62 Chevy II factory race car with St Louis tie in?

[Keith B.]

This story popped up and not knowing where to do more research but I find it interesting that GM would send the car to the St Louis Corvette factory for fiberglass work and not an engineering place. is this story true or made up?

RARE FACTORY RACE CAR 1962 CHEVY 2 FIBERGLASS FASTBACK ,1 OF ONLY 4 PRODUCED . THIS ONE WAS THE RED CKC CALLIER KRISTEK CORTINEZ. GM TOOK 4 WHITE CONVERTILES JUST THE BODY FROM PRODUCTION LINE AND SENT THEM TO THE CORVETTE FACTORY FOR FIBERGLASS TOPS AND SUSPENSION TO HAVE MADE INTO FACTORY RACE CAR FOR SCCA. THEY WERE READY TO BE RACED AT SEBRING WHEN GM PULLED THE PLUG ALL 4 SOLD IN 1964 FOR $2500 WITHOUT ENGINES.

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[Mark F.]

Re: 62 Chevy II factory race car with St Louis tie in?

This story popped up and not knowing where to do more research but I find it interesting that GM would send the car to the St Louis Corvette factory for fiberglass work and not an engineering place. is this story true or made up?

popped up where ?

[Keith B.]

Re: 62 Chevy II factory race car with St Louis tie in?

well it was on Facebook.

[Terry D.]

Re: 62 Chevy II factory race car with St Louis tie in?

Well, if it was on facebook it must be true! LOL

[Gary C.]

Re: 62 Chevy II factory race car with St Louis tie in?

Cars were built by Bill Thomas Racing https://www.stevesnovasite.com/threa...stback.675066/

[Justin S.]

Re: 62 Chevy II factory race car with St Louis tie in?

Surprised he didn't get sued by Plymouth.

[Keith B.]

Re: 62 Chevy II factory race car with St Louis tie in?

so the St louis factory and GM had nothing to do with these?

[Duke W.]

Re: 62 Chevy II factory race car with St Louis tie in?

I consider this story to be nonsense. For one thing assembly plants didn't do experimental or development work. Their sole job was to build production approved cars and each complete job meant revenue for the company.

The other issue is the comment they were built for SCCA. In order to qualify for a production class at least 100 examples had to be produced, and by '64 the modified classes were dominated by the new mid engine cars that weighed less than 2000 pounds, so there is no way a production based car would be competitive. The Grand Sports and Cheetahs had to run in C-modified because only a handful were ever made and there's no way any production-based car would be competitive because they'd be way too heavy, so why would Bill Thomas spend time on a Nova-based project when the much lighter Cheetah was already obsolete.

NHRA was a whole different ball game and the FX classes allowed non-production engine-chassis combinations, but putting a fiberglass roof on a Nova convertible probably wasn't any lighter than a Nova coupe, so what was the point?

Finally, given the GM racing ban the corporation would not be "behind" these third party efforts, not like Ford was with Shelby. Thomas may have gotten some "back door" technical support and parts from Chevrolet, but I've never heard there was any kind of contract that provided specific parts or cash to Thomas.

Duke

[Keith B.]

Re: 62 Chevy II factory race car with St Louis tie in?

Duke my thoughts as well as the story didn't add up in my mind.

[Cecil L.]

Re: 62 Chevy II factory race car with St Louis tie in?

Probably an offshoot of the factory v-8 conversion kits made by Thomas as explained in this edition of Hot Rod magazine from the day.



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