I like prototypes... hell, I just dig cars

1961 Mako Shark most of these pics are from a russian site http://autowp.ru/
1962 XP 755 Mako Shark

1962 XP 755 Mako Shark 1965 Mako Shark
1969 Manta Ray

1973 Astrovette 1956 SR-2 Corvette
http://www.tamsoldracecarsite.net is a great site and was my source for this SR-2, the precursor to the SS Corvette

Once, men were allowed to be men... crazy daredevil, 4 motor, 4 wheel drive, rocket powered nuts.

http://www.almar.easynet.be/turbonique.htm has a really good article, and good photos.
http://vales.com/MTM2/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=12159&ARCHIVE for the best color pics and description of how powerfully enticing this was, it went on go carts (215 mph), cars, boats, etc... strap on 1000 HP, or the full boogie 1500 HP if you clang with big brass notes when you shuffle along.

http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2006/04/the_real_acme.html

I won't even repost the madness here.... I can't possibly do justice to the sheer machoness of strapping a 1000 hp 760 ft lbs rocket to the rear axle of a dragster and hitting the "fun" button. Trust me, Coop, and iowahawk... read it all, soak it in. Our fathers and grandfathers were effing madmen with motors and we should just drop to one knee in homage the the giants who once walked the USA, racing for the shits and grins of it all.

thanks to http://positiveapeindex.blogspot.com/2006/04/real-acme.html for reminding me about this, and I'll have more on this from my archived books and magazines someday.

http://www.the-rocketman.com/turbonique1.html has 5 photo galleries of bikes, boats, cars, and go karts that had used these.

In August 2007 CarDomain found an original Cougar with a Turbonique still strapped on: http://blog.cardomain.com/blog/2007/08/turbonique.html

For a good long write up: http://garagemagazine.com/archive-the-real-acme/

Rarest carb I can thnk of

I have never seen one in person, just this one magazine story on rare carbs. Never made it into production, I believe.

The most expensive Corvettes. Two to Three million

Only 2 known ZL-1 Corvettes. Aluminum 427 engines. When tested by magazine types, one ripped off a 10.89 sec at 132 mph on 9 inch slicks.

http://www.autofacts.ca/classics/FAPC/ZL1Corvette.htm for all the info. The yellow one was seized in a drug bust for cocaine use.

A good history of the white one. Drag raced for about 2 years, then sold.
http://corvettes-musclecars.com/cgi-bin/emAlbum.cgi?c=show_thumbs;p=1969%20Corvette%20ZL-1%20427-430HP

http://www.corvettelegends.com/zl1.htm A brief and good history of the ZL 1 Corvette

The most expensive Corvettes. One to one and a half million

1967, L88, 427 four barrel, aluminum heads. 18 remain.



The L88 with 12.5 to 1 compression, hi-lift cam, 850 CFM 4 barrel carb and aluminum heads was under-rated at only 430 HP. L88s actually have been dyno-tested at 560 HP. How could GM do this without it being called false advertisement? Easy -- the publicized rating of the L88 actually was its true horsepower. Chevrolet just neglected to point out that this horsepower rating was at approximately 1000 RPM under the peak performance RPM of the L88.

The most expensive Corvettes.

Both the 1957 SS and the 1958 Mitchell are at http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2006/11/only-time-super-sport-was-ever-applied.html#links

The most expensive Corvettes. Over a million a piece

1953, 3rd built. $1.08 mil. This was a test mule for GM, things like 14 hour cold room shake testing, and 5000 mile Belgian block test.

Side bar: John Wayne bought #51, Corvettes #004-006 are the first Corvettes sold, delivered to executives of the DuPont Company.

http://www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/vettehis/index.htm

The first Corvettes were actually "rolled" off the assembly line. Chevrolet was not prepared for grounding to a fiberglass body; the cars would not start.

The only thing really new on the 1953 Corvette was the fiberglass body. Everything else was directly off the Chevrolet parts shelf. Because of this, the first Corvette was essentially a regular 1952 Chevrolet that looked like a million dollars!

Of the 314 Corvettes hand built in 1953 only 183 were sold because of "average" performance at such a high price, $3513 the Jaguar Xk120 sold for $3345, $168 less than the Corvette.

The rarest and most expensive Corvettes, ZL-1's

The only time Super Sport was ever applied to a corvette, thanks to Zora Arkus Duntov

The Bill Mitchell and Zora Duntov vettes. Unique beasts