People used to pay this man to ruin Corvettes

"luvMeSome142 & some Lincoln!" (luvmesome142) 05/24/2016 at 16:01 • Filed to: None

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His name is Les Dunham. And he will still ruin your car today, if you want. He can tell you some of his story himself:

Here is one of his tamer Corvorados used in the Bond movie, Octopussy:

Here’s one, not so tame:

He also got the idea to ruin Corvettes in a different way. Here he is with his Caballista:

If that’s your cup of tea, you can buy one right now!

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RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > luvMeSome142 & some Lincoln! 05/24/2016 at 16:07

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Apparently there are or were only seven Corvorados. I couldn’t find the one in Jonee’s post documented anywhere , so it looks like it’s one of possibly three missing ones. The one in Jonee’s post is almost a carbon copy of the Superfly one, but has no T-tops and has added hood horns and pipes, and ... whatever is on the roof. Looks almost like a camera.

luvMeSome142 & some Lincoln! > luvMeSome142 & some Lincoln! 05/24/2016 at 16:12

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Funny extra: The Wikipedia page for Corovorado redirects to Pimpmobile.

Jonee > luvMeSome142 & some Lincoln! 05/24/2016 at 16:20

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Nicely done. For the poor man’s version, see the Leata Caballero. The 70's were a wild time, man.

luvMeSome142 & some Lincoln! > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 05/24/2016 at 16:30

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The one in Superfly was one of Dunham’s El Dorado customs, not a Corovorado. That front treatment was used on both though. You can’t see from the pic from Jonee’s post, but I bet it has the giant chrome grill and headlights. That does look like a camera.

luvMeSome142 & some Lincoln! > Jonee 05/24/2016 at 16:34

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Good lord some crazy stuff comes up when I google that.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > luvMeSome142 & some Lincoln! 05/24/2016 at 16:42

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My bad. I should say “the Corvorado that looks like the Superfly El Dorado”. The red/white one that the Madle.org guy has down as #2. It seems to get a lot of exposure - the black/silver one in the museum, the later body parts #7, and the Bond white one (#1) if it’s still around, not so much. That is, assuming that the confusing entry that Madle has on #2 doesn’t mean that #2 is actually the Bond one butchered and reworked. That leaves three unknowns, and Jonee’s one is apparently one of them.

Jonee > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 05/24/2016 at 17:10

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I didn’t realize he made that few. I guess there were some knock-off Corvorados running around. Maybe $5K isn’t as crack piped as I thought for that disaster of a car in my post.

Jonee > luvMeSome142 & some Lincoln! 05/24/2016 at 17:12

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What’s so crazy about a broughamified Chevette built in Idaho? I realized I put an extra “l” in Cabalero.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Jonee 05/24/2016 at 17:17

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It’s genuine, without question, and extremely rare, but it doesn’t appear to have any actual movie car provenance, only in type. That means you could probably haggle a little off the top. If you could get it for more like $4k and it doesn’t have a completely trashed interior, it could be worth it to somebody for freak factor - I think all the bodywork is fiberglass, so it should be fine - no hidden rust.

I mean, at the end of the day it’s a quite unique fiberglass pimpmobile Corvette of a kind that was actually in contemporary media. Not every seven-off coachbuilder car exists in diecast form and has a following.

Jonee > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 05/24/2016 at 17:21

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Yeah, exactly. Despite the questionable taste, it actually is kind of a legendary and iconic vehicle. If I had a lot of disposable cash laying around, I’d do the 4 grand and send it back to Les to refurbish.

luvMeSome142 & some Lincoln! > Jonee 05/24/2016 at 17:23

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I thought Caballero was right (Spanish for cowboy?). Anyway google images had this not too far down the page.

luvMeSome142 & some Lincoln! > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 05/24/2016 at 17:25

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Good points. Someone with the time and money could end up with something pretty cool/freaky.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > luvMeSome142 & some Lincoln! 05/24/2016 at 17:28

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Here’s the killer part: It’s heavier than a normal ‘69 Vette, without question. But... is it much heavier than a Camaro was? Given the Corvette running gear and suspension and fiberglass construction, it is probably faster than it has any ghost of a right to be. For a pimpmobile, fast beyond reason.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Jonee 05/24/2016 at 17:29

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It’s actually not much more than a somewhat ratty C3 in similar shape, and it *is* a C3. The looniest C3 of them all.

Jonee > luvMeSome142 & some Lincoln! 05/24/2016 at 17:37

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Caballero is right if we’re talking about the Spanish word, but Leata spelled it “Cabalero.” Maybe they wanted to save some money on badging.

Whoa, that is crazy. I feel like they put the extra wheels on the wrong part.

Jonee > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 05/24/2016 at 17:54

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It actually reminds me of the first Excaliburs which were fiberglass and had the Chevy 327. But, you could get a supercharged, 435 horsepower version. They looked like proto-pimpmobiles, but were actually one of the most capable sports cars of their day.