First published in the February 2009 issue of Street Machine

You’ve already got a garage full of ‘Top Flight’ Corvettes, surely it wouldn’t hurt to hot one up a little bit? That’s what Murray Forman figured. Initially, Murray looked at ’34 Fords and the like, but being so involved with Corvettes he decided to combine the passion for a hot rod with his knowledge and love of ’Vettes.

As president of the National Corvette Restorers’ Society (his wife Wendy is secretary), he was understandably concerned about what his mates would think but those worries vanished at the US Corvette Nationals.

“We were staying with a US NCRS member who lent us his C5 [’97–’04] Corvette. When he opened the garage door, there was a Z06 with flames up the bonnet parked right next to it. It seems everyone over there has at least one hot rod version — maybe a 502 big-block or stroker small-block in place of the stock motor,” Murray says.

That made him feel a lot better about chopping up a good car, and a good car is precisely what he wanted to start with. “It was going to cost $30,000 for a reasonable shell, so I decided to spend a bit more and get a good complete car. You know how it is — you don’t want to have to find all those bits of trim, so you’re much better off starting with a complete car.”

Before he’d even found a car, Murray turned to Tray Walden from Street Shop Inc for one of his Stage IV chassis, a clever bit of gear that replaces the aging stock transverse-spring suspension with ’96 Corvette double A-arms and Aldan coil-overs on all four corners.

The brakes are also from the ’96 ’Vette and a vast improvement on mid-60s technology — 13-inch discs up front, 11.5in out the back, actuated by a Wilwood master cylinder mounted to a Commodore booster.

This chassis allows the use of massive rubber front and rear. Where most people would be happy to fit 275s under the back of their cars, Murray has that up front. Tucked in neatly under the rear are supercar-sized 315/35/17 hoops. Wheels are American Racing Torque Thrust IIs and measure up at 17×10.5 up front and 17×13 out back.

The diff has also been beefed up with a Dana 44 centre — essentially the same as the units that you’ll find fitted to Dodge Vipers, and we all know how much grunt they have to handle there!

Although Murray’s Corvette might not have quite the power and torque of the Dodge V10, it’s definitely up a bit on the factory-equipped 300 horses. A brand new six-litre LS2 was bought in the US and upgraded slightly with a FAST 90mm throttlebody. A Tremec TKO600 five-speed gearbox rounds out the package.

With the chassis sorted, the search was on for a suitable body. Luckily Murray has some good friends in the US looking out for him, especially Dennis Kazmierzak of Rocky Mountain Corvette Ltd.

“He found the car in Denver, Colorado, in the Rocky Mountains — hence its name, Rocky. Dennis tubbed the body two inches on each side before fitting it to the chassis. Then it was shipped to Australia and I completed the build. Over the next 12 months I manufactured and installed the cold-air intake system, air conditioning and computer systems.”

The ’66 Dennis found was a Double Top Flight car, and although it was nice, it wasn’t anything rare: “It was just a nice 300hp small-block car with really good paint. It was almost over-restored.” Which was perfect for what Murray had in mind.

“I wanted it to look as stock as possible on the outside. The only changes to the body are the tubs and I added the Stinger bonnet and had Richard Stones apply the red stripes.”

There are a couple of changes to the inside too, with C5 seats featuring full power-adjustment and RCI four-point harnesses, as well as a set of Dakota Digital gauges and a wood-rimmed sports wheel.

One high-tech change that even serious train-spotters would do well to pick is the inconspicuous Wonderbar radio. It’s been brought up to date by Antique Radio Restorations in Florida and now blasts out the tunes in stereophonic sound. It can also play MP3 files via an iPod hidden in the glovebox. So what Murray’s got is basically brand new Corvette performance with 60s style.

Any performance claim needs backing up and during the 2005 National Corvette Convention in Queensland, Murray kicked some serious butt.

“I won the C1 to C2 go-to-whoa and the super slalom, which really brought the incredible handling of the Street Shop chassis to the forefront. The car was also selected by Performax as Supreme Champion as the guys were really impressed with the engineering and performance.”

Aside from building this car, Murray’s greatest achievement is getting his wife so involved in the Corvette world.

“I’m fortunate to have a wonderful partner. She supports me 100 per cent and loves to drive Rocky. We decided to buy a silver ’64 coupe for her so we could have his ’n’ hers matching cars and really turn some heads when we go cruising.”

TOP FLIGHT

If you want to make your Corvette appear just as it did when it rolled off the production line, joining the NCRS and aiming for a Top Flight award is probably the way to go.

The judging system uses deduct scoring: each car starts with a clean slate and 4500 points. Depending on how many points are deducted, a car is eligible for Top Flight, Second Flight or Third Flight.

Top Flight cars need to score 94 per cent or above, which means you can only lose 270 points. Second Flight is 85–93 per cent and Third Flight 75–84.9 per cent. If you actually drive your car to the judging event, mileage points are added to the raw score at the rate of 45 points per 100 miles driven.

HIS ’N’ HERS

When Murray says his partner supports him, he’s not joking. Not only is Wendy heavily involved in the NCRS, but she has her very own Top Flight ’64 Corvette.

“It wasn’t Top Flight when we bought it but we’ve fixed it up a little. It’s silver with a blue interior, which is a bit rare, and we’ve added the knock-off wheels, which weren’t available until 1965, and the non-functional side pipes,” Murray says.

Murray also has a 97.6-point ’63 split-window in the garage, as well as a ’90 convertible for a bit of late-model action. Now that’s obsession!

MURRAY FORMAN
1966 CHEVROLET CORVETTE