March 14, 2007
The 1967 Chevy Corvette: The "Caboose"
By Stan Dyer
Today, Euros cost a buck and a half, British pounds cost two dollars and the American dollar is about even with the Canadian dollar. Light sweet crude jumped to over $110 a barrel and the price of gas is threatening to skyrocket. It is an easy time to get discouraged about the economy and the future, but, instead, I again choose to climb into the "Way Back Machine" and visit a different place and a different time. My next stop? It is1967 and the year of the "last" Corvette, the one they called the "Caboose".
It was not a quieter, more peaceful time. After all, the conflict in Viet Nam was raging up to the Tet Offensive in 1968, the Six Day War happened in the Middle East, and people were starving in Biafra. It was, however, also the year of the first Super Bowl where Bart Starr and the Packers dispatched the Chiefs, 35-10, the year of superstar model "Twiggy", and the year Hollywood gave us both "The Graduate" and "Bonnie and Clyde". Gasoline sold for .33 a gallon, (almost 1/10 of what it is today), and many people could afford to make Muscle Cars, like the Chevrolet Corvette, were very popular.
Chevy Corvettes from 1963 to 1967, known as the
Second Generation Corvettes, all had the distinctive, Mako Shark styling. The 1967 Corvette is the "Caboose" because it was the last of the style called "Sting Ray". After '67, the two words were combined into "Stingray" and modified styling was unveiled. New items for 1967 were additional hood vents, the
power bulge hood on the 427's, and a number of engine options.
The basic engine package was the economy, 300 horsepower, L79 - 327 that gave about 16 miles to the gallon. When you moved up to the big block, your gas mileage dropped, but your horsepower jumped. Your choices were 427's in four configurations. The L36 had a single, four-barrel carburetor and produced 390 horsepower, the L 68 featured the
Tri-Power, "three x two barrel" carbs for 400 horsepower, the L71 also had
Tri-Power, but from three Holley carburetors, (it also had solid lifters), for 435 horsepower, and the top of the line was the L-88 with a single, four-barrel Holley on an aluminum intake manifold with a special, raised plenum chamber. The last version also came with transistor ignition and positraction, but had no heater or defroster. There was also a limited production of L-89 configurations for collectors that featured 560 horsepower. You could expect around nine miles to the gallon on any of the big blocks, but they sure were fast. One of those '67 Corvettes did the quarter mile in 12.8 seconds, or 112 mph, and the top speed was rated at 152 mph. In an era when the price of gas was not a major concern, the '67 Corvette sure fulfilled the need for speed in the young at heart, and just about everyone liked the way they looked in one.
Chevrolet marked the year with its 100 millionth vehicle made and produced 22,940 of the Caboose Vettes. Of that 22,940, 14,436 were coupes and 8,506 were convertibles. In the year when homes averaged $14, 250, the average income was $7,300, and the Dow ended at 905, a 1967 Corvette had a base sticker price of $4240. They cost a lot more now, but for a year when the first, human heart transplant occurred, DNA was synthesized in a test tube, and many eyes were focused on the
Summer of Love, it was a nice, little toy, if you could afford it. The relatively low gas mileage, especially for the top end models, would not make this vehicle very practical for commuting these days, but a person can still climb inside one and look just as good. Besides, remembering the sweet days of before sometimes helps to ease the crunch of today. For me, I can smile just thinking about a '67 in my driveway and forget about everything else, at least for a while.