Dr. Dick Thompson's championship-winning 1962 Corvette. All photos by Darin Schnabel, courtesy RM Sotheby's.
By the 1962 SCCA racing season, Dr. Dick Thompson, a dentist from Washington, D.C., had already earned a reputation as a giant in Corvette racing circles, with numerous championship titles to his credit. The 1962 A-Production Corvette he drove for Grady Davis's Gulf Oil team during the 1962 season proved as exceptional as Thompson himself, delivering victories in eight of the season's 13 events, giving Thompson yet another championship and earning him a ride in a Corvette Grand Sport for the 1963 season (at least until GM ceased all racing activities).
Last Saturday, the 1962 Chevrolet Corvette driven by Thompson to a fifth year of multiple SCCA championships crossed the RM Sotheby's auction stage in Fort Worth, Texas, selling for a fee-inclusive price of $1.65 million and narrowly missing the sale's top-10.
Delivered new to Yenko Chevrolet in Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, the Corvette came with a fuel-injected 327-cu.in. V-8 rated at 360 horsepower, and RPO 687, a racing package that contained components like heavy-duty drum brakes, a stiffer suspension with unique rear shocks, a quicker steering ratio and additional brake cooling vents. To satisfy the thirst of the Rochester mechanical fuel injection, the car was ordered with a 37-gallon fuel tank.
Its first caretaker was Grady Davis's Gulf Oil Racing Team, and in its initial outing at an SCCA National in Daytona, Florida, the car scored a second-place finish with Thompson at the wheel. He'd go on to win an impressive eight of the ten A-Production races he entered that year with the Corvette, with just a single engine-related DNF at Marlboro. Thompson didn't race the car at the 1962 12 Hours Sebring, but drivers Duncan Black and M.J.R. Wylie still produced a class win in the number-2 Corvette.
With a new Corvette model on the horizon for 1963, the car was returned to Yenko Chevrolet at the end of the 1962 season. Purchased by then-novice racer Tony Denman (who, ironically, had Thompson as his SCCA driving instructor), the Corvette would still deliver a pair of podium finishes for the rookie in the 1963 season. Knowing that its days as a competitive race car were largely over, Denman converted the Corvette back into street trim, selling many of the RPO 687 components in the process, before selling the car in late 1963.
Over the next two decades, the car passed through four owners and two paint schemes (green, then red). Around 1983, the Corvette was purchased by collector Reverend Mike Ernst (no relation to your humble author), who embarked on a four-year mission to track down as many of the car's original components as possible. Through Denman, Ernst was able to locate the Corvette's original engine block, cylinder heads, suspension components, roll bar, exhaust manifold and Stewart Warner gauges, and the car was restored to its 1962 Gulf Oil livery. In 1987, it was shown at Bloomington Gold and raced at the Monterey Historics, where Ernst rewarded Denman's assistance by asking him to drive.
Ernst showed the car at Bloomington Gold in 1994 and 1997, and the Corvette became the first to earn the NCRS American Heritage Award. Around 2002, Ernst sold the car to collector Vic Preisler, who funded a second restoration before exhibiting it at numerous Corvette 50th anniversary celebrations in 2003; in 2004, the Corvette was inducted into the Bloomington Gold Hall of Fame. Preisler funded another restoration in 2007, and in 2008 sold the car (to the Andrews Collection) at a Gooding & Company auction for $1.485 million.
1934 Packard Twelve Individual Custom Stationary Coupe.
Lots in the top-10 at the no-reserve Andrews Collection sale included a 1962 Ferrari 400 Superamerica SWB Cabriolet, which sold for $7,645,000; a 1934 Packard Twelve Individual Custom Stationary Coupe, which sold for $4,180,000; a 1935 Duesenberg Model SJ Town Car, which sold for $3,630,000; a 1931 Duesenberg Model J 'Disappearing Top' Convertible Coupe, which sold for $3,520,000; a 1963 Ferrari 400 Superamerica LWB Coupe Aerodinamico, which sold for $2,860,000; a 1934 Packard Twelve Sport Coupe, which sold for $2,200,000; a 1962 Shelby 289 Competition Cobra, which sold for $1,980,000; a 1930 Cadillac V-16 Convertible Sedan, which sold for $1,925,000; a 1959 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster, which sold for $1,842,500; and a 1938 Packard Eight Cabriolet, which sold for $1,760,000.
1953 Mercury M100 pickup.
Though "affordable" is a relative term with a collection as exceptional as this, more affordable lots included a 1953 Pontiac Chieftain Deluxe Eight Custom Catalina, which sold for $33,000; a 1955 MG TF-1500, which sold for $33,000; a 1970 Chevrolet El Camino Custom, which sold for $30,800; 1941 Packard Custom Super Eight One Eighty Sport Brougham, which sold for $27,500; a 1953 Mercury M100 pickup, which sold for $26,400; a1987 Land Rover Range Rover, which sold for $22,000; and a period-recreation 1958 Flying A Garage Dragster "Little Nailhead," which sold for $11,000.
For complete results from the RM Sotheby's Andrews Collection sale, visitRMAuctions.com
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