Jim and Shirley Hornaday's 1966 Corvette

(Primary Participant)

    Most of those associated with the Corvette marque have had some significant event in their lives that has changed the way they look at life and certainly at how they look at all things automotive. For Jim and Shirley Hornaday, the story is unique, but not so different from others. In 1964, while Jim was a junior in High School, his brother, an Air Force fighter pilot, left his red 1962 Corvette with Jim for sixteen weeks, while he was attending survival school. Needless to say, Jim never recovered! Jim's first Corvette was a 1966 coupe that he purchased in 1971, while serving in the Army in Germany. Driving a Corvette on the Autobahn continued the impression left by his brother's generosity; and affected him forever, in regard to all 1966 Corvettes.

    Shirley entered Jim's life in 1984, after Jim had already owned four Corvettes and after a clear understanding of his "affliction" for Corvettes, agreed to marry him and become a part of the journey to Corvette "Nirvana". The Hornaday's currently own twelve Corvettes, from 1956 to 1998; but clearly, the mid-years are their passion, as evidenced by the ownership of eight of them including two 1966s. So attached to 1966s, when Shirley gave Jim his Lifetime membership in the National Corvette Museum, she asked for his lifetime membership number to be "1966". Jim and Shirley's enthusiasm has extended to the realm of saving potentially lost Corvettes.

    While stationed in New Jersey, driving in the countryside, Jim spotted the windshield frame of a mid-year standing above a stand of corn in a farmers field. It was serial number 15473, badly damaged in the left rear corner, drivetrain removed, and front-end removed to be placed on a NCRS show car. She had been left to perish and/or be reclaimed by the soil. Jim spent the next couple of weeks finding the owner and negotiating a purchase price for what was perceived by the owner as "trash in his field". She was recovered and brought home to Alabama, where over the last several years, she has had a complete "reclamation". I use the term reclamation, because as she sits today, there are the parts of at least 20 other Corvettes that have given their lives to give her "life". Built specifically as a driver, she has been meticulously restored not as she was, but as "we wanted her". As such, she is equipped with a new crate motor, dressed as a stock 350 Horsepower 327 cubic inch engine, with options that include: air conditioning, power steering, power brakes, telescopic steering column, headrest seats, shoulder harnesses, four-speed transmission, knock off wheels, and to bring her into the 21st century, cruise control. She is finished in Silver Pearl base coat clearcoat and sports a red interior and black softtop. The Hornaday's feel they have done their part, to "save" this classic Corvette that would have been lost to the world, and they are justifiably proud that this car has been chosen as the 1966 representative in the Historic Motorama.

    Jim & Shirley Hornaday
    Harvest, AL
    NCM Lifetime #1966

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