In praise of my stupidity ..

In 1956 I traded my 1942 Chevy 4 door sedan with a GMC 6 in it buckled up
to a Packard transmission to a high school friend who wanted it and was
tired of driving his dentist dad's Packard convertible.

I will admit that at about 140,000 miles on it the old Packard straight 8
was completely worn out for one reason or another.  But at least the 1936
Packard with the rumble seat in the rear had a stick shift transmission
instead of the later 1942 model in my Chevy with both shift levers turned
upside down so they went up through the floor of the car and I could reach
down and shift the gears in the Chevy that way.  At least it never tore up
transmissions after that modification.

So .. as a high school kid and the one who fixed a very active wrecking
yard owner's two way radios for his wrecker trucks, one of my mentors, told
me, "Mike, if the Packard tranmission spline shaft will fit the Chevy
clutch disks then it ought to be nothing to bolt in a Chevy V8 to take the
place of that worn out Packard straight 8."  I agreed but asked,
"Where can we get one?" Answer, "Well I just got a murder
car from Anderson, Texas.  It's got a '56 Corvette V8 in it that someone
jammed the foot peddle down with a weight, slammed it in gear going down
hill toward the Court House there with a drunk un-wanted fellow in it. 
Yes, the car went down the hill, into the building killing the
gent..."  And, because of the circumstances, nobody seemed to want to
have anything to do with the wrecked car.  Strange what the Mob can do with
life.

Poof!  In went the Corvette!  Away went the Packard convertible!  Duhhh, a
*LOT* faster than ever before and for sure no overheating with that big
radiator and so on.  Wow what a looker!  No hookers, thank you...

But as time went on, as a kid paying my own way through Texas A&M
College, I just could not afford to find a way to do hand machine shop work
to make new brake shoes, suspension parts, you know the drill.

So .. one day in a fit of misery, I sold it to a guy who had to tow it
away, minus the Corvette engine, for $60.

Uhhhh .. decades later I learned a little more about this car.  There were
only 48 of them made, the V8 models.  Actually more of the V12 Phaeton
engine versions were made, but not that many more.  And only a very few six
cylinder versions of the convertible were made for that year.

You've seen the car,  The same kind that starred in "The Last
Convertible" except that one was a V12 Phaeton version.

As best I can tell, restored, and this one had *NO* body damage whatsoever
even as I sold it, although the V12 version is about $400,000 or so now
when one comes up for sale,   I've been told if I had it today, in a good
restored condition, it would likely bring over $250,000.

The Chevy Corvette engine later went into an Austin Healey 100 for me. Well
hopped up, it would float the valves at obout 175MPH on Texas highways long
before the days of radar and so on.  But that's another story.  As for me,
it is amazing what you throw away sometimes in life.  And never really know
until it is too late that you should have kept around...


Mike Luther {at} N117C  !;117/100

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