'66 Trophy Blue Corvette Convertible, Bloomington Gold Benchmark
 

Neat car - love the originality. Nice docs, too!

Link to 1966 Corvette Convertible Benchmark auction

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194676S127094

66 Corvette...
 

I'm not a Vette guy...but this car is :eek2::eek2:

-wilma

I too really like this Vette!!
Guessing that the engine may be why no 4th Star requisit necessary to achieve Bowtie??

Dan Young (PO of this Corvette) is a master level BG and NCRS Judge. Really good guy and a friend of mine. I can put anyone interested in this Vette in contact with him

Two window stickers ?

Awesome car in a seldom seen color combination. Nice Survivor too.

Hardtop not listed on either window sticker or did I miss something?

Are we sure those docs are legit? Interesting it is labeled as a survivor but it appears to have been repainted. Is this due to Bloomington standards are different than others? Is that the reason it's a 3 star and not 4? Just trying to learn and understand.

When ordering you had the choice of the convertible or hard top, but if you wanted both, they charged you for the Hard top and it was listed on the tank and window stickers. That's what I remember, but I'm old.

Bill

----I love the car too, but I wish the seller had pictured areas behind both the front and rear wheels. From what I do see there is little to no road rash. It's very difficult to put 71,000 miles on a mid-year Corvette without significant rash. The last award posted was dated 2013 so there's been plenty of time to freshen or completely paint the car. I have a few other minor issues but won't go into those. The car is still amazing in many other ways. For instance, the interior is spectacularly original....Bill S

My personal experience. BG Benchmark judging, four judges for 37 minutes, watching their wrist watches. NCRS Bowtie judging, four to six judges for 4 plus hours.
Just say'n....

I echo what Bill said. We showed our '67 Corvettes in the same circuit within the same time frame. I was unimpressed with BG "survivor" judging. IMO, Legends Judging @ MCACN and NCRS Bowtie judging are the only real survivor judging. You cannot judge a survivor watching a clock from your back. Period.

With regard to the paint on this Corvette - I see in some pics a tight pattern of orange peel making the object in the paint reflection accurately distorted for lacquer paint. Additionally, in the photo of the bottom side of the back of the car, you can clearly see typical factory style of little/no paint on the bottom of the 1/4s. I'm not suggesting paint work hasn't happened

I’m 98% certain paint work has been done on that car. If not the whole car. Disclaimer JMHO.. I'd also like some opinions on the w/s's.. I don't believe them to be originals either.

I don’t think Dan still owns this one.

That's a pretty color on that car, repaint or not.

I’ve always loved the ‘66 Corvette color palette!

Clarification is in order here. The BG judges are fully qualified and capable, and several change hats to also judge NCRS and Triple Diamond (MACACN). The issue is the time allowed for them to do their job.

When I had my '67 judged at BG in '15, one of the four judges came back after his duties were completed and spent over an hour with me going over my car, just for his own learning experience. In '18 he was again judging my car for Triple Diamond, and I'm pretty sure he has judged it for NCRS at some point. I consider him a friend.

Sorry for getting off topic here.

Bill W

Well stated, Bill. Thank you.

66 Trophy Blue Corvette
 

Just wondering why no tops on window sticker, is this normal? Thanks Tony

I’m gonna say this because I still think it’s a pretty car even though I believe it is not being truthfully represented. Fake w/s and a repaint should be disclosed.. I’m really surprised at several of the Vette guys on this forum haven’t spoken up? Why?


I’ll just place this right here for a good comparison as I know without a doubt this is legit. I’ll let everyone else make their own judgment.. Hell I could be wrong but something tells me I’m not..


Added the above photo so we have a good side by side.

I called on the car today. The seller stated that in the notes the right door and front lower valance has been painted. For what reasons he didn’t know. He texted some photos of touch ups of nicks and scratches on right door and quarter, top rear deck and upper left quarter. If you look at the weather stripping it’s dry rotted pretty bad on the left windshield pillar. He also stated that the door weather stripping was dry rotted also. The cars body appears to be straight. The interior is in great shape with a little wear in the carpet on the drivers side. Color combination is outstanding with Trophy Blue being the second rarest color in 66. I know of a 66 coupe 450hp the same color combination. Would love to own both of them.

A very good friend of mine bought a 66 convertible 390 horse big block car that has identical colors. He found it at an estate sale, and it had not run in over 25 years, and overall condition was a little rougher than this one, but it's original paint and the interior is in very nice shape. I helped him get the motor running - he had to pull the heads to get a valve job because one of the valved had seized in the guide, but we have it running quite nicely now. He is going to wheel out the paint and drive it as an unrestored survivor this summer. Pretty nice find. He has documented his progress on one of the midyear Corvette FB groups.

I've watched you stir the pot on a number of threads recently and you've bothered a number of great members. Take a deep breath and acknowledge that we're talking about a 300hp baseline car with almost no options. Al Grenning signed off on the pad and clearly the tags are original which is how it got the accolades it did. Blame the selling dealer?

What you don't know - BG will deduct points if a car is shown without a window sticker. This means cars will be awarded full points even for showing the car with a reproduction WS. Wild huh. I personally believe that is what happened here.

Dan

Stirring the pot on acknowledging issues? Come on now. Come down off that high horse for a minute. There are countless posts of people calling out issues on cars. I make a few statements and I’m the bad guy here? I never said anything about the pad or the tags. I never called out anyone in this thread outside of what I’ve seen from the ad. Unless me asking why any of the vette guys hadn’t spoken up which was a question not a call out. Idk who made the fake docs nor do I care. Just pointing out things I see as bogus and would hope someone would do the same if I was looking at a car. I wouldn’t care if it was a 300hp car, a L78 Camaro or a 6cyl Nova. Things like this need to be discussed so everyone can learn. If what I have said has gotten under anyones skin then feel free to pm me. I’ll gladly have a discussion.

Documents were done for BG as per BG requirements. This is from the owner of the car at that time. You are correct, Dan.

----I'm a "Corvette Guy"!.....Bill S

Relisted for $85,900 in the link below:

Link to 1966 Corvette Benchmark auction

Since I know nothing about BG or NCRS.. Since they (or just BG) require a window sticker do they require the doc to be aged as well?? Not trying to start anything or stir any pots as I know in the Camaro world this is done to deceive..

They elected to put big poppi Ortiz in the baseball hall hall of fame but left out all the other phd users. Corvette judging is ok to have restamped engines . Is it ok with Camaro/ chevelle judging?

Good question. I have not looked over the newly released judging guide for 69 Camaro’s. I sure hope they would not be ok with it.

No they don't. It's required to reflect the day of brand new and the car in it's most pure state as it pertains to originality. It's been around forever. One must also keep in mind the declarations as it pertains to an original or replacement engine by the owner.

There is more to it than being discussed here. IMO, this dog has been beat

I’ll add my thoughts to this:

I am a collector of survivor cars and this car, as advertised, would have been on my radar. However, I agree with Darrell that it is purposely misrepresented in its eBay description, especially with regards to “original paperwork” and thus I have 0% interest now. I would not have known the window stickers were fake without people pointing them out, and I’m always appreciative of many of you on here helping folks like me who simply don’t know any better. Without all of you and friends I’ve made over the years not only would I not have the cars I have but I would also have gotten burnt by someone “misrepresenting” (where I’m from we call that lying) a car and I would have said to heck with this hobby and I’d have been out. I have read many times on here that restamping and making fake docs (for crazy judging requirements or otherwise) almost always leads to some owner or dealer down the line claiming or at least insinuating the stamps and docs to be legit. I agree with this as we have all seen countless examples of this very thing all the time. And, I take offense to this more than most because I know without my close car friends and many of you I would get totally taken advantage of.

My opinion is people lying about cars is a cancer that has the potential to further damage us all. If we don’t have each other to help one another out then who do we have? I’d have nobody and wouldn’t have the mental escape of this site and cars that I do enjoy to a degree. Could Darrell and all of us maybe choose our words a little wiser? Of course, and me most of all. However, I do believe most of us mean well on here and I’m overall thankful for you all.

I know the NCRS provides a documentation validation service. Perhaps we can hear more about this service from those involved. Representing reproduced documentation as real is a stain on those that produce and those that misrepresent.



To those producing and in the best interest in the hobby stop aging the documents and always incorporate a water mark to identify it with your company name or reproduction.


Purchasing a car on awards from years past (in this case 9&13 years ago) without a inspection is not advisable. Many cars get cosmetic make overs to make them "better".

Steve, thank you for your request about more information on the NCRS Document Validation Service. Here is additional information.



If you click on the “Historic Document Service” in the “Services” section on the NCRS website you can order three different things pertaining to your Corvette.

-Shipping Data Report
-Document Validation Service
-Award Confirmation Service.

NCRS has been granted permission by the General Motors Heritage Center to offer members validation of paper documents that the owner has. The GM records are for most Corvettes from 1962 to 1975. What this means is that if you send us a clear picture of a window sticker, shipper copy, tank sticker, rail copy or General Motors Dealer Invoice for your car, we can possibly validate this paperwork as legitimate. We are not validating Warranty Plates/Protect O Plates at this time. If validation cannot be completed due to missing information in the General Motors Heritage Center records, your fee will be refunded. NCRS does not supply the documents, we review the documents that you supply. The GM records are one of the tools we use in the validation process, but certainly not the only tool that is used.
NCRS recommends sending in documents for validation before you purchase a vehicle from an individual or auction. If a seller presents documents as being already validated, we can confirm this and send a copy of the documents that already have been validated.

Here is what you will see if you click on “Historic Document Service” on the NCRS website.

Document Validation Service
NCRS will compare any of your GM documents to the GM records contained in the Shipping Report and if verification can be achieved, will establish the authenticity of your factory documents. Unfortunately, the shipping report does not contain the vehicle options. A letter containing the information you request will be mailed to your NCRS address on record. The cost for this service will be $100.00 USD. Pay by Credit Card or PayPal.


This is a great tool for car owners to confirm that their paperwork is legitimate. Since tank stickers do not carry the cars Vehicle Identification Number, we can now tie that document to the specific car it is represented to come from with the help of GM records.

Tim, is this only available for Corvettes, or other Chevrolet vehicles as well? I know that I was able to contact NCRS with my Camaro's VIN to get information about the dealership it was originally shipped to.

Thanks!

This service is only available for Corvettes right now. I'd like to expand to other makes, but that is not on the horizon. I do have some ideas that may help verify paperwork for other Chevrolet vehicles and it would be a good topic for discussion.

Tim, thanks for providing insight into your Corvette documentation services. If you want to elaborate on your idea of opening it up to other models/lines we may want to start a new thread. I could make it a sticky so members can refer to it easily. Lets discuss.....

Thanks!

Steve,

That sounds great, let's do that.