His 1960 Corvette Is At Home in a Public Brooklyn Garage
By A.J. Baime | Photographs by Nate Palmer for The Wall Street Journal April 29, 2023 10:00 am ET Jan Hyde, 82, a retired real-estate investment banker and consultant, on his 1960 Chevrolet Corvette, as told to A.J. Baime. If I had to argue one reason why the Chevrolet Corvette exists on this planet, it would be racing. When I was growing up in Pittsburgh, there was a wealthy Gulf Oil executive named Grady Davis who started a Corvette racing team around 1961. He had two noteworthy drivers: a Washington, D.C.-based racer named Dr. Dick Thompson (they called him “The Flying Dentist”) and a guy named Don Yenko, who owned a Chevrolet dealership outs
By
A.J. Baime | Photographs by Nate Palmer for The Wall Street Journal
Jan Hyde, 82, a retired real-estate investment banker and consultant, on his 1960 Chevrolet Corvette, as told to A.J. Baime.
If I had to argue one reason why the Chevrolet Corvette exists on this planet, it would be racing. When I was growing up in Pittsburgh, there was a wealthy Gulf Oil executive named Grady Davis who started a Corvette racing team around 1961. He had two noteworthy drivers: a Washington, D.C.-based racer named Dr. Dick Thompson (they called him “The Flying Dentist”) and a guy named Don Yenko, who owned a Chevrolet dealership outside my hometown called Yenko Chevrolet.
These guys were my idols. In good part because of them, I always liked Corvettes. They were slick and fast, and I always wanted one—specifically, a 1960 Corvette. I liked the styling, and the fuel injection, which meant serious performance at that time.
In February of 1964, I was living in San Francisco, coming home from a date, when I saw a 1960 Corvette on an old used car lot. I went back that Sunday and talked to the guy. He took me back into his office and said, “The price is $2,400.” I had the money. He pulled out two paper cups, poured us both some Scotch, and I drove the car away that day.
I was scheduled to enroll at Harvard Business School that August, so I drove the car across the country, stopped briefly in Pittsburgh to see my family, and kept on going to Boston. This car was my daily transportation.
When I graduated, I moved to New York for my first job, settling in Brooklyn, where I still live today. Through networking, I met a guy named Frank Dominianni, a pioneering Corvette racer who owned a landmark speed shop in Valley Stream, N.Y. I got to know Frank, and he took care of my car. Frank was a fascinating and intelligent guy. He put a spare racing engine in my 1960 Corvette, which still powers it today. I also bought one of Frank’s old Corvette racing cars and I used it to compete in vintage racing for 15 years starting in the 1980s.
I later sold that racing car. But, for me, I just feel privileged to say I had a chance to be associated with Frank Dominianni. He is no longer alive, but the legacy he built remains.
Brooklyn is not a very car-friendly place. But I have kept the Corvette in Brooklyn since 1966. Most people would sell the car if they were in my position. But I have had enough money and an understanding enough wife that I have kept this car all these years. For the past seven or eight, I have kept it in a public parking garage in Brooklyn. It has surveillance, it is temperature-controlled, I can park the car myself, and the people who work there are really nice. It may sound strange, but I think my car is safer in that public parking garage than it would be in a driveway.
Driving this car brings back memories. I picked up my wife for our first date in it in 1966. I drove her to the hospital in it in 1970 for the arrival of our first born. And the car still wants to be driven. I drive it every couple of weeks when the weather is nice. That is what makes it happy.
Write to A.J. Baime at [email protected].
My ride
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