1959 Chevrolet Corvette Scaglietti Coupe
This car is one of three bare 1959 Corvette chassis shipped to Scaglietti of Maranello and constructed with a special lightweight alloy body to Sergio Scaglietti's design. Three Texas-based racers, Gary Laughlin, Jim Hall and Carroll Shelby, were trying to duplicate Ferrari's lightweight construction with inexpensive Chevrolet power. Their intention was to race these cars against the Ferrari 250 Testarossas and 250 SWB Berlinettas. Scaglietti's principal customer, Enzo Ferrari, was not pleased, and the cars took more than two years to complete. This example was the first of the three, built for Gary Laughlin and restored by Chuck Brahms for the Monterey Historic Races featuring Chevrolet in 1987.
1959 Chevrolet Corvette Scaglietti, classic sports car
First introduced in January of 1953, the Corvette has only become more renowned as the years drift by. Undergoing many changes and restyles as any other vehicle will over the years, the Corvette has experienced new engines, transmission, chassis, features, body colors and so much more. Starting with a 235 cu-in 6-cylinder engine, the Corvette has since switched to a V8 with a horsepower that is improving each year. Over the years, the Corvette has also been offered in different trim models, the hardtops, coupes, convertibles, ZR-1s and Z06. Several different special editions models were also featured over the years to mark Corvette's step up into a new generation. The Corvette was always a 2-seater vehicle, Chevy has always offered and included features and equipments that were sophisticated enough to please owners and buyers.
A sports car manufactured by Chevrolet, the Corvette was originally handbuilt in Flint, Michigan and St. Louis, Missouri and is today built at a General Motors assembly plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Bowling Green, Kentucky is also the home of the National Corvette Museum and annual National Corvette. The Corvette is the first all-American sports car built by an American car manufacturer.
1959 Chevrolet Corvette Scaglietti American retro car
Automotive styling and design wasn't important to American automobile manufacturers until 1927 when General Motors hired designer Harley Earl. Earl is responsible for the majority of GM's amazing ‘dream car' designs of the 1950's. He had a passion for sports cars, and convinced GM that they needed to build a two-seat sports car much like the MGs, Alfa Romeos and Jaguars that GI's were bringing home following World War II.
Codenamed ‘Opel', Earl and his Special Projects crew began work on the new car later that year, and the result was the 1953 Corvette. Introduced to the public at the Motorama car show, the Corvette was an instant success. The Corvette emblem was originally going to have an American flag in the design, but was changed well before production. The name Corvette was chosen by Myron Scott who named it after the corvette, a small, maneuverable fighting frigate.
Considered to be revolutionary at the time, the outer body was originally made out of fiberglass, selected in part because of steel quotas left over from the war. Underneath the fiberglass lay the 'Blue Flame' inline six-cylinder truck engine, drum brakes from Chevrolet's regular car line, and two-speed Powerglide automatic transmission. The performance of the Corvette was considered lackluster and underpowered compared to the British and Italian sports cars of the day. Lacking an adequate manual transmission, it took a great deal of effort as well as a clear roadway to bring to a stop.
The Chevrolet division was GM's entry-level marque and until that time was known for its no-nonsense, though excellent vehicles. The Corvette was evidence to this. In 1954 the Paxton supercharger was made available as a dealer-installed option which greatly improved the Corvette's straight-line performance. Unfortunately sales continued to decline.
For some time GM seriously considered deleting the Corvette, leaving it little more than a footnote in automotive history, but two important events halted this. The introduction of Chevrolet's first V8 engine in 1955 and the influence of a Soviet in GM's engineering department, Zora Arkus-Duntov. The new V8 was backed with a three-speed manual transmission, this was done by Arkus-Duntov, and became the single most important modification in the car's history. This took the Corvette from a two seat vehicle to a genuine performer. For his role in the modification, Zora received the inaccurate nickname 'Father of the Corvette'.