Nick Squillace can’t thank an old farmer with a barn for his pristine 1959 Corvette — instead, he’s grateful for a marriage gone wrong.
“The owner wanted $45,000; I got it for $28,000,” says the Wappingers Falls resident. “It was a Saturday, and he was going to divorce court on Monday. He needed the cash.”
The purchase was like renewing a love affair. Squillace’s first car, right out of high school, was a 1966 Corvette.
In 2003, Squillace thought he might like a Shelby Cobra. But when he saw the ’59 Corvette on eBay, his son commented on the beautiful blue paint, and that was that. “If it had been red, I wouldn’t have bought it,” Squillace says with a laugh. A quick drive to Newburgh to inspect the car sealed the deal.
The Corvette was original other than the wheels and paint. It needed only minor maintenance, he says. “It had been repainted crown sapphire sometime in the ’90s. I’m likely the third or fourth owner.” The odometer read 68,000 miles, but he has no idea if that was accurate.
He loves the car, although not for the way it handles. “It drives like a truck,” Squillace says. “There’s no smooth ride in it at all. It’s just a cool old car, and I like all the looks it gets.”
While the Corvette may not be silky smooth, it packs a punch: Squillace has taken it up to 110 miles an hour. The 283-cubic-inch, eight-cylinder engine produces 270 horsepower. That, combined with twin four-barrel carburetors, four-speed manual transmission and dual exhausts, yields, at best, 10 mpg. At worst, it’s 6 mpg of high test, he says.
Squillace has a healthy collection of trophies from car shows from Bear Mountain to Rhinebeck. Lake George is the farthest he’s ventured from Dutchess County. He’s had several offers for the 65-year-old car but says he is not interested in selling. He hangs on to his vehicles. “The newest thing I have is a 2013 Jeep,” he said. He also owns 1939, 1957 and 1981 Harley Davidsons, a 1965 Chevy pickup and a 2004 Chevy SSR.
The Specs
Assembly: St. Louis
Total production: 9,670
Body: 2-door coupe
Engine: 283-cubic-inch V8
Transmission: 4-speed manual; 3-speed manual; Powerglide automatic optional
Carburetor: Twin four-barrels
Horsepower: 270
Exhaust: Dual
Brakes: 4-wheel hydraulic
0 to 60 mph: 6.6 seconds
Fuel economy: 6 to 10 mpg
Curb weight: 3,033 pounds
Cost: $3,875 ($41,836 in 2024)
One of the Corvette’s options must have been considered pretty cool in 1959 — the Wonderbar radio. “You push a button, and it finds the station itself,” he says. “This car has every option you could get,” including a parking-brake alarm, push-button door handles and a 24-gallon gas tank.
Squillace says his 1959 model stands out among Corvettes. It was the last year that Chevrolet made fewer than 10,000 Corvettes (9,670), and only 661 were produced of Squillace’s model with a powered soft-top convertible roof. (He also has a hard top, manual mounted roof.) The only change he’d consider would be front disc brakes, for safety.
Replacement parts are not hard to find, although they are costly. “You pay big bucks for original parts,” he says. “An original jack is $1,700; a reproduction costs $400.”
The Corvette made its debut as a prototype at the 1953 General Motors Motorama in New York City. It had a fiberglass body, a 235-cubic-inch straight six-cylinder engine that generated 150 horsepower and a two-speed automatic transmission. Only 300 were built, but Corvettes have been offered for sale every year since, except 1983, when the company made 61 but destroyed all but one.
The 2024 Corvette E-Ray is a hybrid with a 6.2-liter V-8 gasoline engine and electric motor that produces 655 horsepower and propels the car to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds. Squillace’s 1959 model needs 6.6 seconds.
