Possibly the Lowest Number of Miles on Any 454
In 1972, Jim Kevan was a 22-year-old with some money to burn and his eye set on a Corvette. He knew he’d better get his Corvette before he got married and had kids so he went to the dealer to buy a new ZR1, Kevan told All American Muscle Cars. The salesman talked him out of the ZR1 because “this car here is a race car.” He didn’t think Kevan could handle the car. Instead of the ZR1, Kevan bought a 1972 Corvette 454 in a beautiful blue with a convertible top.
When he found out insurance was going to cost him $1,200 a year, he decided to garage the vehicle for a little while. The insurance agent told him he could get insurance for as little as $400 a year if he waited until he was 25 and married. Kevan drove it a couple of times, but he couldn’t take a chance of something happening to it.
I was in the midst of buying a home. We were getting married and planning a family, and I couldn’t take a chance on driving without insurance, so as much as it killed me, that’s why I ended up putting it in the garage. And then by the time I turned 25 and married, we already had a couple kids and now the Corvette wasn’t a big issue.
And so it sat. For 40 years. Kevan wasn’t planning on letting it sit that long, but he just never got it out and then realized that a car like his with so few miles (it only has 967 miles) would be unlike any other. “I was thinking if I keep that mileage under 1,000, it’s going to be one of a kind. If it goes over 1,000 miles, it’s like the old sale price, $99.99 seems like a bargain compared to $100.”
