Bunk or Possibly True, Twin to Mitchell 1959 Sting Ray Racer

[Edmund C.]

Guys: While at a Texas car show yesterday I was shooting the breeze with another show attendee and he said that he had new gauges taken from the Mitchell Sting Ray Racer's twin. He is now a Police Officer and in the early 80s had worked in a high end car shop in Spring, Texas. The twin had been apparently purchased for $100K by A Texas oil executive from a GM executive. The vehicle allegedly had an unstamped 327 and frame and it was not painted. I know this Cop's family very well and the guy seems very solid. Can this be true? I thought that there was only one of these built. Any shared thoughts appreciated.

[Duke W.]

Re: Bunk or Possibly True, Twin to Mitchell 1959 Sting Ray Racer

The history of the original Stingray (not Sting Ray) has been very well documented. Mitchell bought the bodyless Corvette SS "mule" chassis from GM, for a reported one dollar, that Duntov used to develop the Corvette SS, and, under the table, designed (Shinoda did the details) and built the Stingray body at the GM Design Center. The sales contract included a provision that no GM trademark data, like "Corvette" would be on the car. It was to be strictly a personal Bill Mitchell enterprise with no association to GM.

These two essentially identical chassis are tubular space frame types that were inspired by the chassis of the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR. No reliable source has ever reported a third such chassis.

But there are countless stories about undiscovered or lost cars like the "sixth" Grand Sport that was destroyed by fire and scrapped, steel bodied production and prototype Corvettes... the list goes on and on.

Most of these stories originate from people who have not been reading about and/or researching and writing Corvette history for over 50 years, so they should be taken with a grain of salt.

I bet the guy doesn't own the seventies or new version of Ludvisgen's book. Ask him what he knows about the "Q" Corvette. We all know it was designed by "Q", the MI6 quartermaster who designed all of James Bond's trick cars and gadgets, but GM management rejected it because it wasn't designed by an American.

Duke