Watching an old Elvis Presley movie right now — Clambake. Elvis plays a the son of a wealthy oil tycoon, and drives a sharp looking red roadster that turns out to be the 1959 Corvette XP-87 Stingray. What a gorgeous machine! Given that the car was built in ’59, and the movie was released in ’67 shows how well the design of the car aged.
The XP-87 was designed in ’57 by Bill Mitchell and Gary Shinoda as an exercise in racing design, and was raced extensively the for a short time before being retired. It was then spiffed up and put on the show car circuit, and even used as a weekend driver by Bill Mitchell (after they added a passenger seat!) That’s what you call a fringe benefit!
The influence of this car’s design on the C2 Corvette is pretty obvious.
I’ve always liked the looks of that model Corvette better than any of the others… Not sure what it is, but the coupe is one sharp car. I’d love to do a resto-mod of one someday. Someday.
As nice as this one looks, I think I’d have to do it in red. That fits the C2 best.