“The Hard Rock Cafe opened in 1995 in the West Edmonton Mall. That’s where I first saw the car.” Rory Christianson loves C1 Corvettes. When he made the 2-hour trip from his home in Stettler to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, he would patronize the world’s largest mall (at the time) to gaze at a real Vette “hanging on the wall.” The red-with-white-cove ’61 was a dazzling sight to behold a few yards away from a patron sipping on a bottle of Moosehead Lager. The classic had no engine or transmission, but the rearend, front suspension, frame and body were “all there.”

“We could see the gauges, but they ‘tarped’ over the interior.”

Bolting this C1 onto the wall must have required steel beams because the car even came with a set of old style Cragar SS wheels, tires, bumpers, windshield and more. The Hard Rock even turned on headlights and taillights to signal the place was [...]

On eBay now, the question is who molested this 1965 Corvette Sting Ray? Was it Dr. Timothy Leary, the LSD guru, or an unknown customizer? As a rule, when a car is described as a survivor most folks would perceive it to be an unmolested example of a factory original car. All of the things that usually get lost or modified are still intact and with the car. In the case of a mid-60s Corvette, the polished stainless steel ignition shield over the distributor remains, and the Protect-O-Plate is still in the back of the original owners manual.

Dateline, December 16, 2015: There are four days left on a 1965 Corvette Sting Ray the eBay seller describes as a “barn find, true survivor.” The seller is right, the Vette is a true survivor, surviving in its 70’s-era psychedelic custom paint and drag-style stance.

Does the [...]