1964 Corvette Stingray: Building the Perfect Beast

We’re Going Retro with a Look at Our Fave First-Time Engine Build

If you have ever worked on restoring a car in any form or fashion — and we know that you have — then you know that hearing the engine fire up for the first time is unlike any other feeling in the world.

Gloriously bringing that concept to light in a thread called “Liiiiives!” is Lou64, a Senior member on our brother site, Corvette Forum. The burgeoning gearhead shares the joy of the first start-up after dropping a 350ci, 290 horsepower crate engine into his original 1964 Corvette.

Lou64 posted in a thread that he’d been working on the engine project virtually every day for months, and he detailed virtually every step of the enviable project.

‘I have given life to an auto for my first time!’

“I have given life to an auto for my first time!” he wrote about the classic Corvette. But nothing better highlights Lou64’s excitement than seeing his face when he starts up that 290 horsepower and 323 lb.-ft. of torque crate engine, as captured in the video below.