BarrettJackson Scottsdale 2005 - super rare '58 HTC.
Beauty
- Thread starter Black 03 Z06
- Start date
Here's the story on this one-off hand built car - amazing. Cannot attach Word files so here goes with entire thing.
1958 Corvette retractable: The mysterious flip-top ``prototype'' really was an inside job
BY BILL MCGUIRE
MAY 21, 2000
For years, stories about an unusual retractable hardtop circulated through the Corvette collector world like urban folklore. There were tales of a production 1958 Corvette, but with a hardtop that retracted into the trunk like the Ford Skyliners. Experts who had seen the oddball Vette reported that from the factory-like workmanship, it must be some rare prototype that had somehow escaped into the wild. Sightings were random and conflicting: The retractable was seen around Detroit, then Florida. It was white, no, black. No, it was white with red coves. Some versions of the legend claimed there was not one, but three Corvette retractables.
As it turns out, there was such a car-just one. Though it wasn't a factory project, we can forgive the experts for being fooled. The car was built by a GM stylist, but not in GM's studios. Francis H. Scott created the Corvette retractable in his living room.
Scott couldn't afford the new Corvette he wanted on his GM salary. But he had plenty of experience with clay modeling and fiberglass layup ("dirty, nasty work") working in the sculpture department at GM styling. In late 1958, Scott purchased a wrecked '58 Corvette from an insurance company for $900. With the windshield removed, the shattered body fit sideways through his front door and into his living room, where he set to work rebuilding it.
Scott's original plan was simply to repair the Corvette. The idea for the retractable roof came once he got started-it was pure serendipity, the result of his cramped work area. With the entire rear body area laid open for repair, he discovered that the Corvette's lift-off hardtop stored neatly in the trunk. Eureka!
For his retracting mechanism, Scott borrowed from the much more complicated Skyliner, adapting the latches, one of the lock motors and two flexible cables, parts he picked up at the local Ford dealer. The top itself traveled back and then down on hinged fiberglass tracks of his own design. Nearly all the fabrication work, including the rear window frame, was in fiberglass. Scott explained, "I didn't have the facilities or experience to make it out of metal, so the clay-fiberglass method was used." Scott made no plan drawings, just engineered the design as he went along, and the result is simple, elegant and exceedingly clever.
The same might not be said for the awkward trunk blisters, needed to provide clearance for the top in the stowed position: They oddly recall the '58 T-Bird. In his defense Scott wrote, "I wish I had done something different in that area. GM spends thousands of man-hours moving clay around because they don't hit the target the first time either." Ironically, Scott's retractable top would have been a perfect fit under the square deck of 1961-62 Corvettes.
Scott was awarded patent No. 3,180,677 for his hinged track design, which he assigned to General Motors for one dollar, per company policy. But management expressed no interest in Scott's concept whatsoever: One day Bill Mitchell encountered the retractable in the parking lot, circled it once, said "I'll be damned," and walked away. Scott used the Corvette as daily transportation for almost six years, then traded it for a full-sized Chevrolet. A man of many talents, Scott was playing in a local band and needed room for his ax. "If you've ever carried a bass fiddle in a Cor-vette you can imagine the problem," he said.
The Corvette then disappeared from view, except for the occasional sightings that fed the rumors. It spent some time in Florida, was repainted at least once, from black to a garish white-and-red two-tone, and eluded capture until 1989. The retract-able was then purchased by Corvette mogul Terry Michaelis, who treated it to a 1400-hour, frame-off restoration in 1994. "Scotty," as the retractable is known in honor of its creator, is now on permanent display in Michaelis' showroom at ProTeam Corvette Sales in Napoleon, Ohio. Although the retractable is ostensibly for sale like the 200 other Corvettes on hand, company spokesperson Beth Landis says, "Scotty is really more like part of the family here."
A little out of the year range but I always loved these Greenwood racers.
I will take the dark blue Austin Healey fifth in line behind the white Corvette outside lane.
Tomorrows Beauty Today.
Rest In Peace.
Rest In Peace.
Bad choice Murray, the white 58 at the front of the line won't start......his crew are running up to help but you will be at least a lap behind before they find the key.
Only if you are British Dave and have a fast paint brush.
Rruuff same applies to you as Dave. Here's what I said back a few threads.I'll take the green one...
Only if you are British Dave and have a fast paint brush.
Your efforts are appreciated, thanks.Dave and Rruuff I found you guys a green one but it has no roll bar......oooooops
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