Typond was a photographer and magazine editor (Model Car Illustrated, Rod & Custom, Flying) - are you sure he drew that?
It's hard to be sure of anything you read 53 years on, but this is the article that accompanied the picture:
QUOTE
Originally published in Sports Car Illustrated in March 1959.
If Chevrolet is planning to use steel instead of fiberglass as the body material for the new Corvette, this would involve a redesign of all body dies. There is no reason to believe that the 1960 model will resemble to any great extent the models of the past years.
Using as a basis the customized Corvette of Mr. Mitchell, and especially the rear deck and fender treatment, Don Typond has carried this through in the design shown on the following pages. The "wind-split" down the center and the knife edge line around the middle are continuations of the design of the rear end. The Corvette family resemblance is maintained by the use of cut-outs on the sides of the body, and by the familiar shape of the windshield which has been raked back at a greater angle. The flattened hood and front fender line has been suggested by this year's Chevrolet.
That Chevrolet is going to bring out a new Corvette next winter is common knowledge. They've done it every year since the model was introduced. But this year the rumors have gotten wilder than a high-lift camshaft. Aluminum engines, five-speed transmissions, independent rear ends, space frames, aluminum bodies, 400 + cu. in. engines...if you believe everything you hear it looks like the sports car to end all sports cars is about to emerge from the Motor City.
Actually the new 1960 Corvette won't be quite this radical. It will be a solid, evolutionary improvement on what is basically a five-year-old design. It will be one of the world's top sports cars, from standpoints of performance, handling and style.
Here is some "well-informed speculation" on what's coming up, gathered from many reasonably reliable sources. Let's begin by establishing that Chevrolet has been thinking seriously about a new Corvette for three years. The current body and chassis has been basically unchanged since the car was introduced in early 1953. The bulk of the tooling investment was paid off long ago. Furthermore, this original Corvette never achieved its intended sales goal — the big market for a "personal" two-seat sports-type car. Ford came in with their better-styled and roomier Thunderbird and all but ran the Corvette right out of the market. Chevrolet had little choice but to concentrate on performance and push the Corvette as an out-and-out sports car. (This was no hardship to project head Zora Arkus-Duntov!) But this is the why behind options like fuel injection, 4-speed transmissions, metallic brake linings, etc.
Under other circumstances this failure to achieve a planned sales goal could've killed the Corvette before it ever got rolling. Fortunately Chevrolet general manager, Ed Cole, was patient. Today, even though the Corvette has never been a big seller, its value to G-M in terms of free publicity and prestige has been great enough to warrant tooling for an entirely new version. And what's important to you, the performance theme has now become firm company policy. Chevrolet is not going to compete with Thunderbird with their new Corvette. Performance and handling will continue to be the design watchwords. The engineers will consider luxury and big-car roominess — but you can bet they won't sacrifice performance to get it. They'll be more apt to spend a few extra bucks to save weight, and include technical features that would be a waste of money on the mass market.
UNQUOTE
Make of it what you will!
