This 1959 Chevrolet Corvette Italia by Scaglietti was allocated to Carroll Shelby!
Primarily known for their coachwork on Ferrari race cars, coachbuilder Scaglietti handcrafted just three Corvette Italias in collaboration with Gary Laughlin, Jim Hall, and Carroll Shelby. The Italia was intended to be produced in limited numbers for sale to affluent buyers who liked the exotic looks of a European sports car, but preferred the reliability and ease of maintenance of a vehicle with American underpinnings. The Italia would have competed in the same market as high-performance European sports cars like Maserati, Aston martin, and Mercedes-Benz, but General Motors declined to support the project.
Pressure on GM and other major manufacturers to de-emphasize high-performance cars and racing reportedly pushed Ed Cole (General Manager of Chevrolet at the time) to cancel the project. The three cars were shipped back to Texas, two with unfinished interiors. Jim Hall took delivery of one of the cars, Gary Laughlin the other, but Carroll Shelby, perhaps discouraged by the politics of the project, reportedly declined the third Corvette Italia – this car – and it was promptly sold. Shelby, not one to remain defeated for long, next turned to British-based AC and Ford to help with his next project, the Shelby Cobra. If not for the “failure” of the Corvette Italia, there may never have been a Shelby Cobra or Shelby Mustang.
CHEPTERS:
01:00 - Engaging Scaglietti
01:54 - Aluminum, not fiberglass
03:20 - The Ferrari red and other Italian touches
04:00 - 1 of 3
05:12 - Shelby's involvement
05:55 - Inside the Sceglietti Corvette
07:15 - The Engine
08:33 - At the Petersen since 2000
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