You never want to write a blog about how your recently restofied Corvette was on fire, but hey, it happens. And it sure makes for interesting reading. I was taking my '72 down the Garden State Parkway to Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey. The idea was to shoot photos of it with a 2008 Corvette convertible for a web-exclusive road test. Then I'd make the '72's maiden pass down the quarter-mile to test the 383's mettle—maybe even take a lap or two on the Raceway Park road course just for grins and to burn some Firestone Indy 500 tires.

So I'm cruising down the road. I must have gotten 10 thumbs up in the short time I was in the car. It looked great, its Targa Blue paint and Mid America Motorworks chrome glistening. Next thing you know I smell oil. Must be someone else, I figure. Then I smell a lot of oil. I look in the rearview mirror and see a trail of blue smoke like I've never witnessed. I must have killed every mosquito for a mile. Luckily, a rest area was coming up.

I pull in and park, but the cockpit's starting to fill with smoke. I kill the engine, pop the hood, and oil is gushing from the passenger-side valve cover. It turns to fire as soon as it hits the headers. I hate when that happens. Talk about a buzzkill. I used an expensive micro-fiber towel to put out the flames and burned some knuckles in the process.

Ultimately, I got the old girl home and popped the valve cover. This is what I saw. Bizarre, right? I replaced this gasket with a much better Fel Pro multi-layer gasket. So far so good. Next stop: The auto parts store for a good fire extinguisher.