels through the fiber optic cable and illuminates the corresponding indicator on the console. If someone does not remember to plug the cable end into the lamp housing, does any work to the center console, or if there is a break in a connection or anywhere along the cable, that indicator no longer works. As one can image, over time this is very common.
Overall Condition:
Overall, this 1971 Corvette is in wonderful driver condition. Numbers matching is extremely important in Corvette pricing and as one can see, this car is quite correct. There are photos below of the VIN stamp on the engine block, suffix code, and engine assembly date. Since the body build date on the trim tag is not legible the build month is easily determined by the production sequence of the VIN. In my opinion and based on our experience the "Chrome Bumper" cars from 1968-1972 are the most collectible and hottest in the entire Corvette market right now. The value of these cars has gone up exponentially in recent years. They are all solid investments for a collector. One could easily enjoy this vehicle for several years and sell it for more than the purchase price with minimal effort.
