Charles Wall only kept the car for a year and half before selling it to Malcolm McIrvin. McIrvin kept scrupulous records, which have allowed Lester Klindera to piece together part of the car's history. "The mileage almost stops on the receipts from '73 to '79," he notes. "Then, around 1990, he started collecting items to make it perfect." In a purist sense, however, the Stingray was not perfect when Klindera bought it. "In the picture I first saw," he recalls, "it had an L88 hood. I wanted it. I got the hood, along with a high-rise manifold and breather." The dealer, though, convinced him to start off with the car in stock condition. And that's how Lester took the car home to Texas.
His first drive revealed that all was not well with the Rat beneath the hood. "It wasn't tuned right," he remembers. "The carb was dirty, the timing was off, and the valves weren't adjusted right. It was still impressive, power-wise." No stranger to dealing with these problems, Lester quickly put things right. He also dumped the Hedman headers in favor of Hooker headers and side pipes, which eliminated the double "U" bends the pipes had to make to bolt up. Dawson Headers made a set of heavy-breathing mufflers for the beast, and Lester was ready to have some fun in his new ride.
That chance came at the aforementioned Lone Star Classic, during the lap sessions on the banked TMS circuit. "I really enjoyed it," he says in a way that makes you believe it. "It was the most fun this old man has had in a long time-the biggest adrenaline rush I've had since I drove a Funny Car in the '70s. If it had 3.36 gears instead of 4.56s, it could've run as fast as a NASCAR; it's comfortable at 140 mph and 6,300 rpm." Maybe so, maybe not, though we'll venture that anyone who heard the beast bellowing around the track would tend to agree with Lester.
On the other hand, another realization emerged during that track time. "I realized after driving on the track at 6,000 rpm that not a thing in this engine is replaceable." Lester now admits that the car may get driven less, but at least once a week (when no trucks are around). But he does plan on keeping it, and hasn't ruled out another on-track excursion. "I might like to try it again," he confided to us. "Though not up to 6,000 rpm." And while it is important to preserve such a rare Corvette, it is, in Lester's words "what it is-a factory race car." Who can blame a guy for wanting to feel the rush off driving such a vehicle as it was meant to be driven? Not us, that's for sure.