Steve Guenther and His ’71 Stingray Still Love to Play in the Street

Steve Guenther has rocket roots. The son of an Oldsmobile executive, he grew up in Lansing, Michigan, home to GM’s mid-century luxury performance division. Tucked away in the middle of the Great Lakes state, Lansing was a hot-rodding hotbed in the ‘60s and ‘70s. And if your father was a lover of cars that performed, a kid growing up in that environment would likely become a devoted fan of things that go fast.

“Dad would bring home W30 Cutlasses and 442s back then,” said Guenther, “and he bought mom a Toronado when the model was introduced in 1966. He took me for a ride soon after it had been delivered. Dad said don’t tell mom and floored the pedal on an open stretch of rural Michigan highway. Soon, the speedometer read 133, but the car was so smooth it felt like I could walk alongside it.”

Guenther got his first car while in high school—a ’66 Delta 88 convertible with the muscular 425 V-8 under the hood. He had it painted candy-apple red, jacked it up in back and hung Cragars at all four corners. “It was quick for the day,” he recalls. “In my teen years, I outran quite a few cops in that Olds.” Guenther loved the big convertible but coveted a machine like the one his best friend drove and raced, a ’63 split window Vette with a worked-over 327 under the hood. Furthering his passion for the Chevy sports car was constant exposure to a gorgeous ’65 Vette that lived next door. So, in 1973, when a friend said his wife was selling her ’71 Corvette, he had to have a look.

It was a brawny car, lacking power steering or brakes, and under the hood was the Turbo-Jet 454 V-8. One of the last C3 Corvette engines that wasn’t crippled by emission control equipment, the four-barrel-equipped powerplant generated 365 horsepower. The seller accompanied Guenther on a test drive and let him know he could push it a bit. He mashed the pedal to the floor, opening the secondaries of the Quadrajet, and the owner responded with a shriek that seemed to be prompted by both fear and appreciation. She had apparently never really gotten into the throttle. Guenther was more than pleased with the way the car looked and performed. What’s more, the price of the ’71 coupe was right, so he forked over $3750 and became the owner of a pretty Corvette.

Guenther recalls that his GM-employed dad had told him he could get him a very good deal on a ’73 Corvette convertible. But that car was somewhat crippled with emission control equipment, and it had the urethane front bumper extension instead of the early C3 chrome front bumper, so the ’71 was more appealing despite the fact that it was a used car.

The C3 Corvette that premiered in 1968 was based in part on the Mako Shark II concept car, and it was met with acclaim when it was revealed to the public. Early versions offered performance that lived up to the styling, with a 370-horsepower 350 offered for 1970 and 365- and 425-horsepower 454s in ’71. Guenther’s ‘71 is equipped with a domed hood, a large diameter front-stabilizer bar, heavy duty rear wheel spindle support arms, a rear stabilizer, a Positraction differential, and the THM 400 automatic trans. It’s a great ride.

Corvette ownership can be a magnetic experience, and Guenther soon found himself part of a group of Lansing area enthusiasts who owned and raced Corvettes. Many were Michigan state troopers—the kind of pals who come in handy when in need. Life in Lansing was good, but soon after buying the Corvette of his dreams, Guenther, who had become a health club employee, was offered a promotion if he moved to Detroit. The Vette apparently didn’t like the change of venue and soon after arriving in Metro Detroit, it spit out a timing gear. With few contacts in the area, Guenther turned to the Lansing Corvette gang to lend a hand. They traveled down to the Motor City, loaded Steve’s car on a trailer and took it back to Lansing where the late Steve Spinrad rebuilt the engine. It was still stone stock, but with fresh parts and good compression, it performed like new.

Guenther drove his Vette hard for years, and as with all engines and their owners, there came a time when it lacked the potency it once had, so in 2004 Steve had the big block Chevy pulled and rebuilt. This time he did it one better, boring the engine .030 over, upping the compression ratio to about 9.5:1 from the anemic 8.5:1, and installing a camshaft that enabled better breathing. A Holley 650-cfm double-pumper carb replaced the Quadrajet and a set of headers was installed. Over the years, the car was repainted twice in the original color and has been meticulously cared for.

Steve lives in the Detroit suburbs, and every summer on the Wednesday prior to the Woodward Dream Cruise, his property is home to a gathering of performance enthusiasts from the area. The group includes some present and former GM execs and designers, Corvette enthusiasts all. At this summer’s gathering, a focal point was the new 670-horsepower Corvette Z06 brought by Tom Peters, the esteemed Corvette designer.

Steve’s now retired, has now owned his ’71 Vette for more than half a century, and has racked up over 70,000 miles driving it often in the summer. He has a very special car, a charming wife named Diane, a son Dillon, a daughter Jessica, a great collection of close friends and a beautiful house in a lush corner of Southeast Michigan. What else could an old guy from Lansing ask for?