The Nebraska farmer didn’t wait long after unloading his new-old Corvette.
The $80,000 Corvette he bought at the Lambrecht Chevrolet auction in Pierce, one of the best no-mileage survivors, was the subject of much debate about whether their new owners should wash the decades of dealership dust that helped make them famous.
John Kaldahl got out his garden hose.
“Well, it was all dirty,†he said. “It hadn’t been cleaned up or anything.â€
The Nuckolls County man didn’t buy the Corvette as an investment. He isn’t a car collector, like the New Hampshire bidder who paid $140,000 for a 1958 pickup and plans to preserve it, dirt and all, in a climate-controlled showroom.
Kaldahl had just always wanted a Corvette. And now he and Mary could afford one.
People are also reading…
“I saw it advertised, and I knew it would be a one-of-a-kind thing. We just sort of bought it for fun.â€
The Corvette — the Indy Pace Car edition, four miles on its odometer — was one of the 500 cars and trucks amassed by Ray Lambrecht, who operated his small-town dealership for 50 years. And it was one of the few brand-new relics that lived its life indoors.
Kaldahl bought it sight-unseen. He didn’t attend the preview the day before bidding or make it up to Pierce to bid in person.
“We had a wedding we had to go to Saturday afternoon, and we couldn’t do both. Weddings come first.â€
Instead, he’d logged onto the auction’s online bidding provider, Proxibid. He had no way of guessing what a never-driven, 35-year-old Corvette might sell for. But he knew his budget, and it was quite a bit more than the $80,000 he ended up paying.
“No one knew what the market would be on that car. There’s never been one like that.â€
After he won Saturday, and the auctioneer announced the winner was from Nebraska, the crowd applauded. Sunday, he and Mary drove north to Pierce.
He had no problem finding help loading his Corvette.
“I took an old, cruddy car trailer we used on the farm. I told everybody I had the cruddiest car trailer up there and the nicest car to bring back,†he said. “I was quite a celebrity.â€
He had heard about the potential value in Lambrecht dirt, that it would identify the cars as part of the now-famous Lambrecht Collection, and that some other new owners weren’t going to wash theirs.
The farmer wasn’t persuaded. He spent an hour trying to wash the oily grime off the Corvette’s black and silver paint and it’s still not clean, so he’ll have it buffed out next week.
But he has no immediate plans to start driving the car that spent 35 years on a showroom floor.
“I haven’t taken the plastic off the seats yet.â€