BY JERRY HEASLEY (^) I PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMES RANAHAN
Rare Finds
1960 Corvette Found in Old House
s there such a thing as
car-ma? There is karma.
In 1976, James Ranahan
worked for Whitley
Chevrolet in Tampa,
Florida. He was looking for a project
Corvette and guess what he found?
In a warehouse in Tampa he found a
1960 model that, “All it was, was a body
and a frame, and it took me probably a
year, a year and a half, to find everything I
needed to put it back together.”
James drove and drag raced his 1960
model. But, with his family growing and
his wife pregnant, he wound up selling the
Corvette. For more information, you can
catch James at the end of the movie The
Quest, which is the story of finding the
Briggs Cunningham #3 1960 Corvette that
won LeMans in 1960.
Yes, the 1960 model from 1976 was
that historic racer, except James did not
know, and neither did the man he sold it to.
James would have to wait more than 30
years to find out this legacy.
Meanwhile, he wanted one last 1960
model to restore. He had given up his
hobby shop where he worked on his
Corvettes, but no matter. He had the skill
and the room to do one last car at home.
One last car, oh boy. The catch is, he was
looking for a specific model year: a 1960,
which certainly makes sense.
Wonder of wonders; his friend Mike
Hooker phoned him one day about an old
Corvette hidden away in the single-car
garage of an old house in the downtown
area of Tampa.
Apparently, a pool company on Dale
Mabry, a well-traveled thoroughfare, had
expanded and bought two houses behind
their building. In one of the houses,
they found a 1960 Corvette, white with
a blue interior.
original owner had purchased this
1960 Corvette for his wife almost 60
years earlier.
“Mike and I have breakfast every
Saturday morning. So we had breakfast
and went over and met the owner. I think
his nephew had contacted somebody
else. They came down. We were there at
the same time. They made him an offer
and I made him an offer and I ended up
getting it.” VETTE
The 91-year-old original owner, Andrew
Young, was still alive. In 1959, he ordered it
for his wife from a Chevrolet dealer when
he lived in the Carolinas.
“I’m 75 now. I’ve probably built 100 of
them. This is going to be the last one. I’m
building this one for my wife,” James said.
This 1960 Corvette was outfitted with
the base 230-horse 283 backed by a
Powerglide automatic, which would be
perfectly suitable for James’ wife. The
James Ranahan got
the chance to buy
this 1960 Corvette,
stored in this single-
car garage in Tampa,
Florida, for 45 years,
stretching back to the
time he found another
1960 model in a ware-
house in Tampa. He
noticed the serial
number, 1601, which
he said, “makes it a
very early November
(1959) build.”
James Ranahan was
elated with his latest
1960 Corvette find.
He said, “It’s still got
the inspection sticker
(dated 1974). I have the
plates. I have every
registration from the
day he bought it, right
up to the last one.”
58 VETTE 19.11
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(Nandana)
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