Once back at Corvette Repair on Long Island, Kevin hired his friend Billy, who operated a flatbed truck, to bring back the remains of the Rebel race car.
“I’ll tell ya, that was one of the happiest days of my life, finding that car, because that car is probably the most significant C3 on the planet. They put a 1973 nose on it, but the car was intact. Was it rough? Absolutely, but it was real.”
Kevin’s trophy, as it sits securely in the Corvette Repair lot after being secured. The high-mount mirror is long gone and the front end was replaced with a later-model bumper. The headlights were also covered up, meaning that this car was used exclusively for short, daytime races.
Restoration Begins
Once the junkyard find arrived safely back at Corvette Repair, Kevin grabbed his dossier and began comparing the notes, photographs, and documents that he had amassed on the car to what was actually sitting in front of him. He then began the arduous process of compiling the complete history of the car, starting once again at the beginning with Or Costanzo. Costanzo this time suggested that Kevin contact Walt Thurn, the original public relations manager and photographer for the Rebel team.
Kevin called him and told him that he had found and currently had in his possession the Rebel Corvette. Thurn more or less laughed him off. “Yeah, you and everybody else thinks they have that car,” Thurn arrogantly stated over the phone. “Mr. Mackay, if you’ve got that car I’ll know you have it because there are some very unique things on that car that only I know about and I’ve got the photographs to prove it.”
Although confident that he had the car, Kevin relished the opportunity to prove it and leave no doubt. He welcomed the expert critical evaluation that Thurn could provide. He suggested that he would shoot a 36-frame roll of film (before the time of digital photography) of the car and its details and overnight it to Thurn.
When Kevin sent a roll of film to original team photographer Walt Thurn, it was this image that sealed the deal. Thurn immediately recognized the steering wheel and switch console as having been removed from Dave Heinz’s boat. In addition, all the gauges were original to the #57 car.
“You son of a gun!” came Walt Thurn’s voice over the phone just a day later. He was out of breath. “You got the car! I can’t believe you got the car! I developed your 36 prints, Mr. Mackay, and let me tell you, that car is so significant and I can’t believe it survived.
“The interior of that car is exactly the way it raced at Sebring. That steering wheel came out of Dave Heinz’s boat. That control panel is from Dave Heinz’s boat. The shifter and all the gauges are there and the original roll bar. The car is unbelievable. That’s the car! I can help you because I have all the photographs of the car in its period.”
With a bevy of original photos by Walt Thurn, as well as his enthusiastic approval that this was indeed the real #57 Rebel Corvette, the Corvette Repair team got down to the restoration. All the original wiring was still in place, although the engine and transmission had long since been removed. The steering wheel and control panel from Dave Heinz’s boat were refurbished, with every toggle switch still being in serviceable condition.
The final piece of the restoration proved to be one of the most difficult to find, but the car would remain just shy of ultimate perfection until it was attained. When the car raced at Sebring in 1972, the year it made the cover of Corvette News, it ran with a novelty plate that featured an image of a Confederate soldier holding a Rebel flag and stated, “Save Yo’ Confederate Money Boys—The South Gonna Rise Again!”
Before the Internet and online auction and sales websites, the only way to find something that specific was to stumble upon it at a swap meet. Kevin took the time to poke through license plates at every swap meet he went to and always asked the vendors about this specific one. He finally found it at the Belmont racetrack swap meet and nearly fainted. The restoration of arguably the greatest C3 Corvette was complete.
The Most Valuable
The restored Rebel in its 1972 Sebring livery was finished just in time to debut at the 1994 Malcolm Konner Chevrolet Show, the same one where Kevin debuted his first restoration a decade prior. Zora Arkus-Duntov, father of the Corvette, made an appearance to sit in and sign the car.
It was next invited to appear in the newly opened National Corvette Museum among the best 50 Corvettes in existence. “100,000 people were at the museum for the opening and my car was there,” Kevin says. “I was like a proud father. That’s why I did that car before the John Paul car. I wanted to do the most significant cars first, not even knowing that I would find this car!
“I found it in September 1991 and I found the Sunray DX #3 racer in August 1991. Back to back. Within eight weeks I had two of the most significant cars. I had the best ’68 on the planet and the best ’69 on the planet just by dumb luck.”
The Rebel sat at the museum entertaining, educating, and inspiring Corvette enthusiasts for a year and a half before returning to Kevin’s garage to join the Sunray DX #3 Corvette and the VV Cooke Corvette. After years of continuing to show the car, and displaying at Bloomington Gold Special Collection, the Rebel received an NCRS American Heritage Award in 2000. Numerous production models, posters, and other promotional material were sold commemorating the Rebel Corvette. It would have been tough to be a Corvette enthusiast in the 1990s without hearing about or seeing the Rebel and its magnificent story and restoration.
Selling a high-profile race car such as the Rebel Corvette comes with its fair share of publicity. Here, Kevin is being interviewed for a television show. He dressed up for the occasion and matches the car perfectly!
In 2014, what had become known as the most iconic L88 Corvette to ever race hit the auction block at Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale. Even with a reserve, the Rebel hammered at a record $2.86 million, making it the most valuable C3 Corvette race car ever sold at auction.
Zora Arkus-Duntov sitting in the Rebel Corvette that was part of the elite lightweight L88 program. He was personally involved with each one, with the Rebel being the most successful on the racetrack. (Photo Courtesy Bill Erdman)
1969 John Paul Lightweight L88
In 1955, after Mercedes’s famous accident at Le Mans that led to the deaths of 83 spectators, the major automakers formed a gentlemen’s agreement that they would no longer participate in racing. It wasn’t that they suddenly realized the danger and wanted to shy away, they feared congressional action that would start with the removal of factory racing. So the major OEMs decided that they would have no official involvement going forward. Independent shops popped up staffed by former employees almost immediately and, with silent factory support, turned out high-level competition racers to bear the moniker’s flag.
John Paul Sr. (right) leans up against his Corvette. His son, successful racer John Paul Jr., has his back to the camera. The father-son duo would go on to race together in the coming years. (Photo Courtesy Kevin Mackay Collection)