Daily Slideshow: Super Rare Airbox Corvette gets Fully Restored
This super-rare RPO 579E Airbox Corvette was fully restored after nearly two decades in storage. In a relatively short period of time, the Corvette Repair team went from stem-to-stern repainting, restoring, and reassembling this Airbox Corvette. On June 23, 2017, the Onyx Black ’57 was awarded Bloomington Gold certification at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Check out the slideshow to see some of the amazing work the team did.
1. Authenticating the validity of this vehicle
In this photo of the 102-inch wheelbase chassis, you’ll notice a part number stenciled on a frame rail that ends in -43: That’s just a coincidence and has nothing to do with the 1-of-43 RPO 579E Airbox Corvettes produced. The factory-authorized production run for the ’57 Corvette Airbox was for 50 units, leaving the question as to why only 43 were produced. Chevrolet listed the curb weight for a base model ’57 Corvette at 2,849 pounds and took measures to reduce the curb weight of the RPO 579E cars.
2. How to tell if an RPO 579E is actually an RPO 579E
To help authenticate an RPO 579E, one of the dead giveaways is to look on the underside to find a coarse fiberglass white-matte finish sans undercoating. In this undercarriage photo, you’ll see what we’re talking about. Corvette Repair prepared the surface and re-sprayed the underside of the floor and trunk pans with an exact color match to the original.
>>Join the conversation about this super-rare RPO 579E Airbox Corvette right here in Corvette Forum.
3. Engine and performance
The year 1957 was a good year for Corvette in terms of performance: Both on and off the track. The new-for-1957 283-cubic-inch engine with 10.5:1 compression and mechanical fuel injection produced one horsepower per cubic inch and the cold-air induction offered by the Airbox option was believed to add 7 horsepower at speed. Additionally, a heavy-duty right-side engine mount was included in the package that produced a gross rating of 283 horsepower at 6,200 rpm and 300 lb-ft of torque at 3,000 rpm. Worth noting: The year 1957 also saw the introduction of Chevrolet Orange, the engine color that remained in use until early 1977 on Corvette engines.
>>Join the conversation about this super-rare RPO 579E Airbox Corvette right here in Corvette Forum.
4. Suspension and brakes
This particular restored RPO 684 features heavy-duty racing suspension with big brakes option. Unfortunately, the cold air sucked in by the Airbox into the fuel injection didn’t leave much cool air left to run through the air duct in the rocker panel to effectively cool the driver-side rear brake. Even with a standard additional leaf spring and heavy-duty shock absorbers add rear suspension travel up or down, and the cooling duct in the rocker panel became misaligned with the rear brake scoops, diminishing cooling further.
>>Join the conversation about this super-rare RPO 579E Airbox Corvette right here in Corvette Forum.
5. Elephant ear tires
Other inclusions of the RPO 684 package worth noting are quicker-ratio steering and larger-diameter front stabilizer bar. Exact replicas of original equipment, Corvette Repair mounted Coker Firestone 6.70x15 Blackwall tires on the factory uprated 15x5 steel wheels. Similar to the rear ventilated backing plates “elephant ear” scoops direct cooler air into the front finned cast-iron drum brakes.
>>Join the conversation about this super-rare RPO 579E Airbox Corvette right here in Corvette Forum.
6. Other notes
Four-speed manual transmission was an option that arrived available for all Corvettes produced after April 8, 1957, and quickly became a standard for the Airbox cars. As was a mandatory deletion of the radio and heater replaced on the dashboard with a radio and heater delete plate. Since there was no need for radio interference suppression, the polished stainless steel distributor cover wasn’t factory fitted, along with rerouting unshielded spark plug wires further away from the ram’s horn cast-iron exhaust manifolds new for 1957.
>>Join the conversation about this super-rare RPO 579E Airbox Corvette right here in Corvette Forum.
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