cool cars

A Rare ‘Italian’ Corvette — from Carroll Shelby

A Rare ‘Italian’ Corvette — from Carroll Shelby
This 1959 Scaglietti Corvette, on display at the Lime Rock Park Historic Festival concours, is one of only three in existence. 
Photo by Lans Christensen

The Chevrolet Corvette was the honored marque at this year’s Lime Rock Historic Festival 40 in Lime Rock, Conn., over Labor Day weekend.

As one can imagine, there were Corvettes of every possible age, model and significance — including some very rare prototypes from the General Motors Heritage Collection.

But there’s always one that’s particularly cool — and we were particularly taken by the 1959 Scaglietti Corvette in the photo above, and its interesting history.

As it turns out, legendary designer Carroll Shelby, before his monumental success with the Cobra, thought it would be cool to create an Italian-bodied Corvette.

He sent three chassis to Modena, Italy, to famed coach builder Scaglietti. They were also the coach builders for Enzo Ferrari, who was incensed that they would body an American car — and threatened to remove them as his body builders.

That’s all it took, so those three Scaglietti Corvettes are the only ones in existence.

The owner of this gorgeous one, Abraham Joseph, shared it with car fans during the Historic Festival’s Sunday in the Park concours. Corvette fans were thrilled to discover this very cool bit of automotive history.

Want to know more about Carroll Shelby? Look for Cool Cars in the Sept. 22 Compass Arts and Entertainment.

cool cars

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