Topic: Puzzle #695 - Solved! 1959 Chevrolet Corvette Scaglietti

[Otto Puzzell]

Know what it is?

Please, respond below and let us know the make and model designation of the car posted here.

If you haven't registered yet, you need to do so in order to reply with your answer.  You can do so by clicking here.

Also, please be sure to check out our other puzzles, and, please post a puzzle of your own if you'd like - the more, the merrier.

Thanks!

[Otto Puzzell]

OK, Experts, have at it! 

[Ray B.]

This is the 1959 Chevrolet Corvette Scaglietti coupe

[Otto Puzzell]

Quite right!

[woodinsight]

Another view from a period ad -

[Carnut]

Rear view in colour:

[dzima1985]

more better photos -

[grobmotorix]

It looks so much classier with this Ferrari-style grille compared to the Corvette´s grille of the puzzle pic 

[Otto Puzzell]

This is the 1959 Chevrolet Corvette Scaglietti coupe

A slight correction: one of three started by Scaglietti is currently for sale, so one could say "a 1959 Corvette Scaglietti coupe". The other two, started in yialy were finished in the US. 

Here's what the seller of one of the cars says:

The fascinating and complex history of the Scaglietti Corvette began when Gary Laughlin, a wealthy Texas oil man and gentleman racer, had just broken the crankshaft in his Ferrari Monza. Like most Ferrari repairs, this was not going to be a cheap, simple fix.

At the time, Laughlin was an active participant of the American sports car racing scene and was a close acquaintance of many of the key figures, including fellow Texan Carroll Shelby. The two had witnessed a number of V8 powered home-built specials challenge, and often defeat, the best that Europe had to offer. The idea developed that they should build a dual-purpose car based on the solid mechanicals of the Chevrolet Corvette. European-style alloy coachwork could help the chassis finally realize its potential. By chance, Laughlin owned a few Chevrolet dealerships and had a particularly valuable friend in Peter Coltrin, an automotive journalist who had gained an "in" with the influential Italians.

Laughlin met with Jim Hall and Carroll Shelby to begin discussing what form their new Italian-American hybrid would take. The general consensus was that they should create a car that offered the best of both worlds - a Corvette with the distinction, performance and style of a Ferrari, but with the power and reliability of a Chevrolet. The aim was to create a genuine high-performance GT with enough leg and headroom to meet American expectations. Once this was decided, Coltrin put Laughlin in touch with Sergio Scaglietti.

With the help of Chevrolet General Manager Ed Cole, three 1959 Corvette chassis were discreetly acquired from the St. Louis Corvette plant before bodies could be fitted - one was specified with a "fuelie" and a four-speed, the others came with twin four barrels and automatics. During one of his frequent trips through Europe, Laughlin met with Sergio Scaglietti who agreed to produce a small run of bodies for the Corvette chassis. At the time, Scaglietti was busy turning out Ferrari's Tour de France and purpose-built racing cars. The Scaglietti Corvette would follow the lines of the Tour de France, albeit lines adapted to fit the Corvette's larger footprint. In an effort to impress, or perhaps, appease GM management, Laughlin specified a proper Corvette grille. The interior would be similarly hybridized with an intriguing combination of Americana - Stewart Warner gauges, T-handle parking brake, Corvette shift knob; and classic Italian GT - a purposeful crackle-finish dashboard, deeply bolstered leather seats and exquisite door hardware.

The completed car arrived in Texas in the fall of 1960, almost 18 months after the chassis had been obtained. It proved to be the only one of the three to be finished in Italy and shipped back to the United States as a complete car. When Laughlin received the car, the fit and finish were not quite what he was expecting, especially as the project had taken nearly three years from conception to completion. Enzo Ferrari would have been quite unhappy to hear that his exclusive coachbuilder was working on side projects for a group of Texans, so, to Scaglietti's credit, the car was largely a prototype and the work was executed in a shroud of secrecy.

Towards the end of the project, Carroll Shelby, who by then was living in Italy, received a late-night phone call from Ed Cole. Cole had been chastised by GM management and was told to drop the project. It was poor timing. American car companies were under pressure to cut down on their high-performance and racing programs. They simply could not deal with the repercussions of a GM-backed Italianbodied Corvette. The remaining cars were shipped to Houston in a partially completed state. Jim Hall took delivery of one. Shelby, who had helped conceive the project, ended up declining the remaining car and it was promptly sold.

[Carnut]

Quite a few things there I didn't know, like the fact they built three..
But what I specially didn't know is that Carroll Shelby lived for a time in Italy!  Was he aware they didn't speak English there?!

[grobmotorix]

I just came across a French 1961 magazine article about the Stanguellini race shop and coachbuilding shop.
There I think you can see two of the three (Scaglietti?) Corvettes
standing in an unfinished stage of their building at Stanguellini.
And it is claimed they were built for a Mr. (briggs?) Cunningham,
a Corvette specialist in the USA that also raced Corvettes at le Mans.
I have not been able to find both Stanguellini and Cunningham in the context of the Scaglietti Corvettes as yet.
Does anybody have an explanation for this?
Did Stanguellini produce the bodies for Scaglietti?
Any contribution is very welcome.

[oko94]

The photo caption says "These bodies will italianize the Corvettes aimed at Mr. Cunningham clients". So Cunningham was merely the importer of these special Corvettes.

The text excerpt actually doesn't deal with the Scaglietti Corvettes but describes a small Stanguellini car powered by a 500 cc engine from a Giardiniera, that is meant to be used by Cunningham in New York's heavy traffic.

[grobmotorix]

Thank you! My french is not the best...
I added the text only that it was clear it seems to have been Briggs Cunningham that also was involved in the history of those cars.
So there still is the question:
did Sergio Scaglietti "only" do the design and the bodywork was executed at the Stanguellini workshop?
And also Briggs Cunningham´s role is not mentioned in all the sources I know.