A LONG-DORMANT DRAG RACING CORVETTE EMERGES FROM UNDER THE COVERS

Carl Manfra of Manahawkin, New Jersey is an enthusiast who’s always got his eye on the local cars for sale. When this long dormant Corvette racer became available, he raced to the locale to stake his claim on the plastic Chevy beast. “When I got to the garage, the car was hidden under a series of tarps in the back corner of the facility. We unwrapped it to find a well-built ride that had sat for more than three decades. It had long been retired from doing its job of ripping up the quarter mile tracks in the area,” Carl says.

The Corvette was in excellent shape but had endured the typical gritty conditions in the back of the old garage. “It was pretty dirty and dusty when we found it, but it looked like it would come to life after a little cleaning. The engine and trans were long gone, but everything else seemed to be there,” Carl states. The Corvette had a lot of history behind it and Carl was lucky enough to talk to the past owner’s son about the Chevy’s storied past.

The Corvette’s Glory Days

“Big” Carmen Trischitta has been a motorhead since his teen days. At just eighteen years old he bought a Sunoco station in the tough neighborhood of South Philadelphia and started his career in the auto industry. His son Carmen Jr. tells of those past days: “My dad drove a big convertible ’60 Cadillac Coupe de Ville back then. It was chore parking the Caddy in the neighborhood, as it was tough finding a space big enough on the city streets. He also had the top cut open on several occasions. He got tired of the city grind, so he packed up and moved to a quiet section of southern New Jersey.”

That next stop was Vineland, NJ. It was the early 1970s and Carmen soon became partners in J&C Auto Parts, a shop serving the South Jersey area. They guys also opened a machine shop on location to service the local racing crowd. Soon after he got the business, Carmen, Sr. bought the Corvette off a friend and immediately started turning the stock Chevy into a drag racer. “My dad ran Modified Eliminator F/G with his Corvette, where the rules were based on pounds per cubic inch of motor, and it did a best of 10.21 in the ¼-mile. Dad worked with the legendary Dan Jesel of Jesel Valvetrain fame to build the 296-cu.in. Chevy small-block for the Corvette. At that time Dan was working at Competition Machine Shop out of Freehold, NJ,” Carmen, Jr. says. 

The Corvette’s drivetrain was finished off by adding a Liberty four-speed transmission to row the gears and a narrowed Dana 60 to put the power to the pavement out back. “A lot of the Corvette was left stock. The driver’s window is Lexan, but the passenger window is stock, along with the doors and front clip. The hood opens like a stock hood, though it has an aftermarket scoop on it now,” according to Carmen, Jr. Besides the normal race car logos and callouts, the exterior look is finished off by a set of Cragar Super Tricks shod in Firestone slicks out back, with the body customized to help fit the massive tires under the quarters. Wheelie bars helped to keep the Corvette grounded under acceleration and a four-link handled the suspension needs out back.

The interior features typical race car modifications, including a home-made dash full of Stewart-Warner gauges, a big Accutronic tach mounted on the dash pad, and aftermarket steering wheel that resembles the famed Chrysler “Tuff” wheel. There is also a home-fabricated transmission tunnel that’s been partially disassembled and a six-point roll cage that is still present. The original passenger seat is still mounted; however, the driver’s seat has been lost over the years. And for the icing on the cake, this Corvette still retains its original power windows… and they still work!

Retirement and revival

The Corvette did its ¼-mile work at local haunts like Atco Dragway and Englishtown during the Seventies. After its time on the track, the Corvette’s race-ready small-block and transmission were removed and stashed away prior to the car being set aside. Now the engine bay lays dormant, waiting for a new lease on life. The car sat for over three decades before Carl came and picked it up and moved it to his garage.

Carmen, Jr. has followed in his dad’s big footsteps since day one. As a child growing up at all the local raceways with his dad, he was bitten by the race car bug early on. Now he has his own engine shop based right there at J&C Auto Parts called CT Performance Machine, where he builds high-powered engines and performs machine work for himself and his clients. CT Performance is known for their high-quality builds and race-ready drivetrain packages.

What’s the future hold for this vintage Corvette racer? Carl has not planned out what he’s going to do with it in the long run. In the meantime, it is stashed away soundly in the garage after getting a much-needed bath, waiting for its calling.

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2025-02-14T14:40:32Z