My Favorite Ride: How have Corvettes evolved? 'Car show' offers two examples to compare

We had an impromptu car show of sorts, a Cars & Coffee with no coffee, early the morning of May 7. It was gray, cold and a brisk wind blew through The Herald-Times parking lot.

About 30 cars and owners showed up. What I most noticed was the large number of Chevrolet Corvettes, especially two red ones owned by Bloomington cousins David Tate and Dan Johnson.

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I misplaced the notebook I had with me that morning, so details reported here come from memory. What I do have are a lot of pictures I took comparing the two cars. So this week's column is photo rich. And nothing but red. See the gallery at the top for all the comparison photos.

Both men live in Bloomington, but hadn't seen each other's cars until that day. Johnson said the top speed in his half-century-old 'Vette is about 55 mph. He's careful with that old engine.

The custom license plate on Tate's 2022 Corvette says "DOES 190." He claims to never have driven close to that fast.

The cousins parked them side by side and I looked them over.  Here are some photos showing how much car design has evolved since 1966.

The sideview mirrors reflect the cars' 56-year design gap.

The steering wheels are lightyears apart, one round with fingertip grips and the other kind of square and padded.

Tate ordered his car on his birthday in December 2020 and waited 15 months for it to arrive at Curry Buick. He traded in a 2018 model that's now for sale on the showroom floor. The new one has a 490-horsepower engine and offers a quiet and smooth ride.

It resembles a rocket ship.

Johnson and his wife, Gina, saw their '66 parked at a car lot in Hendersonville, Tennessee, last year and decided to buy it. The car was delivered to his house at 9:30 the night before Thanksgiving.

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It doesn't sail down the road as smoothly as his cousin's car. "It's like driving a really cool lawn tractor," he said.

About everything on the car is original, including the steering wheel and most of the parts in the 300-horsepower engine. He had to replace the alternator, which was the original.

The engine is simple compared to a new one, and the car has drum brakes he's thinking about replacing with modern ones.

We disagreed about the rally wheels, which he likes and I could do without.

His wife's two prized Camaros occupy their garage, and his "new" Corvette stays safe beneath a car cover. We discussed a bigger garage, or perhaps one of those metal carports to keep the special car safe and sound.

Johnson and Tate reminisced about when they were kids, when each fell in love with fast Corvettes. A particular one, actually, that was in the family. 

Their uncle Bill had a bright yellow 1968 Stingray. As boys, the cousins would sneak out at night and sit in the car, pretending it was theirs.  

Have a story to tell about a car or truck? Contact reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com, 812-331-4362 or 812-318-5967.