These Are The Prettiest Race Cars Of All Time, According To You

“The 1959 Corvette Stingray Racer

“Based off of Pete Brock’s (Famous for designing the Shelby Daytona Coupe) sketches when he was just a 19 year old designer working at GM.

“It was designed to be a state of the art race car. But in June 1957, the all-powerful Automobile Manufacturers Association (AMA) banned U.S. automakers from supporting performance or motorsports activities and from building, selling, or advertising performance products. And when Bill Mitchell, a strong performance and racing enthusiast, was told that the ban would kill Chevrolet’s still struggling Corvette two-seater, he reportedly said, “I’m not going to let that happen.”

“When the AMA ban lingered, he decided to turn the car into a prototype racer that he would own himself and campaign out of his own pocket to publicly test its design with no clear connection to Chevrolet or GM.

“Expertly piloted by Dr. Dick ‘the Flying Dentist’ Thompson, Mitchell’s Stingray scored a fourth-place finish in its Marlboro, Maryland, Raceway debut on April 18, 1959, and an SCCA national championship the following year. It was then retired from racing, upgraded with a 327-cubic-inch V-8 and a passenger seat (among other changes), and became a concept car, which Mitchell joyfully drove on weekends. It also served as a test bed for a four-speed manual transmission, a de Dion rear suspension, and extensive usage of aluminum.”

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