Oddly enough, in 1967 Jessel gave the Corvette to his 10-year-old stepson Doyle Phillips, who lived in Pahrump. Later, Phillips sold the car to a well-known sprint-car racer, Bobbie Woods, also of Pahrump. The Corvette sat out in the Nevada desert, amid the brothels and tumbleweeds, for almost 20 years. Woods had intended to restore the Corvette for street driving but never found the time to do so. He eventually sold the car to Mike Pillsbury, who sold it to Noel Park in the Spring of 1986.
(Author's note: Pillsbury was very well known in Corvette circles for his uncanny ability to find old Corvettes, particularly race cars. One of his great finds was one of the '60 Cunningham Le Mans cars, which he literally discovered in a junkyard).
Aside from the ravages of the weather, No. 3892 looked almost exactly as it does today. "We restored the car with the help of the late Dennis Bruce, a brilliant ex-Trans Am mechanic, and old Corvette expert," Park says. "His brother Don did the bodywork and painted the car its original Panama Yellow color in our garage in San Pedro."
The final assembly was done at R&S Garage in Redondo Beach with the help of co-owner Mike Eddy, who is now in charge of Vic Edelbrock's car restoration and vintage-racing shop. Later on, additional race prep and maintenance took place at Park's shop, J&D Corvette in Bellflower.
The first change involved putting back some of the chrome trim that had been removed. The rollbar was also raised slightly to clear Park's helmet (he stands over six feet tall), and a small racing windscreen of the type supplied by Chevrolet in the '50s was added.
Park also added the mildly warmed-over engine and transmission out of his street '59 Corvette, as he had no money to build another powerplant. The motor was fitted with a 1958 fuel-injection system, and it's that FI unit that remains on No. 3892 to this day.
The race preparation was very straightforward, much like what was done in the '50s. "There is only so much you can do with a solid-axle Corvette chassis," Park says. "The engine requirements of the sanctioning groups are quite restrictive. Engines must be of the original displacement--283 cubic inches in this case.
"No roller rocker arms are allowed--not even roller tips--effectively limiting rpm. Anything over about 6,800 rpm, and the rocker-arm breakage becomes unacceptable in our experience. At best, you finish the race on seven cylinders, and everybody passes you. At worst, you drop a valve and lose the engine."
A period-correct induction system is required, so Park had Chris Wickersham in Pasadena race-prep his old mechanical FI unit. The engine also has the 1961-style "461" heads, along with an aftermarket cam chosen for the best possible midrange power, not ultimate rpm. A race-quality stock crankshaft is used, along with Carrillo rods as a safety measure.
Chassis preparation is similarly basic. "In our experience, the biggest handling problem with these early cars is a terrible loose, or oversteer, condition exiting corners. They just will not put the power down," Park says.
His solution? "Lower the car as much as possible and increase roll stiffness at the front while lessening it at the rear. The first step is to not run a rear sway bar, and to increase the diameter of the front sway bar." The rear suspension can be softened by removing one or more spring leaves. Stiffer coils in the front also help.
"Some drivers prefer additional caster in the front," he adds. "This can be achieved by simply adding another factory caster wedge between the frame and crossmember. It's also helpful to run as much negative camber as possible in the front suspension." According to Park, with the stock suspension settings, the cars wear the outside front corner off the front tires.