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Have you ever come across old home videos (or films, such as the old-school “Super 8” format that was popular long before VHS tapes changed the market in the 1980’s)? Old films of your childhood, your parents at a younger age, or even your grandparents?
[2]They can be wonderful windows to the past, filled with memories quietly filed away or forgotten with the passage of time. Life does evolve and change daily, so it’s easy to understand how those memories are set aside. Sometimes, though, when those visual time capsules are unearthed or brought out of mothballs, back into the light of day, hidden treasures may be discovered in those forgotten or neglected archives from the past.
Such is the case with Vimeo user Amélie Renoncule’s [3] video, “Canary Islands Corvette Special…1956.” This 57 year-old home movie of that event captures some classic Corvettes in their early days, long before the 1963 split rear window Sting Rays, the 1966 427 big block Corvettes, the emissions-strangled ‘Vettes of the 1970’s, the “Crossfire” injected models of early 1980s, the performance renaissance-inspired Corvettes of the mid 1980’s that led up to the 638 HP ZR1, the Z06, and the reborn 2014 Stingray of the new millennium. Those early Corvette racing cars from the mid 1950’s are captured beautifully in their original form.
There are several other cars seen in the film; Renoncule notes in her posting that a friend of hers thinks one of the cars is a Scarab Race Car (the car her friend believes is a Scarab has large spider painted on the hood), but she disagrees. Having examined many photos of the Scarab for this story, I would agree with Renoncule’s analysis–it is not a Scarab. Nevertheless, the old home movie should be watched and enjoyed for what it is: a terrific time capsule that captures some classic Corvettes in their heyday, in all of their wonderful glory.