Post the success of Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars series, he was offered the role of Kenny Dantley in the 1978 flick, Corvette Summer, opposite Annie Potts, who most of us known as MeeMaw from the TV series Young Sheldon.

Take a look at the plot. Dantley is a high school senior who modified a Chevrolet Corvette Stingray as part of a school auto shop project and was lauded for it. The car, barely finished, was stolen, and Dantley decides to go after his love. He hitchhikes and gets a ride from Vanessa (Potts) who is training to be a lady of the night, and then not only does he rescue his love, the car but manages to change the mind of the girl as well.

As ridiculous as the movie was, this movie car became a cult classic. While the movie was forgotten making $36 million worldwide on a budget of $9 million, the Corvette Stingray is still remembered.

Let's take a look at the Stingray from Corvette Summer and state our reasons on why we love and hate it in equal measure…

10 Love That It Was A Corvette C3 Stingray

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1973 was the year when the Corvette made a transition, moving from muscle car grouping to more sports car with a far better and smoother ride and less road noise. Most experts and car magazines declared that the 1973 Corvette was one of the best cars they had driven to date.

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While the front and sides of the car were radically modified to look unique in the movie, there’s no hiding that signature tail of the Vette and it looks great on the big screen. Production numbers hit more than 30,000 and from then on, the Corvette was a sure-fire hit as a sports car.

RELATED: The Evolution Of The Iconic Corvette Stingray

9 Dislike The Right Hand Drive

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Many states do not allow right-hand-drive cars, reason why the JDM craze hasn’t gone all-out mania. The Corvette Stingray in the Corvette Summer movie is shown to be a deliberate right-hand-built, done so that Mark Hamill could be closed to the girls on the sidewalk.

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The idea came from the producers themselves who wanted Hamill to be portrayed as a fast-car driving jock, hanging out of the curbside window looking at the ladies, and making a right-hand-drive Vette made for better production ease.

8 Love That Bits Of A Harley Went Into It

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To make the right-hand drive possible, sprockets and a chain from a Harley-Davidson motorcycle was connected to the end of the steering shaft to the box. The entire contraption was kept to the left-hand side of the car and kept out of sight.

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The cool thing about it isn’t just Harley parts going in a car but the sheer ingenuity that Dick Korkes of Korky’s Kustom Studios who were given one okay car and one completely totaled one to build two usable replicas for the movie and subsequent promotions.

7 Dislike That This Corvette Did Not Look Like One

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This is one Corvette that at first glance does not look it. It's brash and wears OTT styling. Pipes are coming out of it from the side and the nose is long to the point of being ridiculous. Plus this is one Vette without the signature headlights and wears squarish ones more reminiscent of a Caprice.

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There are flames painted on the red base of the car and the whole effect is more Japanese Bosozoku than it is of an American sports car.

6 Love The Sawfish-Themed Air Scoop

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Few know that the chief stylist at Corvette, William L. “Bill” Knight was obsessed with marine life. Thus the name of the Corvette coupe, the stingray, and even the Mako shark concept Vettes. He was the tour de force behind the 1963 split-window Vette as well, despite consumers complaining of a lack of rear vision.

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The sawfish patten on the air scoop on the hood falls right into his vision of the Vette as an underwater predator, only on the road.

5 Dislike The Fixed, Square Headlights

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Honestly, the Corvette’s hidden pop-up headlights added to so much of its sports car charm, but this particular build did things very differently. The extra-long and protruding nose on the hood meant a major change in the front of the car.

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The headlights were now fixed and squarish in shape, looking more like they belonged at home with a Chevy Caprice rather than a Corvette. And yet, at the time, the two Corvettes for the movie were built for $60,000 by car customizer Richard Korkes.

RELATED: These Are The Coolest Cars That Came With Pop-Up Headlights

4 Love That Both Original Cars Are Still Alive

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We cannot tell you exactly where the cars are now, at this instance because most private car collectors are notoriously reticent about information sharing. We do know one of the cars is in Australia though it too was modified to look different.

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The second of the two identical Corvettes was owned by Mike Yager of Mid America Motorworks in Effingham, Illinois but then later sold in 2009 to a private collector. Despite many hating this car, both are still alive and hopefully thriving somewhere.

3 Dislike That Neither May Be In America Any More

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The first car was sold by Volo Auto Museum to an Australian private collector, and by 2015 all information sharing about this car on social media had stopped. Rumor is that it was sold again, but without concrete information, it is difficult to say.

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The second car, sold by Mike Yager in 2009 is now said to be in New Zealand. So no exact information on both these cars is available for now. That said; despite being an all-American car starring in an all-American movie, neither of the cars may be in America!

2 Love Some Of The Cool Mods

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Most of the modifications to this car were to the body, and we do like the extra-wide fenders and the Superior tires put in for a better ride. Plus a Corvette always looks great in candy apple red, and flames on the side.

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The flip-type hood was a fun addition as well although much of the internals, including the base 5.7-liter V8 that jetted 190 horses was kept stock. Basically, the car was modified in looks alone, and that’s both good and bad.

RELATED: 10 Classic Corvette Restomods We'd Drive Over The New C8

1 Dislike That Power Was Not Increased

Corvette Summer Came Out In 1978 And The Car Was Mostly Forgotten And In The Hands Of Private Collectors Till In 2011
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One problem that performance-car aficionados had with the car was that it looked fast but basically bore the base engine that made only 190 horses. The engine, as well as the transmission and the drivetrain, were kept stock, so nothing was really done to improve the performance of the car.

Everything We Love And Hate About The Corvette Summer Movie Car
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There were some changes made under the hood but most were to the hood itself so that was another letdown. It should have been a fantastic car considering the entire movie was about this car and yet, it was more about Dantley trying to get the car back and do right by Vanessa.

Sources: Hagerty, CarandDriver

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