Features Corvette hot rods - picture thread

jimdillon,

Yes the Scaglietti car that Mr. Shelby worked up was both the predecessor to the Cobra and a virtual twin to the Vetta Ventura (ne: Apollo 3500/5000). If GM would have sold Chevrolet 327 engines to Shelby in 1962 the history of the Cobra might have been dramatically different.

(Side comment: The big air duct on the front fender of the Shelby/Scaglietti car was put there because the Aston-Martin DBR1 that Shelby and Englishman Roy Salvadori drove to victory at Le Mans in 1959 had a similar air duct in the same place. See the pic I posted above with Mr. Shelby sitting in a DBR1 in front of his Dallas dealership.)

ETA: The Shelby car was styled by Sergio Scaglietti who also did design work for Ferrari. The Vetta Ventura/Apollo car was styled by Franco Scaglione who had a business relationship with Intermeccanica among others. Easy to confuse the two Italian designers.

Shelby/Scaglietti Corvette


Scaglione Vetta Ventura/Apollo

 

ETA: jimdillon,

Your thoughts that so much Corvette history is being lost is absolutely correct.

Even here in the Dallas area where so much of it happened the active members of both local Corvette clubs have virtually no idea of any of it.

And the guys that actually did it are now mostly gone from us.

I have been approached about co-authoring a book about the things I know but I still want the real drivers to be the focus. Again I am a mechanic not a driver. My focus was mostly on developing the Buick-Oldsmobile-Pontiac (BOP) 215/300 cubic inch small block V8 engine that turned into the GM V6 Fireball/3800 engines then the Buick Grand National and GNX turbo engines.

 

Boodlum thanks much for your response. I hope that you do co-author a book. So much of racing history is gone to the wind and so much that is written is incorrect but mainly copied from others work that may not have been properly researched in the first instance. As you know yourself, firsthand accounts are extremely important to getting it right.

I recently met a gentleman that owns a predecessor to the Z06 built in 1962. Many Corvette "experts" would snicker at such a claim, but I have seen the engineering reports and I intend on following up with him the future. In researching old racing history, I found stuff I had never envisioned, so I can only bet our collective knowledge is anything but complete. Your input is valuable and appreciated.

When I had my shop in Southern California in the 80s there was a guy with a shop across the street named Roy Campbell. He built and drove and managed many racecars with Goodyear money (which served to hide most of his racing activities, although he is mentioned here and there with Dan Gurney and his Can Am cars-he also raced Corvettes a bit here and there-important stuff that I cannot document sadly) and we used to eat lunch frequently and his stories were great. I kick myself for not sitting down with him and recording his history. He was a friend and I forgot he was a font of knowledge and history. When he closed his shop and moved to Florida he stopped by to say good bye and he died a bit later of cancer, sadly. One of the few guys that knew Roy well, I believe is Gordon Barrett, former engineer for Rick Hendrick's Corvette GTP team and we regret somewhat that Roy's history is sadly lost. I hope you do co-write a book. I have co-written articles and it is a lot easier than doing it all yourself. Thanks, Jim

 

Jim,

Your insights are so valuable. I hope you get more of yours in print as well.

A quick aside before I fade into the background for a while:
I was a spectator at Green Valley in 1967 when Dan Gurney won his ONLY Trans-Am victory beating Parnelli Jones by maybe a car length at the finish with both drivers in identical Bud Moore prepared Mercury Cougars. Gurney and Parnelli beat each other up every step of the race. It was amazing.

Hot trophy girl too.

C'ya

 

After enjoying the great posts by Boodlum and my littele blurb on Roy Campbell I decided to write something down and since he raced 1957 Corvettes I thought it appropriate for this thread.

Although I do not have a definitive biography of Roy Campbell I certainly fondly remember our friendship and his great way of story-telling. Roy was one of those guys that could talk cars on a different level. I thought I knew cars pretty well but he could lose me pretty quick-he was really brilliant. I had another friend who was a pretty smart engineer who was a good friend (owned some of the most valuable Ferraris that he would buy from the factory in the 50s when no one else wanted them) and one time I introduced him to Roy and watched them discuss engineering and I would have thought they were speaking a different language.

Roy was Dan Gurney’s chief mechanic back in the early 60s and later became chief mechanic for John Klug (Pacesetter Homes) and his duties in 1966 included not only their #88 Can Am car but also the #88 Eagle Indy car that finished 10th in 1966.

Here is a picture of Gurney with Roy in the center and Bill Fowler on the left.


Roy drove a couple of 1957 Vettes in various road races mainly in California I believe. I believe he was injured in maybe 60 or 61 and his wife asked him to hang up the driving chores (he was Gurney’s chief at the time I believe). Roy later divorced and remarried a girl he met at the track and was a bit more tolerant of his racing career. I met her on several occasions (although I would have to ask Gordon Barrett what her name is-CRS) and she was well versed on Roy’s career and cars. Roy one time saw a 69 Vette in my shop that belonged to my cousin and he said “I raced one of those-special car built by Chevrolet” he told me stories of the car racing (and I asked him how he “cheated” on the car) and I asked about him selling the car and he asked his wife and she knew right off that they sold the car to a doctor in Colorado who told them before the race that if he won he wanted to buy the car. When I asked him how he could sell some pretty cool old race cars he said they meant little when used-he was looking forward to the next car that would be even better.

Roy in the 263 car at Del Mar in 1960.

Roy in the same car although not sure what track-may have it in notes but those are not readily available apparently.




Funny thing about Roy was his shop was pretty clean at all times. He saw me building a rotating device for holding a whole car and told me to cut the stock at his shop as my chop saw was a dry cut and his was oil fed. I had all my measurements and had a bunch to cut and when cut I would stack the material cut neatly on the floor but I left a little oil here and there (which I cleaned up and intended on cleaning up, of course) but every time he walked by he would stop and look at the oil on the floor-you could tell it was like finger nails on a blackboard to him. It was the last time I used his shop. My shop was clean but his was really clean and I knew he did not like the way I did it. He never said anything but I could tell by the way he looked. We laughed about it later.

I have mentioned my regret to Gordon Barrett a couple of times and have kicked myself numerous times over the years. When I looked through his pictures he had an unbelievable number of cars. Goodyear money was abundant and he was fortunate to race some pretty good stuff.

Here is a picture of the Eagle that finished 10th at the 1966 Indy where he was chief mechanic.



Here is a picture of Roy next to the car at Indy (sponsored by John Klug-Pacesetter homes)-you can see his name on the car as mechanic.



Then here is a picture of Roy with his trademark plaid shirt next to the Pacesetter #88 Can Am car.


Here is a pic of his Lola SL70 (one of my favorite cars for sure)-I believe this is the car-been a few years since I discussed the car with him-like 30 some years.



Here is a picture of Roy sitting on his burned Lola SL70. I remember when going through his photos there was a picture of the car in flames and he told me he was on his way to the hospital when the picture was taken. You can see his arm bandaged-I seem to remember he was driving it, maybe testing it with a passenger and the passenger grabbed his arm and they crashed. I never took too many notes so not sure of every detail.

 

Dammit this stuff is so much better than the endless debates about VIN and trim tags on the corvette forum! Thanks so much guys.

 

Great stuff Jim - if your book reads like your posts, I want a copy!

 

Clearly this is a photo shopped picture of some ones corvette with the front wheels off the ground, lets see if the owner has anything to say about it????????????????????????????

jp

 

I believe you are quite familiar with the concept . Maybe the owner will chime in

 

One of my favorite pictures

 

Thanks, that is some good history.

 

Heading to the track....

 

Tuesday coming at ya...

 

Very funny JP, This from the guy I taught how to win.

 

Lunch Break....

 

I like this kind of lunch break.

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Just a curiosity. I have thought that the 1960 Corvettes had some really great road racers, with the Cunningham Lemans cars and Camoradi and Race Rat etc but I cannot think of any real big name 1960 drag cars. There are a number of 57s, 58s, 61s and 62s that I can identify but the 59s and 60s seem to get lost in the mix. For instance the 58s have Deloy Naeb, Bones, Mr Voodoo, Charlie Kostic and I am sure others. There are some really great MP Vettes that ran in the late 60s and 70s that are 59s and 60s but I do not know any for certain. The Blue Velvet drag car that sold on ebay recently was a 1960 but any others?

Does anyone know of any 59 and 60s drag Vettes that have been identified by year? I would bet that some drag cars have been labeled 59 and 60 but I apparently missed the characterization.

 

Dude where you been, I thought that would get you back out here, your teachings were well taught and I paid attention, thank you great one.

jp

 

Not the greatest pictures but here is the first car I ever got to ride in down the track. My buddy let me ride shot gun as he made a few runs. I think I was 16yrs old. Good times 283hp/4sp. Ran 13.90 at LACR up in Palmdale with 4.5’s and short slicks. I’m not sure what it actually ran in the old days
He still has it but it has been probably 20yrs since it made a pass.


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Very Cool

 

I love the car as it was in the first picture.

 

I AGREE

 

There were only 43 283 hp Corvettes built in '57.

 

Probably only 150 left!

 

Doug I wonder how many of the 43 have survived. Probably 75 or so (maybe Scotty is more on point on this). I was really tempted to bid on one at Meadowbrook (R&M Auction) a number of years ago. It was really superb- a fresh restoration. It stalled at $50,000 but looked like it should have brought much more. It went for maybe 53 or so. Without factory records the owners/restorers can make up the provenance as they go along sadly. Although it will never happen, I would love it if a janitor stumbled on a old box that contained all of records-Oh the humanity.

 

I respectfully disagree.
Currently accepted totals are:
RPO 579A 250hp F.I. w/maual trans 182
RPO 579B 283hp F.I. w/manual trans/hi lift cam 713
RPO 579C 250hp F.I w/Powerglide 102
RPO 579E 283hp w/manual trans/hi lift cam 43
For a total of 1040.

A thousand years ago there was an urban myth of only 240 '57 F.I. cars. I forget the explanation. It may have had something to do with service units and the many revisions that occurred with the '57 units.

So what was the difference between 579B and 579E? 579E were air box cars with steering column mounted tachometers.

 

my 59 I restored in 1973I purchase this one from a friend it was stolen from and striped and wrecked, toughest restoration I ever did, put a 283 with 4 speed


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Rumblegutz, you are correct. 43 are just the airbox 283hp.

 

The stated horse power of the '57 solid lifter fuelie engine of 283 was pushed by Campbell Ewald Chevrolet's in house advertising agency. The ad men sold Chevy on the one horse per cubic inch sales slogan. Thus the 283hp/283 cubic inch catch phrase. Chevy agreed to it for one year. It actually was rated at 290 hp like the subsequent years. The 290hp rating in '58 made it look like an increase. Another advertising ploy.

Reaching one horse power per cubic inch was something of an automotive engineering milestone at the time.