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1959 Chevrolet Corvette Scaglietti Coupe - The Most Beautiful "American" Car Ever Made?


DonRocks

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I have to put "American" in quotes, since the body of this gorgeous car was done in Italy (by Scaglietti of Maranello, who did coachwork for Ferrari race cars). Only three of these beauties were ever made - the backstory of the third car (pictured below) is detailed here on conceptcarz.com:

"This is one of three 1959 Corvette chassis sent to Carrozzeria Scaglietti in Maranello, Italy, to get lightweight alloy bodies. The new design by Sergio Scaglietti was the project of three Texas-based racers - Gary Laughlin, Jim Hall and Carroll Shelby - who where trying to beat Ferrari at their own game; they wanted to create an inexpensive lightweight sports racing car with Chevrolet power. Their intention was to race these cars against the likes of the Ferrari 250 GTOs and the 250 SWB Berlinettas. Scaglietti's biggest customer, Enzo Ferrari, was not pleased. Consequently, the car took more than two years to complete and the project failed. This is perhaps the Cobra that should have been, but the Texas trio eventually turned their attention to other cars including Carroll Shelby's hugely successful AC Cobra project.

The concept was to use an inexpensive, reliable American drive train mated with an exotic Italian body. Shelby acquired three corvette rolling chassis. One with a four-speed transmission the others with the powerglide, all had the standard 283 cubic-inch engine. With the help of American Perter Coltran, of Modena, Italy a connection was established with coachbuilder Sergio Scaglietti. His design incorporated many features found on the Ferraris being built at the same facility at the time.

Progress on the three cars went very slowly, taking 18 months to complete car number 1. Cars #2 and #3 were completed in the USA. This is the 3rd and last Scaglietti Corvette."

Scaglietti.jpg

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