A totaled 2020 Corvette Stingray was recently spotted being hauled away from the scene of the accident by a vintage Chevy C50 flatbed that appears to still be running strong and serving its owner well.
While a crash involving a 2020 Corvette is no longer very newsworthy (we’ve seen no shortage of big wrecks involving the new mid-engine Corvette, after all), we decided to shed some light on this crash due to the aforementioned Chevy C50 flatbed that showed up to bring it to the junkyard. This achingly cool old wrecker has a perfect patina finish and appears to still be reliably hauling crashed vehicles despite being nearly 60 years old.
We don’t have much information on this vintage Chevy C50 flatbed, although it appears to be from either the 1962 or 1963 model years based on the styling of the front fascia. The flatbed portion also looks to be a bit more modern than the cab section of the truck, giving this old car hauler some current-day capability. It’s not clear what’s under the hood, either, but the Chevy C50 was offered with a 292 cubic-inch inline-six engine or 327 cubic-inch or 366 cubic-inch V8 engines. The truck appears to be owned and operated by a salvage lot in Louisiana, based on the information painted on the truck’s doors.
We don’t have too much information on the crash that this Chevy C50 wrecker was called out to, either. Some Facebook commenters alleged the crash occurred at roughly 115 mph, which is believable given the amount of damage it has sustained, but thankfully, no one was seriously injured. The car allegedly had just over 500 miles on the odometer, so it seems the owner only got to put some break-in miles on it before they sent it to Corvette heaven. The wrecked Vette was listed for sale through Copart but has since been sold.
It’s unfortunate to see a brand new 2020 Corvette get written off and we hope that no one was hurt in this serious-looking crash. That said, we won’t deny that the wrecked ‘Vette looks pretty darn cool sitting on the back of this old Chevy wrecker.
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Comments
Racers gonna race!
Some of the c8 vette crashes on GMA lately looked survivable, not this one.
If that ol’ truck has the 366, it has one of the best truck engines ever offered. We had several in our business trucks over the years. The 366 out-performed the 390 Fords and gave superior fuel economy as well. All they asked in return were tune-ups and oil changes.
Amazing, simply amazing. How in the world can a sane person do something like this! Okay, maybe I answered my own question. Truth is, when I was working for GM (many years ago, hey, I’m “almost” old!) and we saw how we had to do crash testing as per our government standards, we never envisioned that sane people (here we go again) could possibly destroy a vehicle as complete and devastatingly so as we’ve come to see in today’s crashes, this C8 as an excellent example.
Case in point, the government requires that we do our testing following a set of designed rules and regulations, and that is done by all manufactures and if you want to build and sell vehicles in the USA, then you will comply and when you’ve done this, you’re awarded a “Star” rating number with “5” being best.
Most of this is actually is done by computer, and that’s a great start, and the actual “crash” is handled by an independent firm, although the manufacturer do have to supply required data.
But…when you see crashes like this new C8 Corvette, rest assured that GM had no plans for actually building a Corvette that can withstand “ANY CRASH”, but instead does build the vehicle to an assured standard and that standard should under most conditions assure the safest vehicle possible under guidelines so set by our government and in a lot of cases, exceeded by the vehicles manufacture, which I feel are more than reasonable…unless you decide to do something crazy!
My point being….there are limits to designed in safety standards, and no matter how well you design and build your product, or how many “5” Star vehicle models you manage to build, something like this comes along and you are just confounded as to how someone could wreck a vehicle so completely! And yes, I realize that the estimated (115 mph) speed that this Corvette owner/driver was traveling at (with such low mileage on the ODO too) when they obviously lost control and left the road, was a major factor in this C8 being so “totally destroyed”, and there are no “crash standards” that can be faithfully followed that’ll make the vehicle any safer than “the nut behind the wheel” feels they can live with.
I suppose that if our government wanted to actually test vehicles in the “real world” all they’d have to do is to give any vehicle ready for testing to those people who’d “drive like a Mr. Toad” (and his Wild Ride escapades…my apologies to Walt Disney Animation from the late 1950’s) not following the rules of the road and allow them to, at some point in time, totally destroy the “tested product” in ways that are almost unbuildable, and then allow the government and the manufacture to come “pick up the pieces”, take it to a laboratory and figure out how they could build a safer product, if possible.
But that of course would not only be a major liability (who’d claim the body or bodies in these unsurvivable wrecks?) and so it’s safer to use laboratory testing procedures but still…manufactures can only do so much to keep us all safe, and from what I’ve seen, with the advent of shoulder belts, air bags, plus amazing chassis & body designs ect, many lives have been saved by improving required crash standards. However, seeing a crash like this confirms to me that no matter how well you design safety into your product, someone’s going to come along that’ll push those safety standards beyond its limits.
what a shame!
All Corvette owners will pay the price for this recklessness with our insurance premiums.
I have been waiting for my 2020 C8 for over 15 months. To see this car totaled probably at the drivers recklessness makes me crazy. I have been without my C6 all of these months. I have just been notified from my dealer that my now 2021 C8 is at the 3000 status. After waiting all this time I can assure everyone I will not treat my C8 like this.
We had a 1963 C60 , same color as this one (green/white roof) and it had a 327 and manual trans. Farm truck . Hauled grain and even cattle.
Judging by the chassis, rear suspension, and wheels it looks like someone swapped a ’63 Chevy C-50 cab on to a 1991-2002 C-3500HD chassis. Nonetheless that is one cool looking roll-back, and if it is a cab swap on a later chassis it probably has a TBI or Vortec 454 in it. So much the better!