Mike’s ’65 Corsa Convertible

In 1978 I was on the verge of dropping out of CSU,  I found what we now call “the red car”. A 1965 Corsa convertible with a 140 engine, for sale in Fort Collins.  I hate to admit I was annoyed about what I paid for it considering the known and unknown condition of the car.  Once I changed the oil, I became immediately knowledgeable about working on the engine and suspension of the car because.  I obviously had an oil consumption problem, the rear engine mount was rubber free, and the suspension was generally worn-out parts.  The body was also badly dented although not rusted, the top was shot, the passenger front seat back frame was from a non-Corvair…

I’ll mention that I first met Steve Goodman and Speed Roberts when Steve did a really nice job reworking my heads. I continue to say that my brother and I probably would have come across as Beavis and Butthead except this was before the cartoon. Steve and Speed were always helpful. Steve estimated that the engine had 140,000 miles on it based on the condition of the heads. The odometer broke with all 9s showing.

In about 1979 I was going to transplant the engine into the ’66 Monza and sell the convertible because the Monza had a good body and a poor engine, and the convertible had a bad body and a good engine. Sadly, my brother and his girlfriend (now his wife) were driving the Monza at about 45 MPH one night when a drunk made a left turn on a red light in front of him. Steve and Speed parted out the Monza. I kept the horn button, the hubcaps and the metal dealer logo from the deck lid. The horn button is in our ’66 Monza.

I kept the convertible, I got married in it, (Wedding photo) and I drove it daily until about 1981 trying to restore it while driving it with limited success. I began a series of moving it from garage to garage in hopes of eventually restoring it. When our grandson Kyle was about four, he was in the garage with me and noticed the car under a pile of boxes. “Hey grandpa, there is a car under there!” In about 2010 Karen encouraged me to do something with the car so I ordered a bunch of stuff from Clarks and started to work. It took me until 2014 to get the car “finished” to the point where I could drive it and show it. That was 35,000 miles ago.

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