The Hot Rods of Larry Shinoda

Ryan’s Mako-Manta Ray post highlighted how cool the early Corvette custom concepts were, and the designer at General Motors did most of the Mako Shark and ’63 Corvette Stingray design work was Larry Shinoda. Working on Bill Mitchell’s elite team, Shinoda penned these iconic cars plus the Corvair Monza GT, as well as the 1965 Corvair facelift and the original Camaro Z/28 during his 12 year run at GM, before moving into Ford to design the Boss 302!

The love of fast cars actually started in his early 20s back in his hometown of L.A., when Larry drove a ’29 A Roadster Pickup on the streets and built a 1932 Ford three window coupe that he raced at the dry lakes. By 1954 Larry started his design career at Ford, and sold the ’32 coupe in order to build an Olds-powered competition ’29 Roadster called the ‘Chopsticks Special’. This is the car that Shinoda won his class at the first NHRA Nationals in Great Bend, Kansas in 1955… What a badass!