Sounds like a straight forward accident to me. My brother owned a cherry 58 Corvette with a big motor and I asked him why he traded it off and he said "because the bitch keeps trying to kill me". I drove it once and it handled like a log wagon. Corvettes of similar vintage were designed for a straight six cylinder engine, when larger and heavier V8 engines were installed you couldn't even reach the rear spark plugs without partly pulling the motor. My brother cut access holes to make these plugs easier to reach from inside the wheel wells. The whole balance was thrown off by the extra weight up front and heavier shocks were called for, but did little good.