HistoryBuff

I am trying to ascertain the true history of the three Scaglietti (Italian coachbuilder) Corvettes that are also commonly referred to as "Shelby Corvette Italias" because they were bodied in Italy.
Apparently some of the stories out there in print are wrong. I understand two had regular carburetored engines and only one was fuel injected.
I also heard that when Barry Watkins of Orange County,CA had two of them he installed side vents similar to those on Ferraris, maybe so they would look more Ferrari-ish (fooled me, I made a painting of one at Pebble Beach and without the Corvette grille teeth, they really look like Ferraris).

Question about their value at the low point? Fred Gifford of Chicago owned one for 27 years (that from the Len Frank article). I was wondering what he sold the car for, if that was the lower price any of the three ever got down to? I think they went pretty unrecognized until the '80s.

Question about bodywork: Scaglietti was Enzo Ferrari's personal race car body man so I imagine he was the one who told Sergio Scaglietti to get those damn Corvettes out of there. They were sent to another body shop but can't find the name. Maybe Carrozzeria sports cars (who did the Cobra Daytona coupes in '64?)

Question about Shelby's involvment, or lack thereof. I have seen pictures of Ol' Shel' with many of his more obscure projects like the Lone Star (mid-engined car), King Cobras etc. but never one of him with these cars, so does anyone who remembers these cars think he was involved with the design or suspension improvements? (I think all three were basically street cars even though one raced at Laguna Seca).

Overall I think these cars will be recognized as Italio-American hybrids but more will have to be found on how they looked when new to see if they are "correct" now or customs on top of customs as it were.

Thanks for any inside knowledge of the rare trio

TCracingCA

I saw no one coming on to reply, but I thought Shelby got associated by mistake because he was photographed checking one out somewhere. Just as when the Grand Sports came off the dock in Nassau the Shelby guys were all over those Corvettes looking. Also I always thought these coachwork cars were just someones bright idea. Because Ferrari wasn't too big or interested in anything other than a Ferrari basically. Back then the coachbuilders if they had the manpower or wanted the commission would take a project on and pound out a designed body. Like the Apollo cars, Iso cars, the Bizzarini's or however you spell it, etc.. So many cars had Italian Coachwork bodies and lastly, the Daytonas initial were going to be done by an Italian firm, the talks were taking place, but after the wood bucks etc. were done and they started pounding out the shapes, then some of those guys were already very skilled metal fabricators and coachwork capable. The Scarab's being one car in particular, that was constructed by some of these Shelby team members back in the day. Thus with the Daytona, they hit the aerodynamics pretty close on the first attempt and then race tweeked and improved the cars during their competition efforts. I do believe that when campaigning the cars in Europe, they got dented and they had panel and body work done at certain shops during the course of the seasons.

HistoryBuff

The Scaglietti Corvettes were never raced in Europe. They were street cars only. Even the one raced at the Monterey Historics. It was the Cobra Daytona coupes that Shelby had built in Italy, after the first one was made in the US. I still think, though, that it was Shelby's name that made Ed Cole , chief engineer at Chevy, divert the cars to him, but probably Zora Duntov was violently against subsidizing a Corvette project he wasn't in on, so that might have been another reason Shelby got cut off at three cars

mashinter

From an old Vette Vues article: Jim Hall sold his car (almost new condition) Feb. 17, 1964 to Don Weeks for $3350.00.

TCracingCA

I wrote about the Daytona's racing only!!!!!!!! The other cars were not on the track in competition! And these cars seriously aren't interesting enough to spend a lot of time talking about!!!!!!! And as my heading on my reply stated, " I would need to freshen up my research or research as to what I ever read or knew about these cars. In other words, they aren't anywhere near the top of cars that I take a real interest in.

Thus enjoy your private thread and continue talking to yourself!

sub006

AIR Shelby started at the top, but GM turned him down when he asked for some American V8s for the aluminum roadster transplant project.

desertpilgrim

Jim Hall, not Shelby, was one of the three Texans originally involved in the venture.

HistoryBuff

I agree the cars are not "seriously interesting" compared to the SR2s, the Gran Sports, etc. I find that a lot of cars get attached to Shelby because it makes the cars more valuable in the reselling if you can say he rode in them, bought them, sold them, etc. except for the front wheel drive Dodges which seem to be worth not much more than scrap metal value. Maybe if they would have looked more like Ferrari; or Ferrari would have fired Scaglietti, they would have more history.

HistoryBuff

http://www.michaelmccafferty.com/mmmvette.htm
It doesn't say if the turquoise blue one is the one that went to France, or how much it sold for at auction(half a million vaguely mentioned). That mioght be the one I made a paitning of thinking it was a Ferrari!
If anyone else knows what the sold for back when they were unrecognized, I'd like to hear it.
Incidentally, there was also a Michelotti Corvette back then, bodied in Italy, that I saw at a RM auction in Monterey, white in color , very ugly. I don't think that one is celebrated in collector's circles but I could be wrong.

ejboyd5

This thread tickled some old brain cells and drove me to the March, 1961 issue of ROAD & TRACK and an article by Lorin McMullen entitled "Italian Accent." According to McMullen the three Scaglietti bodied Corvettes were the brainchild of a Fort Worth, Texas, drilling contractor named Gary B. Laughlin. Laughlin bought three Corvette chassis from Chevrolet, shipped them to Scaglietti and had them bodied to his specifications. According to the article, the first of the cars was equipped with the 315-bhp fuel injected engine "and is otherwise standard Corvette." At the time of the article, the other two cars were yet to be delivered, but were intended to be "full 'slushomatic'" with air conditioning and ample leg room to accommodate Texas-sized drivers.

The article is illustrated with four black and white photographs of a car bearing the 1960 Texas dealer license plate, 9N-6659, and sporting wire wheels. It is a very pretty car.

HistoryBuff

At first I though the three investors were losing money on them ,especially Hall selling his for only $3500 but then I relaized they probably got them for free, at least the chassis.
Now I am just curious if any one other than Chuck Brahms' car had the Corvette toothy grille.
Or if the other two besides Brahm's car (now owned by the Petersen Museum) had the roof side vents and front fender side vent, a la Ferrari. I was faked out by the turquoise one at Pebble, thinking it ws a Ferrari because it didn't have the Corvette grille.

carvad

I'm also looking for the true history of the three Corvette Scaglietti coupe. Any chance to see article from Road & Track March 1961 issue?

Silver1331

This is completely incorrect. Carroll Shelby was instrumental in the development of these cars. After retiring from racing and winning Lemans in 1959, Shelby wanted to get into sports/race car production. His idea was to take a lightweight European body and mate it to a powerful US engine (sound familiar?)

Partnering with Gary Laughlin and Jim Hall they got Ed Cole to give them 3 Corvette Chassis and sent them to Scaglietti to be bodied. The aluminum Scaglietti Chassis were 400lbs lighter than the fiberglass Corvette bodies. GM execs killed the project for several reasons including competition with Corvette and the AMA racing ban. Knowing he would never get the necessary 100 chassis' for FIA homologation Shelby moved on to Ford who had just come out with their new thinwall engine. The rest is history.

The Scaglietti Corvettes are in many ways the prototype to the Shelby Cobra and were his first attempt at a production/racing car. The fact that his preferred platform was a Chevrolet engine and not Ford is not well known or understood today. Surprisingly (or not) that fact rarely shows up in the Ford/Cobra books!

I would refer you to an interview with Editor C. Van Tune in the December 1997 issue of Motor Trend where Shelby addresses these topics:

-----------------------------------

http://www.motortrend.com/news/quest...arroll-shelby/

" Q: In your auto-building career, you’ve worked with Chevrolet, Ford, Chrysler, and now Oldsmobile. What drove you from one company to the next?

Shelby: It started when I was at Dean Moon’s, selling Goodyear tires. Ray Brock came in and said Ford had a new cast-iron thinwall-cast engine. I had just fallen out of bed with Ed Cole because Zora Duntov had found out that Ed had given me three Corvette chassis without bodies, to build aluminum bodies on in Italy. I had them three-quarters finished, and Ed called me one night and said, “I never gave you those cars, forget that I ever had anything to do with it, you’re strictly on your own.” That finished what I thought was going to be the beginning of me building cars, possibly. So, I finished the three cars, and I was looking for something else then because I knew it’d never be Chevrolet. I started to look around and moved to California because I knew I’d never be able to do it in Texas.

Anyway, Ray Brock told me to call Ford. Dave Evans was one of two guys who ran Ford’s performance then. He took me to see Don Frey, in Detroit, who I was told I could get an AC chassis if they’d ship me two or three engines, which they did. I went over and lived at AC’s for about a month to make sure I could get the chassis. Then I went back to Ford and had a meeting with Iacocca, who was sales manager. I told him I had a chassis and needed some engines and $25,000 and I could build a car that would blow the Corvette off. They told me to leave the room. Don Frey and Dave Evans stayed in there, and Frey came out in a few minutes and said, “You got your $25,000.” Later, Evans told me Iacocca said, “Give him that $25,000 before he bites somebody.”

"

Bluestripe67

That is some very significant details, something I never knew. Thanks for posting. Dennis

Silver1331

you're welcome. I agree with you, the fact that Chevy's were Shelby's preferred engine and that the Scaglietti Corvette's represent his first attempt at a production vehicle are largely misunderstood/under-appreciated today.

71scgc

Many of the Ferraris, Maseratis, Jags, etc. raced by Hall and Shelby (and others) at some point were powered by Corvette counter engines. Most were originally bought with no factory support. Once the engine let go, they had to replace it with something.

Carter

Silver1331

Yes, that's correct. I'm sure Shelby was also influenced by the J2 Allard he raced in the early 50s as well which was Cadillac powered.

71scgc

A great read on those cars owned by the Halls, Shelby, etal, is a series of books called Sports car racing in the south.
Also on the nostalgia forum.

Carter

Silver1331

Figured this thread needed some photo's. Here are the 3 cars.

First 2 are in private collections, the third car (darker red) was Carroll Shelby's original car and is now at the Petersen Museum in LA

sub006

Beautiful pics! Somehow they remind me of the Italian bodied, Buick-powered Apollos that came along in California a couple of years later. Buick dealers wanted 'em but GM nixed the idea, even though they were priced significantly higher than Corvettes (the mark of Zora?)

My records show 88 were assembled and sold.