When Jack Jagello bought this 1964 Corvette, the salesman at Shalla Chevrolet at 16701 Harper in Detroit told him the Tuxedo Black coupe came from the GM building.
“I used to work in that area, and they had a turntable where cars went round and round.”
That might explain the two wires that Jagello spied protruding from the overhead light in the coupe when he made the purchase in November 1964. Jagello figures GM turned the light on with auxiliary power.
GM was promoting the 1965 model now, so they let go of this 1964 coupe that Jagello describes as “stunning, just beautiful with silver interior that really sets it off.”
Apparently, GM held onto the car until the end of the model year. This coupe was one of the last 1964 model Corvettes sold by the dealer.
The coupe’s specs lend more credibility to the GM “Brass Hat” and executive origin, starting with the black-on-silver color combination, AM/FM, power windows and the 365-horse 327 backed by a four-speed.
Jagello was 20 years old and traded in a first year Mustang he had owned for five months. The Corvette was $4,200.
“I was looking at Corvettes, and I became friends with a salesman there at the dealer, and on a Friday he called me up and said there’s a car down here that I think you might be interested in. This was November of 1964. The 1965s were already out and he took me to see the car. It was stunning, a black coupe with a silver interior. I was just, “Wow.” And, “I put $5 down on that car and it became mine.”
Jagello’s $90 per month Mustang payment went to $137.34 a month for 36 months for the Corvette. Back then, Jagello said he was making “about $1.85 an hour.”
Today, Jagello wishes he had researched who ordered the car new at Chevrolet because he parked the 1964 Corvette in 1977, and in October 2017, at the urging of his wife to come up with a restoration plan, sent the car to Madison Heights, Michigan, and Masterworks Automotive Services, owned by Werner Meier. Meier is a former GM engineer turned Corvette restorer and Corvette Hall of Fame Inductee in 2013. Werner is famous for finding and restoring GM “styling cars” and other historic Corvettes.
Meier believes this 1964 is a Brass Hat Corvette assigned to an executive in the GM building.
Jagello is happy he kept his old Corvette. He already felt these cars were becoming collectible in 1977. Vette
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