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Here's the story:
lIlustrated Corvette Series No. 42 - 1964 XP-819
"Experimental Rear-Engine Corvette"
Car
companies make prototype cars all the time. Most of these machines are never
shown to the public. Corvette prototype cars often become very high-profile
machines. Only a few were never shown, for good reason. The XP-819 was an
engineering study used to prove a point concerning the correct direction for
future Corvette development.
The XP-819 was the result of a clash between Zora Arkus-Duntov and engineer
Frank Winchell, who'd been involved with the Corvair project. Winchell
contended that you could make a balanced, rear-engine, V-8 powered sports car
by using an aluminum engine and larger tires on the rear to compensate for the
rear weight bias. Duntov adamantly disagreed. A loose design was drawn that
received some very unflattering comments from Duntov and Dave McLellan.
Winchell asked designer Larry Shinoda if he could make something beautiful with
the layout, to which Shinoda told him that a tape drawing could be shown after
lunch. Shinoda and designer John Schinella sketched out the basic shape shown
here. Duntov asked Shinoda, "Where did you cheat?"
It didn't look "too bad", so a working prototype was ordered. Shinoda
supervised the styling and Larry Nies' team of fabricators built the car. In
only two months the XP-819 was on the test track.
It turned out that Winchell's theory about rear-engine, V-8 cars didn't work
out very well. However, Shinoda's design was well received. They were obviously
into the "shark thing" and picked up styling points from the
Chaparral cars. It even had wheels from a Chaparral.
This car was definitely a Corvette, even though the back end was big.
Unfortunately, with all that weight behind the rear axle, it was only a matter
of time before it crashed during a high-speed lane change test. The question of
stability was answered, and the XP-819 was send off the the scrap bin...almost.
Oddly enough, GM sent the car to Smokey Yunick's shop in Daytona, Florida. The
chassis was cut in half and usable parts were removed. What was left was stored
in an unused paint booth as just "old junk." Years later, a Corvette
collector was buying some parts from Yunick and offered to buy the junked
XP-819.
So the pile of car scrap was rebuilt and finished as a streetable car, like a
kit car. A cast-iron V-8 was used in place of the original all-aluminum engine.
We're talking serious rear weight bias here. It's quick and now does awesome
wheelies!
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