One-Off Corvette
black mamba
Registered Users Posts: 8,325 Major grins
I'm pretty sure you've never seen this one. This is a 1963 Corvette Rondine. Commissioned by Chevrolet, this car was crafted by the famous Italian design/coach-builder house of Pininfarina. It was specifically created for the 1963 Paris Show.
As opposed to stock Corvettes with their fiberglass body, this car has a steel skin. All the running gear is standard Corvette stuff....327 C.I. motor, 365 H.P., and 4-speed manual transmission. The interior was pretty much left stock, except the seat covering and carpeting were upgraded to the finest Italian offering.
This car was featured in the Pininfarina company museum for over 40 years until it was sold to a private collector in 2008.
As opposed to stock Corvettes with their fiberglass body, this car has a steel skin. All the running gear is standard Corvette stuff....327 C.I. motor, 365 H.P., and 4-speed manual transmission. The interior was pretty much left stock, except the seat covering and carpeting were upgraded to the finest Italian offering.
This car was featured in the Pininfarina company museum for over 40 years until it was sold to a private collector in 2008.
I always wanted to lie naked on a bearskin rug in front of a fireplace. Cracker Barrel didn't take kindly to it.
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Thanks for the rare look Tom!
Link to my Smugmug site
That thing was pretty striking, Randy. Italian looks, American mechanicals....hard to beat.
See you, Pard,
Tom
What a joy, Ian, to see a Corvette of this era with an interior that's not an embarrassment. Thankfully, the new Corvette Stingrays have finally got interior appointments commensurate with the greatness of the rest of the car.
Take care,
Tom
I tell you, Joel, that " model " didn't want to get more than 2 or 3 feet from the car. I thought I was going to have to bribe her to get an unobstructed shot.
Car is okay also!
Cheers Tom!
See you,
Tom
Gary
PS- Good job on the second image getting the brightly reflecting trunk, the shadowed side and the people all looking exposed.
G
Unsharp at any Speed
Thanks, Gary, for your comment.
I'm a far cry from being a Corvette expert. But I have owned one and been around scads of the things over the years. I didn't know this car even existed. Man, every time I dive into a show of this caliber, I realize how little I really know.
I know one thing for sure, though, the more I study the subtleties of this car's design, the more I become enamored with its beauty.
Tom
I saw a red Stingray last week. It was a bit of a surprise. Nice looking car but since we were driving, no idea what the interior looked like. The exterior was nice but it seemed like they couldn't decide about the rear end of it. I'll have to have a closer look at the car on the lot or elsewhere before forming an opinion on how "complete" it is.
While the tail lights work well with the design ... they still shout Fiat to me. Chevy made another very rare Corvette in 1964 named the Cobra Killer. I believe Chevy felt it was way to dangerous/unsafe for mass production.
Gary
Unsharp at any Speed
Most of the pundit's negative reactions to the style of the Stingray have to do with the styling at the rear of the car. A lot of them hated to see the circular tail lights go away after all these years. I'm not saying it a totally satisfying design, but, overall, I like it a lot. I was ready to see a change in tail lights.
The interior appointments, while also not perfect, are way above what the buyer of Corvettes used to get.
Tom