Features Corvette hot rods - picture thread

Hotrod I do not have any recollection of the Vic Speed Shop car-sorry about that.

Jason I have seen the picture of the 1958 Corvette in Leave it to Beaver before. I don't remember the episode but I saw a reference that said it was used in the show.

 

ElGringo, yes, we were quite young. Poppo said that we (me and my sister) could both fit in the footwell in front of my mom. She's only 4'11". Trunk was full of slicks and tools. Good thing he never broke it bad enough that we couldn't get back home.
Also, he corrected me last night. Bought it in CA with a 283 w/ 3x2 setup and drove it back to Poughkeepsie. Later he got the hair to change things a bit and came across a wrecked 302 Z/28 around 1970, bought the engine, rebuilt it, and ran it at Dover. Got a trophy just before relocating to CA.
Here's mine.

 

man I would love to have that

 

Nice 65 Ramjet and I enjoyed the storys about the 61, it's easy to find pictures of vintage corvettes but the history of the cars and owners are what bring things to life. Otherwise it would just be like looking through a stack of old Corvette photos without any idea of the details.

 

They do a interview with RatsAss at 17 minutes he has some cool cars and he is a great guy.

 

Thanks for posting Enloe.
Dan........ good job with the interview. We'll be asking for autographs now. LOL

 

His car is cool some of the others not so much

 

Racing at Daytona Beach maybe?

 

Jason, for years I thought of building a replica of the Corvette SR-2 but of course found other things to keep me busy. Chevrolet built 3 in 56 and I believe 2 survive (although it no longer looks exactly like this). This is one of them at Daytona in February1957 (they had other plans to race them at Lemans but of course the panty waisters at GM top brass who instituted a racing ban decided otherwise). The SR-2 did race at Sebring as well and I believe Nassau. Styling I believe modified a SR-2 (with rear wheels pants, canopy, moon discs and headlight covers) to run in the modified class at Daytona, which I believe it won. I have in my notes that it covered the flying mile at 152.866 mph, second to only the D-Type Jaguar. They built a number of SR-2s but I do not believe this configuration exists (although the car itself in different form does exist-I believe).

It was driven by Buck Baker at Daytona and the engine was maintained by Smokey Yunick. It was a 283 bored to a 336 and was used to help test the Rochester Fuel Injection (it weighed 2000lbs and carried a gas tank three times the size of stock-48 gallons). Cool car. If you google it on You tube you can see it run on the beach. I watched it some time ago when I stumbled on it but I am sure it is still out there on the web.

 

Great information Jim, I never researched those Daytona Beach cars much but I believe that there was a 56 that was run out of Ak Miller's garage that ran about as fast as the cars brought by Chevy and supported by the factory.

 

Cool stuff guys! That is an awesome picture!

 

Current picture of the SR 2. Great looking car still today.

 

It was very advanced for its time

 

Jason now that is a different car altogether-magnesium body-tube chassis called the SS. It is now in the Indy Museum-gifted to them before the half wits at could crush it.

Cool picture Baron

 

Yes I can see it now the body shape is more streamlined, the profile is broken up with the front and rear sections opened up. Still it was a very advanced car for 1957. Also the rear body flows kind of like a 61-62. I wonder if some styling clues were taken from this car?

 

One of the Corvette SS chassis was rebodied as the first Sting Ray that was a design study for the '63 Corvette. It was raced in the late 50s by Dr. Dick Thompson to a national championship and was the painted red and driven by the King in an Elvis movie.

 

With Zora at the wheel.

 

She modeled for those headlight covers!

Pat

 

Jason, I like your picture a lot better than mine! She kinda looks like Marilyn Monroe, but I didn't know she was into sports car racing.

 

Jim, The Indy museum unfortunately restored the SS. I saw it before and after. They got the color way wrong and did not do the car justice. It looked way better before.

 

Doug if that is the case then it is too bad. I saw the car there a number of years ago and I took a photo and it looked pretty good. I did not see the need to restore it but apparently they did.

 

Daytona Beach 1956 . Zora Duntov, John Fitch, and Betty Skelton setting a few speed records.

 

Three of these were built in 1956. Two competition cars and one show car. This one was for Bill Mitchell.

 

Dec, 1958 , this car went 183 mph at GM's Mesa Desert Proving Ground.


John Mitchell and Zora Duntov at Sebring, 1957 Magnesium bodied Corvette only lasted 23 laps

 

Sebring car, March 1957

 

The 59 Stingray was born when Bill Mitchell asked Larry Shinoda to develop a new racer based on the SS chassis. There is no guessing where the C2's got there styling.