All-World C3: 1971 LS5

The love for “America’s Only True Sports Car” isn’t confined to the U.S.A. Case in point: This ’71 Stingray, which now cruises the roads of New South Wales.

Australia.

His dream didn’t become reality until 2006, but only after a car he’d traveled to Melbourne (some 700 miles away) to see eluded him. “To make a long story short, the owner rang me up when we were about 25 minutes from his house and told me that he’d sold it,” he recalls. “I was gutted.”

There it stayed for the next three years, though Euston says he could have driven it as soon as he got it home. “I could have registered my Vette after doing some small amount of electrical work on her, and she would have looked pretty good,” he says. “The guy I bought the car off owned it for six years. He had done some work [on the car] but never got it registered.”

The work done by another of the ’71’s previous owners came to light once Euston started on his restoration. For one thing, the four-barrel atop the 454 wasn’t the stock LS5 Rochester QuadraJet. For another, the intake manifold underneath it wasn’t OEM LS5—and neither were the cylinder heads. As Euston explains, “Sometime early in my Corvette’s life, someone put a [PN] 3986195 780-cfm Holley on the engine, along with a 3963569 aluminum intake manifold and square-port heads.”

That’s right: The LS5 wore the top half of Chevy’s fearsome LS6—the big Holley, its corresponding intake, and the open-chamber heads. “I’m not sure when this happened, but the part numbers and dates look correct,” says Euston, who also got plenty of documentation with his ’71 that attests to its original LS5/four-speed configuration (to which he’s since restored the car, after these pictures were taken).

With his C3 now known to be more than just another one of the 5,097 ’71 Vettes built with the LS5 454, Euston started on a body-on restoration, which took him three years. “I did all the restoration work, except the electrical and some mechanical work.” His old buddy Chris Adams helped out with the ’71’s electrics. “Without Chris spending hour after hour helping me, my Corvette would still be sitting in my garage, unfinished,” says Euston. Meanwhile, another old friend, Peter Henshaw, aided in the mechanical resto. “I was always tapping into his wealth of knowledge about everything mechanical,” he adds.

Also helping with the project: Two NCRS members. “Jack Humphrey, who’s a long-standing NCRS member in the U.S.A., helped me find many rare parts. His vast knowledge about everything to do with Corvettes was and is a big help to me,” says a thankful Euston, who adds, “Andrew Gilligan’s Corvette knowledge—he’s an NCRS member here in Australia—is also greatly appreciated.”

And, speaking of his experiences, driving a Vette like this is truly special. “It evokes a feeling inside me that constantly reminds me how very lucky and privileged I am to own one of these very special cars,” says Euston. “Looking out over the flowing design of the guards and bonnet always makes me feel happy, and I never tire of looking at how distinctive the design lines are.

“There was nothing on the road that looked so perfectly sculpted as a ’68-’72 Corvette, especially here in Australia”—Greg Euston

01 Bellambi Harbour, on the coast of New South Wales, furnishes a stunning backdrop for Greg Euston’s ’71 coupe. 02 Factory-installed LS5 wore LS6 open-chamber heads, intake, and a big Holley four-barrel at the time of our photo shoot. Euston has since had a correct LS5 top end installed. 03 Documentation (including the tank sticker) attests to the car’s original equipment. 04 More originality: The OEM owner’s manual, and other ’71-vintage items, found in the Stingray’s rear storage compartment. 05 Inside, Euston’s ’71 is just as it was built at St. Louis. Windshield sticker is an ’83-vintage Louisiana registration decal. 06 Original body wears a new coat of Brands Hatch Green that Euston sprayed on. 07 Redline Firestones may not be factory correct for ’71, but they look great on Euston’s Stingray.