1959 Chevrolet Corvette Scaglietti Coupe– This Chevrolet Car was one of three 1959 Corvette chassis delivered to the Scaglietti of Maranello and was built with a light alloy body specifically for Sergio Scaglietti’s design. Three drivers from Texas at the time, namely, Gary Laughlin, Jim Hall, and Carroll Shelby, tried to imitate and build a lightweight construction Ferrari with cheap Chevrolet power. The intention of these drivers was to test this Chevrolet car against the Ferrari 250 Testarossas and 250 SWB Berlinettas. This car is the first of the three designs, purposely made for Gary Laughlin and restored by Chuck Brahms for the Monterey Historic Races featuring Chevrolet in 1987.
The concept is to use a cheap and reliable American drive train combined with an exotic Italian body. Shelby acquires three rolling corvette chassis. One with a four-speed transmission the other with a Powerglide, all using the standard 283 cubic-inch engine.
With the help of American Perter Coltrane, from Modena, the Italian connection was made with coachbuilder Sergio Scaglietti. Its design has incorporated many of the features found on Ferrari cars built at the same facility at the time.
For sale in the USA is this unique 1959 Scaglietti-bodied Corvette price for $995,000 (£650,000).
It was financed by Gary Laughin, a Texas oil magnate, in the late ’50s. 3 cars were planned to be built but this is the only one completed. Scaglietti created this car while making the Ferrari 250 Tour-de-France, so it looks similar.
The stylish grille of the Chevrolet Corvette is a unique and nice touch as is the manual gearbox. Not as aesthetically pleasing as an old Ferrari car, so we can’t help but think it’s overpriced for what is essentially a ’59 Corvette dressed up.