posted 04-30-2012 04:39 PM               

This is the ultimate Corvette "barn find". This corvette was delivered to Mr. Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, on December 15, 1966 from Jim Rathman Chevrolet in Melbourne, Florida under a program initiated by Mr. Rathman to provide our astronauts with a Corvette. They would keep the Corvette for a year and then turn it in and get a new one.

This Corvette was bought by a NASA employee when Mr. Armstrong turned it in and was retained by the owner until I purchased the corvette from him in February of 2012.

The Corvette had been in a climate controlled environment and not driven since Sept. of 1981. I had tried to buy the Corvette for the past 30 years with no luck until a phone call led to the purchase recently.

As can be seen in the pictures the car has 30+ years of dust and has had fender flares crudely added by the owner during it's time in storage. The only thing that has been done to the car since I purchased it is to get the motor running where it can be moved about the garage...

There have been six bids to date, bringing the total to $120,099, still under the reserve.

posted 05-03-2012 09:35 PM               

However, some interesting things I came across might raise some doubts. This website has stills from a film taken of the astronauts pulling up to MSC in various cars, including one vintage Corvette driven by Armstrong. Look at the 2:00-2:30 section of photos (they're copyrighted, so I didn't want to post them here).

I'm not a Corvette expert, but the model year looks close. However, the hood is obviously different. This, of course, could have been replaced or modified throughout the years, but if no record exists, I would question it. The color is difficult to discern since it's a B&W film, but it is a lighter shade, perhaps silver or the royal blue of the offered car.

There is a logo medallion on the left side forward of the driver's door that is not present on the auction car. But many other details look very similar, such as the rear window, the seam down the length of the roof, the bumper and grill.

Another thing I thought I had read in First Man was that Armstrong did not recall having ever having owned a Corvette. I was unable to locate this reference in the index, but I may have read it elsewhere. I remembered his saying that when I found this film, but it is feasible that if he once took advantage of the Rathmann deal, it may have been for such a short period of time that it was not significant in his memory.

posted 05-04-2012 03:20 PM               

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Originally posted by stsmithva:
Unfortunately, at least for this seller, it has a photo of a white Corvette of a different model described as Armstrong's.

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quote:

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Originally posted by 328KF:
I'm not a Corvette expert, but the model year looks close.

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quote:

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Another thing I thought I had read in First Man was that Armstrong did not recall having ever having owned a Corvette.

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posted 09-08-2012 02:17 AM               

The Corvette failed to sell during the Ebay auction in May, with a high bid of $251,638.00 coming just short of the unpublished reserve, according to Crosby. He says he received calls from three of the bidders within an hour of the announcement of Armstrong's death, but that the offers still aren't quite where he wants them. Crosby hasn't raised his original target price, despite the newfound significance of the car.

...Crosby isn't planning to put it back on Ebay, but he's listed in the phonebook and ready to listen to any serious offers.

posted 10-05-2012 08:18 PM               

As for authenticating the Corvette as Armstrong's, Rathmann did keep files on all of his astronaut cars, but subsequent owners of the dealership destroyed those records. Still, Armstrong's name appears on the Protect-O-Plate, and Crosby convinced Jack Legere, a friend of his who works at NASA, to show Armstrong Crosby's photos of the Corvette during one of Armstrong's periodic visits to Florida. "He immediately recalled it and grinned ear to ear," Crosby said. "He didn't have time then to check it out in person, and we all know what happened next." Armstrong died in late August at the age of 82.

Up until this summer, Crosby intended to subject the Corvette to a full restoration, as he had with all of his other Corvettes, but then mid-year expert David Burroughs, a champion of original and preserved cars, convinced him to call preservationist Eric Gill of nearby Port Orange, Florida. Like Burroughs, Gill prefers preservation over restoration, particularly when it comes to cars with provenance, such as the Neil Armstrong Corvette.

"Preservation is the cutting edge in the hobby right now," Gill said. "The term is deceptive because some people think it just means sitting on the car, but we're actually developing protocols for retaining the history of a car, as opposed to wiping away all that history in a restoration. A historically significant car is only as interesting as the people who gave it that history."

posted 04-09-2014 07:08 PM               

Crosby, a retired Brevard County Sheriff's Office west precinct commander, bought the car from an undisclosed Georgia owner in February 2012. He initially offered the vehicle on eBay — where it garnered offers exceeding $250,000.

Instead, he decided to keep Armstrong's Corvette and restore it.