Vehicle Description
1959 Corvette Period Race Car- Factory Fuelie, Concours
Restoration, Fully Documented LMC is very proud to offer for sale
this 1959 Chevrolet Corvette Factory Fuelie Race Car Despite the
short-lived 1957 AMA racing ban, Zora Arkus-Duntov managed to endow
the rapidly maturing Corvette with a growing selection of
high-performance parts, and under his guidance, the revolutionary
small-block V-8 made quantum leaps in power, reliability and
sophistication. However, while the Corvette was indeed a serious
racing contender by 1959, with a proven engine and chassis
combination only lacking lightweight bodywork. During that time
period, Carroll Shelby had enlisted Sergio Scaglietti to build
three unique alloy body Corvettes in order to compete with the best
European manufacturers. While the Scaglietti Corvette project
foundered with GM management, the Corvette's prowess grew in the
racing world, dominating road racing and winning the 1959 SCCA
B-Production championship. Plans were also laid with Briggs
Cunningham to contest the 24 Hours of Le Mans the following year.
This special Corvette Racer was factory ordered with the best
options suited to go racing. It was factory painted in 503A Solid
Black complemented by 490D Red Trim and 470E White convertible top.
It was powered by the most potent engine available on Corvettes
factory options list, the 283ci/290 horsepower solid lifter
camshaft engine with Rochester fuel injection backed by a 4-speed
manual transmission and Posi-traction rear axle. This special
Corvette was also equipped with courtesy lights, HD brakes, HD
suspension, deluxe heater and windshield washer which were the
necessities need to go racing. These options all together would add
$1,210 to it base price of $3,875 for a total of $5,227. The
original buyer of this rare Corvette was Gene Cormany, the Vice
President of Engineering for the Zollner Corp. in Ft. Wayne,
Indiana, a prime supplier of pistons for the American automobile
and trucking industry. (Company owner Fred Zollner was one of the
founders of the National Basketball Association and longtime owner
of the Zollner Pistons team, later moved to Detroit where they
became the Detroit Pistons). Cormany had attended an SCCA driving
school at Lockbourne Air Force Base in 1958 and raced a Corvette
later that season, reportedly without much gratification which led
to the acquisition of this unique Corvette race car. He raced this
car regularly throughout the Midwest in 1959 and 1960, scoring
twelve top-three finishes including four wins out of 22 events. The
relationship between this Corvette race car and the first
Scaglietti Corvette developed in the late 1980's. The previous
owner of this racer had purchased the original engine and fuel
injection unit from the first Scaglietti Corvette with plans to
install it into his race car. That motor was removed from the 1959
Scaglietti Corvette in order to get more power to be competitive at
the vintage races. The engine was then saved until the race car was
ready to be restored back to its period race glory. Using period
photos, this Corvette has been restored by a marque specialist to
its period racing scheme of 503A Solid Black complemented by a 490D
Red Leather Interior with white meatballs and race number 9. It
still retains its unique racing equipment including a braced full
width bolt in roll bar, side exhaust, and steel wheels with
Goodyear Super Cushion tires. The driver and passenger sit behind a
full-width cutdown windscreen which utilizes the original
windshield mountings. A fully restored stock windshield and
windshield wipers come with the car and it easily converts to
street driving configuration with the windshield swap taking only
five minutes. Corvettes that have been racecars since new rarely
survive in anything close to this kind of condition and almost
never retain original documentation. Original documentation
includes original dealer invoice, SCCA race results, ownership
history, period photos and restoration history. A beautiful car, it
was state of the art in American V-8 sports cars in 1959 and it is
still a welcome and competitive participant in historic racing
series. Freshly restored to the highest standards, it will be a
welcome addition to any collection, with an intimate connection to
one of the best known of all Corvette projects in its 290hp Fuel
Injected engine from the first of the Shelby Scaglietti Corvettes.
Additional Details: 1959 CHEVROLET CORVETTE FUELIE -
