Has anyone ever seen one of these? Looks pretty awesome. 1 of 3 evidently....no affiliation 1959 Chevrolet Corvette Scaglietti for sale | Hemmings Motor News
Here is a recent article about the Scaglietti Corvettes. What most people don't know about these cars is that they were actually Carroll Shelby's first attempt at a production car. Shelby's original idea was to use Chevrolet engines and mate them to a lightweight European body, hence the Scaglietti Corvette. The aluminum Scaglietti designed bodies were roughly 400lbs lighter than the standard fiberglass Corvette bodies. GM execs killed the project due to the AMA racing ban and likely the fact that this car would be a direct competitor to the Corvette. It was only after GM nixed this project that Shelby approached Ford and AC...and the rest is history. Scaglietti Corvette
Agree - here are photos of the 3 cars Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Here are some pics of one at the Radnor, PA Concours. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Yes the car at the Petersen is the #3 Car which was originally built for an owned by Carroll Shelby. In the photos above it is the darker red car without the corvette grille
Here are a few photos from last October. The owner is local collector who lives downtown. This car sits lower than the other two. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Road & Track wrote an article, maybe a salon?, about the three cars years ago.....a great "what if" story certainly. Amazing they all survive!
I called the 805 telephone number and perry and i agreed on $4800. On my way to pick it up! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Blue one has been in the DC area for a long time. Absolutely superb in person... A real show stopper. LSJ
I am always confused who put the Corvette grille bars in. I'd like to see how they came from Italy, that might be the way it is in the ad. I wonder if Enzo was already putting pressure on Scaglietti to quit doing them, as he saw a Ferrari competitor being born.
Of the 3 cars, only the first car was completed in Italy by Scaglietti and had the Corvette grille. The idea was to appease GM management by showing them that this car was, despite its Italian styling, a corvette underneath and so Shelby/Laughlin/Hall made sure the car had the trademark Corvette grill as part of its design. These cars were always intended to be competitive race cars and Shelby knew he needed GM support and additional chassis' for the program to meet FIA homologation requirements. Ultimately it didn't matter as GM brass killed the project anyway and Shelby went on to partner with Ford. Here is a picture of the car as delivered from Scaglietti from Road & Track March 1961. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Hard to say but these cars have a few things that make them interesting 1. They are alloy-bodied, hand built and designed by Scaglietti. That's a very unique and rare thing. If you think about the other cars that share those features it's cars like the 250 GTO, SWB, TDF, California, etc. Granted the value of those should always be multiples of these cars in my view given its Ferrari and many have race history but it's an elite group. Even the more "mass produced" non-alloy bodied Scaglietti cars like the 275GTB and the Lusso are very valuable cars 2. These cars were essentially the predecessor/prototype to the Shelby Cobras and were his first attempt at a production vehicle. Despite all his later success with Ford his first preference for an engine was the Chevy small blocks. Only after this project was killed by GM did he go to Ford 3. Only 3 of them with one being in a museum