Welcome back to Wrecked Vette Wednesday, everyone. Today, it’s yet another C3 that drove a little too hard and paid the price for it. Last week, a ’72 Stingray cruised through here, looking like it had been hugged by King Kong and then dropped back onto solid pavement.

With $15,000 of estimated cost to repair and reinvigorate the car, the consensus was along the lines of “meh, no thanks” and amounted to a very cold reception. For this week, however, we’re thinking that perhaps a flambé’d model will warm folks up to the idea of a restoration project.

Found on the IAA website listings, this classic Corvette has yet to head to auction, and its sorry state of being isn’t helping matters. As the hopeless victim of a fiery tragedy, the Geico-insured vehicle also carries the curse of being built into a time of aggravating and intrusive governmental regulations known colloquially as the “Malaise Era.”

Reflecting the “Crisis of Confidence” speech made by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, the term was roughly used to apply to cars made between the years of 1973 to 1983. It signified the dark times of oil crises and CARB regulations that effectively strangled performance car enthusiasts, starving them of fun, 400-plus cubic-inch powerplants, and meaningful 0-60 times.

A Corvette like the one we have here did indeed have a V8, albeit one that only made 230 horsepower at the most. Not to mention, its burn damage is like something straight out of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, the late-80s comedy that starred John Candy and Steve Martin. The ’85 Ford Escort from that movie suffered some extreme damage, including a fire, but it performed its job admirably getting the odd couple home to Chicago.

What do you think? Could this Corvette be restored to its former glory? Or should it have kept burning until it was an ash heap? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.