C.C.G.D. Who's Who - John Luther

Let’s start with my first car, a 1947 Chevy Business Coupe.  I played with it, dual exhaust, carburetors, plus ignition.  One night my Father said the car is going to my Aunt and that he had gotten two newer cars.  I paid for mine, a 1953 Chevy Bellaire Sports Coupe.  I started all over again, dual exhausts and carburetors.  Then there was this business that they would give a lifetime guarantee on their transmissions.  I went through many of their transmissions.  I’ll bet they were very happy that I made a motor and transmission change.  That was bad on my part.  The motor was a six cylinder, GMC, 270 bored out to 292.  Then came a camshaft, exhaust, then the carburetors, not just one, but five.  The motor was not very reliable.  The car was down more than on the street.  Dad had a long talk with me about the car.  Well, the car went back to stock.

In the summer I told my Dad that I was going to get a Corvette.  You could not believe what he said.  Many weeks later, on the way home from work, I stopped at a Chevy dealer and started to talk about the new cars.  Then I said the right word, “Corvette”.  He said he had two, a white F.I. and a black F.I. He started it up and that was it.  I said all I had with me was $10.00.  He asked if I had a trade-in.  He checked the trade-in out and said “Sold”.  I picked up the car two days later.  It had 12 miles on it and by the time it had 26 miles on it I was winding 6000 plus through the gears and not enough road left for 3rd gear.  I said to myself, I had a car, but little did I know about it.  The first four tires didn’t last me 90 days.  Oh would they smoke!  I then learned that the motor was too much for the clutch, transmission and even the differential would not hold up.  I ended up with a 11 inch cast iron flywheel for a truck.  I went through many clutch disks and now the transmission was not very good.  I went to a ’58 BorgWarner 4 speed T-10 transmission.  Not the best but much better than the close ratio 3 speed.  Now came a M-21 Muncie.  The differential was not the best, OK for everyday, but not for hard use.  I went through many differentials and axles.  I tried many different axle ratios and a 456 positraction worked the best and longest event though I went through about four complete differentials.  I am back to a 336 positraction.  I did some motor changes in 1961. I put in a 327 F.I. short block from a ’58 until ’62.

I did many different things with the car.  I raced at three different drag strips and many, many Gymkhanas, along with a few quarter mile ovals.  There were a few high speed runs at Meadow Dale International Raceway.  In 1962 I did get a Midwestern Council of Sports Car Clubs Competition License.  Later that summer, my girlfriend, now my wife, said I was going to have to stop this racing because we are going to get married in the fall and it is costing too much money.  In 1965 my wife said that we could no longer afford to run two cars, so the Vette sat in the corner of the garage until 1979.

In 1987 I was at Road America in Wisconsin running down the front straight at 8500 rpm’s in high gear.  Not bad for an old tired motor.  Three weeks later the connecting rod caps came through the side of the oil pan.  Time for another motor, this time a blue printed 1957 FI block.  I thought the 327 was good but this old 283 was something else.  On the dyno the figures were very high for a 283.  I had to replace the block in 2001.  In 2002 I had disc brakes installed by Corvette Clinic in Sanford Florida.  Also that year I had a large gas tank installed made by Rock Valley Antique Auto Parts, LTD of Stillman Illinois.  That following August I went 477 miles on a tank of gas and still had some left in the tank.  Not bad for an old FI ’57 283.   Now in 2003 there’s a different story.  On my way to my third show of NCRS something happened to the motor.  We found metal in the oil and the front and rear bearing were shot.

Other events of special interest were Bloomington Gold Special Collection in 1987 and the Inaugural Route 66 Corvette show in 1998.  There were many other shows and events that are too numerous to list.

As the car stands today; there are over 210,000 miles, a TREMEC 5 speed overdrive transmission.  The new block is a 4 bolt main with 10 over bore.  The heads are still original which have oversize intake valves with steel sets and they are ported.  It still has the original FI unit 4520 that has never been overhauled or calibrated in over 260,000 miles.  The generator, starter, and water pump have been rebuilt.  The differential is a 336 posi.  The axles are from Moser engineering.  The gas tank holds 32 gallons.  The best gas mileage was 22.32 running at 70 mph at 1900 rpms.  Not bad for a 51 year old car. I still own the car and drive it regularly.