I had a friend also looking to get an early Vette car, but didn't want to deal with 'old school' tech. I convinced him to find a clean car and do a late model LS swap in it. This was, he and his wife can drive it, have a overdrive trans, lots of power, better gas mileage and since the model he got was a 75' it's exempt from smog inspection in the state. He bought the Vette non-running for $4500 and it's pretty clean. Looking for a low mileage LS wrecker for he swap. Some private shops around here can do the swap for around $2500 and you supply the parts. This way your wife keep her car and you get to have a fun ride. The trade would have sounded ok, but a 40+ year old car is going to need attention, no matter how nice it is. So to me, the swap is not worth making the little lady unhappy.