Rick Nightingale’s 1965 Chevrolet Corvette is a California custom time capsule still rolling strong. Rick bought the car in 1969, and took until 1970 to bring the car to the customized state it remains in today. He’s owned, driven, and raced the American sports car for the forty years since. Along the way the custom Corvette has been shown at the LA Roadster Show, and graced the pages of Wild World of Corvettes magazine. With the exception of some nitrous oxide fog and a replacement set of Mickey Thompson tires, the Corvette is largely the same as it was when finished in 1970 – 427 cubic inch big block V8 and all.
The Corvette rides on a set of staggered US Indy slot mags, which are eight and one half inches wide out front, and ten inches wide out back. The Mickey Thompson SS Indy Profile tires are some of the last new old stock examples left in existence. The big block 427 Chevrolet engine is backed by one of the first five experimental road and drag race Crowerglide clutches made by Bill Hayes himself. Rick says he’s drag raced the Corvette over the years, with the car turning an 11.18-second ET at the now shuttered LA County Raceway, but has no interest in the truncated version of drag racing.
“I’m not going to waste my time with eighth mile”, said Nightingale.
The Corvette saw plenty of street action over the years on Van Nuys Boulevard and surrounding motorways, and still has some of the vintage street racing stealth technology installed. The same hidden toggle switch that darkened the ’67 Pontiac Firebird tail lamps for cloaked getaways from the powers that be is still there in case 1973 rolls around again.
“You flip the switch. You turn your lights out – so when you hit the brakes the cops don’t see you!”
These days Rick takes the Corvette down to Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank, California from his home in the San Fernando Valley, and is working on an new T-bucket project along with a blown Roadster for ongoing California custom entertainment.