The Corvette Hunter. Tyler Greenblatt
and wasted no time in dialing it. Or Costanzo was pleasant over the phone, a true Corvette enthusiast; however, Kevin was hardly the first Corvette hunter who had reached out to him.
“That’s a very famous car, Kevin,” Or told him. “Nobody knows where the car is. I get calls all the time from people asking where it is.”
In addition to confirming the sale to his good friends Dana and Toye English, Costanzo had the good heart to relay the car’s VIN over the phone. He also mentioned that he still had the original documentation and some parts for the car if anyone were to ever find it.
Kevin’s next move was to talk with Dana English. The conversation took an interesting turn when Dana revealed that although he couldn’t remember who he sold the car to, he knew that he was a New Yorker who was in the dry-cleaning business but then became an attorney. Kevin’s proximity to New York allowed him and his hired sleuth, David Reisner, to come up with a name that fit the somewhat strange set of information: Alex Davidson.
Davidson was perplexed as to how he was tracked down given the number of years that had passed. Kevin wasted no time in getting a confirmation that he did indeed buy a Corvette race car in Tampa, Florida, from Toye English. However, he had sold it many years before and couldn’t remember anything about the buyer.
Kevin let him sit for a month before calling back and asking if he could recall anything else. Davidson said that the gentleman was from either North or South Carolina, but he couldn’t remember anything else. Kevin gave him another month before calling again; this time Davidson became aggravated.
“Listen, Kevin,” he said, “all I can tell you is that it was a doctor named Charlie. I don’t remember his last name, and now you’re being a pest.”
“So now I got either North Carolina or South Carolina and Dr. Charles something,” Kevin says. But it was something, and Kevin had a source that had proved to be helpful in finding the John Paul car with little and poor information. He called Harry Hanley, who had records of every car and driver who ever competed in SCCA racing and gave him what little information he had. Just a few weeks later, Hanley called Kevin with a hit. A Dr. Charles West from Greenwood, South Carolina, had raced a 1969 Corvette.
“Don’t forget, this is September 1991,” Kevin says, “so we’re only going back about 15 years to the 1970s. There’s a chance this guy’s still alive and there’s a chance he’s still practicing.”
Kevin called information looking for Dr. Charles West, who he discovered was a dentist and was still practicing. He called the office number asking for Dr. Charles West to which the response on the other end came back, “Oh, would you like to make an appointment?”
“No,” Kevin said. “Just tell him I want to talk about Corvettes.”
The receptionist knew that Dr. West was a big car guy and immediately retrieved him.
“Hello, sir, my name’s Kevin Mackay and I understand you used to race Corvettes?”
“Yeah,” replied Dr. West. “I haven’t done it in a while, but yeah.”
“Do you have a ’69 Corvette?”
Once again, Kevin was cautiously asked how he had gotten his information. He said he got his name from Alex Davidson.
“Oh yeah, I bought the car from Alex. I still have the car, but I kinda junked it.”
“What do you mean you kinda junked it?” Kevin asked, perplexed.
It turns out that Dr. West also owned a local junkyard and had dropped the car there in the 1970s. Kevin asked to see it and was invited down, although simultaneously informed that the car wasn’t for sale. He was given the doctor’s home number to set up a meeting time.
Kevin planned to be in Atlanta, Georgia, a couple of weeks later so he called Dr. West and gave him the only date that he could feasibly drive up to South Carolina and see the car. The date didn’t work, as Dr. and Mrs. West had a wedding that day. Kevin said that he would be driving three hours to see the car and didn’t know when he’d be able to make it back.
With a paint scheme like this, it’s no wonder that the team put a special license plate on the car. The plate was the final piece of the puzzle that Kevin spent years searching for after the car was completed. Also note the little round sticker in the lower left-hand corner of the rear window. That’s the Le Mans team sticker that helped Kevin identify the car in that South Carolina junkyard in the middle of the night.
“Kevin, if you’re coming out here from New York, and you can meet me at the wedding place at midnight, I’ll make an effort to show you the car.”
As soon as he could leave the show he was attending, Kevin got in his rental car and drove the three hours to Greenwood, South Carolina, timed to arrive at the wedding reception hall at midnight. Dr. West came out in a tux and his wife was wearing an evening gown. He commented that it was no problem at all and he was happy to show Kevin the car.
At the junkyard, Dr. West put a set of overalls over his tuxedo at his wife’s request, grabbed a flashlight, unlocked the fence gate, and took Kevin on foot into the junkyard. It was one in the morning. West pointed to a big blue boat tarp and said, “There it is.”
Kevin walked up and began rolling back the tarp, the faded, deteriorated cover shattering in his hands. He saw Alex Davidson’s name on the door immediately. The VIN matched the one that Or Costanzo had given him. Yellow paint peeked out from behind the white that it had been painted since its Rebel days. But it wasn’t until he looked at the little sticker on the back window that Kevin began “shaking like a leaf.” The sticker was the one only given to race teams that competed in the 1972 Le Mans.
This little sticker helped Kevin immediately nail the identification of the Rebel Corvette. Its teammate, the #4 Corvette raced by NART, competed at Le Mans and both cars were given these commemorative stickers.
“I have a picture of the car on the cover of Corvette News and it’s got the sticker,” Kevin says. “Bingo! Son of a gun!”
Unfortunately, the Rebel Corvette was such a highly modified race car that it didn’t qualify for entry into the GT class. Team owner Toye English put together another Corvette to race in France, known as the #4 Rebel Le Mans car. Because both cars were owned by Toye English, he received a commemorative 1972 Le Mans sticker to put on each car. Even though #57 didn’t go to Le Mans, it still got a sticker. After the two cars raced together back in the States, the Le Mans car was later sold to Alex Davidson as well, and was later discovered by Jack Boxstrom and restored by Corvette Repair.
Kevin turned to Dr. West and said, “Doc, I’ve gotta buy this car.”
But the good doctor wasn’t interested in selling. After Kevin asked repeatedly Dr. West asked, “What do you want to do with this car, Kevin?”
Kevin told Dr. West how he wanted to restore it back to its heyday. Dr. West knew the car was special but didn’t otherwise know a whole lot about it. What he did know was that he liked the idea of seeing the car restored, and what he really wanted was to once again own a Porsche that he used to race and had been thinking about buying back. The Porsche would cost him $7,000.
He offered Kevin a deal. “If you give me enough money to buy my old race Porsche back, I’ll give you this car. It’ll cost you seven grand.”
“Deal.” Kevin handed him $1,000 in cash as a deposit and said he’d be back in the next couple of days with the rest of the money and to pick up the car.
“He said, ‘You really want this car?’” Kevin remembers.
“I said, ‘Yeah, I know it’s a wreck, but it’s real and I’d love to have it.’ I remember that I was so numb I couldn’t