The Coolest Corvette You've Never Heard of

Exterior

Streamlined shapes are very important for aerodynamics. Small frontal areas and slick shapes help animals from Dolphins to Mako sharks slice through the water with incredible speed and efficiency. Air is a lot like water when you start moving fast so the shape of a car is critical. Colani takes what starts out as a Corvette and turns it into this! The design is simple but effective.

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Top Speed

A great looking shell is part of the package, but if a car can’t perform at Bonneville the competition will dry it up faster than the sun beating down from overhead. Thankfully this car is a serious contender. It set a top speed of 230.928 miles per hour despite undisclosed problems during the time of the test. According to Colani, the car can allegedly hit 300mph though there doesn’t seem to be any official evidence of this being proven.

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Side Blown

Powering this car is a Chevrolet V8 with a blower producing 1,500 horsepower. Nothing too impressive until you actually look at the car. Where is it? Due to the aero inefficiency of the supercharger sticking up from the hood Luigi decided to mount it on the side of the motor to help the car cut through the air cleanly and efficiently. No actual photos exist of the engine itself. 

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Unconventional Wings

It is common practice to mount a rear wing to the chassis and above the deck lid/trunk. We see it in time attack and other types of racing all the time. Even some front wings are mounted this way. This Vette’s front and rear wing are mounted underneath the car in a kind of tunnel. A unique design to say the least for a sports car in the late 80s! 

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Mystery Buyer

Not too long ago the car was put up on eBay for auction and sold to an undisclosed buyer. Purchased as a roller it is unknown what was done with the unique side blown V8. Luigi Colani at the time of this writing is 89 and was teaching at a university in China some years ago. It is unclear whether he intends to build any more land speed cars, but it would be fascinating to see what he could do with modern technology and new improvements in aerodynamic understandings.

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More Information

If you want to learn more about the designer behind this build check out Colani's website for more cool designs and articles. See you next time!

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