I had a delightful conversation with Mr. John Hersch today. Quite the character I must say! I think we both were shocked with how long we spoke. He also added, he was surprised what our conversation sparked in terms of his memories about the car. He spoke of how he arrived at ordering the Corvette.....
As mentioned earlier in the thread, John was a General Motors engineering student. His interest in sports cars (rally racing in particular) was the byproduct of an experience with a TR6 Triumph and an Austin Healey 3000 he owned. John also mentioned he had contemplated the purchase of a Jaguar E Type or a 66 Corvair (
) versus the Corvette. He chose the Corvette for 2 reasons. First, the dealer network was much stronger with a General Motors car. Secondly, his Father worked for a bank that did quite a bit of the financing for H&K Motors. Thus, John received a sizeable discount on the Corvette (to the tune of about 20%).
John recanted in addition to the struggle of getting the car produced with the 3.08 gear, he initially ordered the car with an M22 (as opposed to the M21 he later chose). John knew he did not want a radio in the car. He also later decided he did not want to run the risk of listening to a possibly loud racing transmission. On the subject of the 3.08 gears, John was of the opinion GM discontinued the availability of the L72 / 3.08 combination due to the high speed capabilities that car would have. With the aerodynamic limitations of the Corvette and then current tire technology, the combination could prove to be a huge liability for GM. John had to use a contact at the GM Institute in order to convince the production scheduler that John was interested in strong touring car with minimal RPM. Ironically, John did tell me a story when he once.........buried the 160mph speedo. He went on to say the amount of time at that speed was short due to not only concern over the tires, but the car was damn near out of control!! John mentioned (and had documented) he twice broke a valve spring under warranty. He was running the engine right out to 6500 RPM redline. Later he read in Corvette News that the team Corvettes were limiting RPM to 5500 at Daytona, to extend engine life. John said he never broke a valve spring for 30,000 miles after he applied the same disciplines.
John's influence from rally cars was evident and understandable, now that we talked. The pics of the car with 4 euro driving lights (2 pencil beams and 2 fog), radial tires (mostly European thing in the late 60's) and of course a switch under the center cushion to turn off the tail lights (LOL). John being an engineer, wanted to keep tabs on oil temp as well as engine vacuum, so he installed gauges in the center dash panel. Also in that position were the switches for the driving lights. When I saw this car for the first time back in 2012, I remember the gauges still being in place and thought........"there has to be a cool story behind those!"
John told me that he drove the car full time for the first year or two. From his home in Ohio, he'd commute to school and work. After that first year to two years, John purchased his Mothers 64 Chevy II to commute daily and relegate the Corvette to a second car.
As time continued, John tried different items to retrofit not excluding an air conditioning unit in the back of the car. John had purchased an auxiliary air conditioner from JC Penny as he remembers it. Initially, it worked as a good rear window defogger. John later went to install the compressor and drew the line there. John felt he would have needed to modify the hood in order to get the compressor to fit. That added to all of the extra plumbing, would have made the car too difficult to work on. So, that's where the A/C ended. John also contemplated repainting the car..........brown. Thankfully he got over that!
One of the last items John had asked me about was gasoline and what I was using. He spoke of how finicky the car was over the quality of gas. Without a doubt, Sunoco 260 is what made the car happy. The car had a habit of running warm, especially if he had the timing pulled back.
Today, I have sent John many of the pictures I shared here. I also am sending out a copy of the Corvette Magazine that features his old car. I'd say he found quite a bit of novelty in the fact the car was a magazine feature. In all, I feel I have made a new friend. I certainly will continue to be in touch with John
It's a sad thought when a person considers how many of these stories are never documented and thus, go to the grave with their owners. Having said that, the story and the person (people) are far cooler than the car itself. I'm glad I found John and can help preserve a little bit of history.
Tim
