Now here are a couple of Vette-related publications that, while small in size, are HUGE in the amount of information they pack between their covers.
Pocket Guides = Priceless InfoStory by Scott RossPhotos by Patrick HillHere are two books that are a better fit in your pocket when you’re looking for that next (or first) Vette: Mike Antonick’s Corvette Black Book, and the Cars That Matter Price Guide.
If you’ve been to any major Corvette show, you’ve seen folks carrying the Corvette Black Book around—for good reason. It lists the year-to-year changes that the Corvette has gone through, including tidbits like what part numbers and part/casting-number suffixes were correct for stuff like engine blocks, carburetors, fuel injection systems, distributors, and generators/alternators. It also has a listing of the options (and their list prices and the number of Vettes built with them), paint codes and interior codes for each year, too.
If you’re looking to track what the market for vintage Vettes is doing, you’ll want to subscribe to the three-times-a-year paperback Cars That Matter Price Guide. It’s filled with the prices that collectors are paying—and getting—for their pre-’81 Corvettes and other cars. They’re all listed by manufacturer, year, model, body style and condition from #1 (Concours) through #4 (“20 footer”), with notes to add or subtract a dollar amount or price percentage if a given option or feature is on the car. The prices shown are, per the book’s editors, compiled from reports sent by a network of professional appraisers, dealers and brokers, as well as from auction houses and collectors around the world. Is there such a thing as a million-dollar Vette? Per the one we received, there’s at least one. Get the latest edition and see if it’s the one that you’re thinking about.
GET IT:Corvette Black BookMotorbooks, 800/826-6600, www.motorbooks.comList Price (for current edition): $16.95 +shippingCars That Matter Price Guide:Cars That Matter, 800/872-7772, www.carsthatmatter.com.List Price: $20 + shipping for current issue; $40 + shipping for one year (three issues).