It’s often said that every vintage Corvette has a story to tell. That’s an understatement in the case of this 1973 coupe because it actually has three tales to tell, all courtesy of long-time owner Darrell Hinklin. As is often the case, Hinklin’s Corvette journey began in early childhood, when he was obsessed with anything on wheels. “One day,” he recalls, “I surprised a friend’s mother when I identified every automobile that drove by their house. I built a lot of model cars, working late into the night at a worktable set up in the corner of my bedroom.”
Hinklin’s attention became laser focused on Corvettes in particular after a memorable ride in a C1. “A neighbor was tuning up his red 1960 when I drove my bicycle into his driveway. After several minutes he asked if I wanted to ride along as he went for a test drive. I remember getting pinned back into the passenger’s seat every time he shifted. Then and there I promised myself that someday I would own a Corvette.”
The determined lad’s fascination with Corvettes and other cars wasn’t just academic, and he found all sorts of ways to get his hands dirty. He began by disassembling, modifying, and painting his bicycle, then progressed to building competitive soap-box-derby cars and a motorized go-kart. At 16 he bought a 1951 Chevrolet for $100 and immediately customized it. A year later, during the summer between his junior and senior years of high school, he worked in a body shop, soaking up all of the techniques of the trade.
Following high school Hinklin enrolled in Columbus College of Art and Design, where he majored in industrial design, and after graduation he landed a job in Minnesota. Throughout college and in the years that immediately followed, he owned several 1956 and ’57 Chevys, but he never let go of his dream of owning a Corvette. That day finally came in July of 1974, when he spotted a classified ad for a gently used ’73 coupe that met all of his criteria—except perhaps for one. “I was looking for a low-mileage coupe with a small-block and four-speed, and without air conditioning,” he remembers. “The ’73 met that description, but I had to think about the color. Two days later I went back and bought it, and I’ve never had any second thoughts.”
When purchased, the Corvette was Hinklin’s only car and he drove it everywhere, starting with a 700-plus-mile trip back to his hometown of Marion, Ohio, for his 10-year high school reunion. From 1974 through 1978 he continued using his beloved C3 for daily transportation, but he pampered it every step of the way. “I lived in an apartment during those years, but I had underground, heated parking, and the parking area had a wash stall that I made frequent use of. In the winter I sometimes washed it twice a week.”
Over time Hinklin’s enthusiasm for all things Corvette grew stronger, and in 1979 he decided to attend the Bloomington Gold show in Illinois. After witnessing the passion at play there, he set his sights on one day returning with his car and presenting it for judging. That process began in 1981, with a fairly extensive restoration that he did with his own two hands.
“With 68,000 miles showing, I did a body-on restoration that included stripping the paint and doing a complete repaint,” he says. “I also pulled the engine out to detail the engine compartment, replaced the body glass, and replaced part of the interior. I completed all of the work myself in my two-and-a-half-stall garage.”
In 1982 Hinklin transported his Corvette to Bloomington in a semi-enclosed trailer that he designed and built himself. The car scored 98 percent in the rigorous judging and was even awarded a coveted Gold Certificate. Over the next couple of years, he participated in a number of shows, including some that were out of state, such as the big McDorman Chevrolet event in Columbus, Ohio.
Though he stopped using the Corvette for daily driving toward the end of 1978, Hinklin continued using it on a semi-regular basis over the ensuing 30 or so years. By 2007 it had travelled a little more than 82,000 miles, and he decided that the time was right for an engine refresh. It was also an appropriate time to transition the C3 into the next phase of its life, as Hinklin had gone as far as he wanted in the car-show world.
After going from basic transportation to Bloomington Gold–winning show car, what was next? Returning to his customizing roots, Hinklin set out to moderately modify the Corvette for enhanced performance and drivability.
A Third Act
“At the time my 23-year-old son, Jason, happened to be working in the North Carolina engine shop of a NASCAR team,” Hinklin recalls. “We discussed my plan to turn [the car] into a restomod, and he agreed to build a 500-horsepower 383 stroker motor while I worked on the rest of the car at my home in Minnesota.”
With the goal of producing 500 horses in a completely streetable engine, Jason started with a period-correct 3970010 cast block bored to 4.030 inches. The bottom end is now anchored by a 3.750-inch stroke Scat forged crankshaft that was extensively lightened, along with forged Eagle connecting rods and JE pistons. Efficient breathing comes courtesy of Air Flow Research Eliminator cylinder heads fitted with 2.050-inch intake and 1.600-inch exhaust valves and a solid-lifter Comp Cams camshaft. The heads are capped by an Edelbrock Performer RPM intake manifold and Street Demon 750-cfm carburetor, while waste gases are channeled out through Hooker Super Competition headers and a Pypes 2.5-inch exhaust system. Spark comes from a Performance Distributors HEI distributor that was modified to work with the car’s original mechanically driven tachometer.
One of the few options the car originally came with was power steering, and that, along with the water pump and alternator, are driven by a Concept One front-drive system. Jason replaced the original power steering pump with a more efficient unit from Concept One, and discarded the original Delco starter motor in favor of a much lighter Tilton Super Starter.
The potent small-block is kept cool with help from a four-core DeWitts aluminum radiator and a pair of Spal 11-inch electric fans, while its propulsive force is sent through a Tremec five-speed gearbox, a Hays 11-inch flywheel, and a McLeod clutch setup complete with scatter shield.
To withstand the significantly increased power and torque coming from the 383 stroker, Darrell Hinklin had the car’s original differential rebuilt with upgraded parts, including stronger springs for the Positraction unit. Since Fifth gear in the new Tremec five-speed is effectively an overdrive gear, he switched to a numerically higher 3.70:1 ring-and-pinion ratio, which yields quicker acceleration but still provides low-rpm, high-speed highway cruising.
Hinklin next got to work on the chassis, replacing every normal wear part such as the bushings, ball joints, U-joints, and bearings were. To improve high-speed handling he replaced the stock front coil springs with 460-pound units from Vette Brakes and Products. The factory steel rear leaf springs, meanwhile, were swapped out for a 200-pound composite spring from Hyperco. To achieve the lowered and slightly raked stance he desired, Hinklin cut three-quarters of a coil out of each front spring. KYB shocks complete the suspension modifications, while Boss 18×8-inch wheels wearing 245/50-18 Kumho tires complete the chassis.
While a C3’s stock four-wheel disc brake system is generally excellent, Hinklin wanted to make his car’s even better. To that end he installed a Wilwood setup, complete with new 13-inch rotors and six-piston front and four-piston rear calipers.
After running the engine in on a dyno, Jason confirmed that it more than met the target of 500 horsepower in a drivable package. Power peaked at 503.4 hp at 6,100 rpm, and torque registered at 483.8 lb-ft at 4,700 rpm. Even more important for a street car, torque remained well above 400 lb-ft from 3,800 all the way up to 6,400 rpm.
The finished engine was then shipped from North Carolina to Minnesota, and Jason traveled to his dad’s house to help him complete the project. The father-son build team’s efforts were rewarded on the car’s first significant outing, the 2009 Hot Rod Power Tour. This eight-day extravaganza saw some 1,342 entries, including the Hinklins, drive the entire route of 1,176 miles through seven cities, starting in Madison, Wisconsin, and ending in Bristol, Tennessee.
Over the next several years Darrell Hinklin continued driving his reborn Corvette, and in 2015 he and his son completed their second Hot Rod Power Tour with it. This event also began in Madison but ended in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As with the first tour six years prior, the car performed flawlessly, but on the way back home both of the Hinklins sensed a problem with the engine. A post-tour analysis revealed two failing lifters, which had started to damage the camshaft, so the pair replaced those parts to return the engine to peak performance.
In 2016 the car’s Orange paint was starting to show its age, so Hinklin again stripped it and prepped the body for a respray. This time, however, he paid a shop to do the actual spraying, only because he no longer had access to the necessary facilities himself. The following year, just for fun, he entered the car in an NCRS meet in Greenville, South Carolina. It was in the Concours Class, which is for modified Corvettes, and it earned a Blue Ribbon with a score of 99 percent.
Three years later, in 2019, Hinklin and his son took the car to Detroit and participated in the famous Woodward Dream Cruise. Two years after that he drove it to Milwaukee at his future daughter-in-law’s request, so that she and his son could drive away in it after their wedding.
“The car has been an integral part of my life for 50 years,” Hinklin reflects. “I’ve enjoyed every aspect of it, from daily driver to Bloomington show car to powerful restomod. I still love improving it and driving it on a regular basis. The mileage is now approaching 97,000, and of course I’m looking forward to the day that my grandchildren are old enough to ride in ‘grandpa’s orange Corvette.’”
