Rohm & Haas Corvette, did it exist?
07-14-2013, 05:50 PM
#1
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Rohm & Haas Corvette, did it exist?
Rohm and Haas were glass suppliers to Detroit. I remember seeing drawings of the Rohm and Haas Corvette, maybe modified from a '63, but did they ever build an actual show car?
07-14-2013, 10:51 PM
#2
Burning Brakes
I know that R&H were the original makers of Plexiglas, don't know about safety glass. I worked at one of their facilities here back in the 70s. They've since sold the Plexiglas side of their business. I do remember hearing that they made some Plexiglas bubble tops back many decades ago.
Last edited by BLee; 07-14-2013 at 10:55 PM.
07-15-2013, 10:42 AM
#3
Race Director
You may be thinking of PPG instead of Rohm and Haas.
PPG supplied glass to the OEMs and also had a fiberglass car during the 1960's period. I believe it was a prototype and only 1-2 were produced.
During this time PPG had separate glass, fiberglass, paint, and chemicals divisions. I worked in the chemicals area in Texas.
Larry
PPG supplied glass to the OEMs and also had a fiberglass car during the 1960's period. I believe it was a prototype and only 1-2 were produced.
During this time PPG had separate glass, fiberglass, paint, and chemicals divisions. I worked in the chemicals area in Texas.
Larry
07-15-2013, 11:04 AM
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PPG had a lot of pace cars but I don't recall a Corvette
I forgot which race they paced but this was in the '80s. I remember one was some sort of Renault, maybe mid-engined, yellow. Then there were convertible versions of some Detroit cars that didn't come in convertibles. I wonder what happened to all those cars when the sponsorship of those races died off? But the Rohm & Haas car I am talking about was 1963 or so. Maybe it never got farther than a drawing.
07-15-2013, 12:50 PM
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07-15-2013, 01:00 PM
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I've seen the drawing of the Rohm and Haas Corvette, the Explorer II, but don't know if it ever existed. I'm pretty sure it was based on a 64 convertible, and the only modifications were a Plexiglass hardtop, and fixed headlights with Plexiglass covers.
Rohm and Haas was created Plexiglass, and to promote it, they did a number of projects for the automakers. In 1939, they replaced the body of a stock Pontiac sedan, with a complete Plexiglass body. The car was built to be displayed at the 1939 Worlds Fair, and was recently sold at auction. They also made clear Plexiglass truck lids (hoods ???) for Corvairs, that were used at car shows and dealerships, to display the Corvair's rear engine.
The Pace Cars your referring to were the Cart Indycar PPG Pace Cars. PPG Automotive Finishes was the series sponsor, for the old CART Indycar series in the late 80's and early 90's. To help promote their line of automotive paints, PPG asked various automakers to provide modified cars to them, to use as Pace Cars at CART races. All of the cars were painted in different bright colors, of paints offered by PPG.
The fleet of Pace Cars were brought to each CART race, and were used as parade vehicles, with a different one being picked to pace each race. They were all driven by attractive, young female race car drivers!
The cars varied from stock autos, to full blown concept cars. The Dodge Interceptor (which was used in the film Wrath) was one pace car, the was a Buick Reatta, a GMC Syclone, a Pontiac Fiero, a Ford F150, a Subaru SVX, a couple different Corvettes, along with Mercedes, Levus', Ferrari's, etc.
A couple interesting ones were a concept car from AMC, called the AMX Turbo, and a El Camino-esk Chevy concept truck, built on a Camaro chassis with Corvette suspension and a V6 engine. The Renualt your referring to was the Renault 5 Turbo. The Renault 5 was a small front engined econo box, but Renault built a small number of 5 Turbos, that featured a mid mounted turbo charged 4 cylinder. The 5 Turbo was a killer little supercar, that was never sold in the US, but a few "black market" version were brought into the US. There use to be a red one in my area.
I have quite a few pictures of the PPG Pace Cars, from attending CART races years ago.
Rohm and Haas was created Plexiglass, and to promote it, they did a number of projects for the automakers. In 1939, they replaced the body of a stock Pontiac sedan, with a complete Plexiglass body. The car was built to be displayed at the 1939 Worlds Fair, and was recently sold at auction. They also made clear Plexiglass truck lids (hoods ???) for Corvairs, that were used at car shows and dealerships, to display the Corvair's rear engine.
The Pace Cars your referring to were the Cart Indycar PPG Pace Cars. PPG Automotive Finishes was the series sponsor, for the old CART Indycar series in the late 80's and early 90's. To help promote their line of automotive paints, PPG asked various automakers to provide modified cars to them, to use as Pace Cars at CART races. All of the cars were painted in different bright colors, of paints offered by PPG.
The fleet of Pace Cars were brought to each CART race, and were used as parade vehicles, with a different one being picked to pace each race. They were all driven by attractive, young female race car drivers!
The cars varied from stock autos, to full blown concept cars. The Dodge Interceptor (which was used in the film Wrath) was one pace car, the was a Buick Reatta, a GMC Syclone, a Pontiac Fiero, a Ford F150, a Subaru SVX, a couple different Corvettes, along with Mercedes, Levus', Ferrari's, etc.
A couple interesting ones were a concept car from AMC, called the AMX Turbo, and a El Camino-esk Chevy concept truck, built on a Camaro chassis with Corvette suspension and a V6 engine. The Renualt your referring to was the Renault 5 Turbo. The Renault 5 was a small front engined econo box, but Renault built a small number of 5 Turbos, that featured a mid mounted turbo charged 4 cylinder. The 5 Turbo was a killer little supercar, that was never sold in the US, but a few "black market" version were brought into the US. There use to be a red one in my area.
I have quite a few pictures of the PPG Pace Cars, from attending CART races years ago.
07-15-2013, 01:01 PM
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That's the one, was it ever built, now I see only a hardtop
When the ZINC group, promoting chrome to automakers, bought a Lambo Miura spyder and customized it to show the use of chrome, I can't see why at least these guys couldn't build a hardtop. But maybe it was only a drawing. Incredible that you found it when I remembered it from 50 years ago!
07-15-2013, 04:01 PM
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This is probably the car seen at Kissimmee - I took this at the 2009 Kissimmee Regional. Car is owned by Bill (last name escapes me at the moment), who made the clear Plexiglas hardtop. 
07-29-2015, 03:50 PM
#14
Melting Slicks
07-30-2015, 12:52 AM
#16
(And AIR there were TWO see-through '39 Pontiacs built?)
07-30-2015, 08:18 AM
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Explorer II Photo
No, there was one '39 Pontiac and one '40 - the '39 was later updated with a '40 front end.
07-30-2015, 08:29 AM
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08-01-2015, 12:03 AM
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Thanks for the correction on the Pontiac(s?)! And for the Explorer II front end pic. Hmmm, let's just say I actually prefer the look of open C2 headlights, tough to beat Bill Mitchell, Larry Shinoda and company...
08-24-2015, 09:06 AM
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John Haas