eBay Listing: 1956 Chevrolet Corvette SR-2 – the very first GM sponsored Corvette Race Car Fathers and sons have a special relationship when it comes to cars. Time spent in garages, at car shows, rebuilding, building, or tearing apart cars can cement their bond. We dare to say that Harley Earl, like many a father before him, knew that. While his son Jerry was racing a Ferrari, Harley saw a need to put his son behind the wheel of a GM product, and thus this Corvette model was born. Corvette was created for the sheer purpose of fighting on the tracks and streets with European sports cars. In 1953, when Chevrolet Corvettes were first introduced, some people felt it was all show and no go. It is not to say the first Corvettes built from 1953-1954 were not intriguing, but many felt that the lack of power in the earliest Vettes was something that needed to be rectified. Zora Arkus-Duntov, an engineer at GM, was the man who fixed that problem around 1955 and injected the Corvette with an added dose of horsepower in the optional V8, and from point forward the rest, as they say, is history. Today we chose to look at this C1 Corvette representing the combined effort of two men, Zora Arkus-Duntov and Harley Earl. Both are legendary names when it comes to General Motors and Corvettes. Harley Earl was a designer whose team penned more stylish 1950s classic cars than you could shake a stick at with his successor and protégé Bill Mitchell following the same line of design talent. Zora Arkus-Duntov was the man responsible for making Corvette the nameplate it is today in terms of performance. This specific Corvette was purposefully built to be a racecar to compete with the likes of Ferrari. With only three of these unique Corvettes ever built, mostly all for high-ranking GM officials, it is our humble view that it probably belongs in Bowling Green Kentucky in the Corvette Museum. However, money talks and this piece of automotive history is now up for sale. This is an epic piece of automotive history with signatures and paperwork galore, but what is truly touching about this story is that Harley Earl built this car for his son and tried to outdo a Ferrari for his son. This is a rocket ship on wheels designed to beat a Ferrari, in the form of a gift from a father to his son. Take a closer look at automotive history by clicking the link to the 1956 Chevrolet Corvette SR-2 before it ends on January 10 at 2:09 PM (PDT)from eBay Motors Blog http://ift.tt/1DBmBFE
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