Rpo 581 ?

[Bruce B.]

At the recent Bill King auction in Trenton, Ohio I ran across what appeared to be a NOS brake drum marked part number 3745534.
In resarching the part number I ran across an article "Chicken Coop" Corvette by Mike Hunt where he discussed RPO 581 Competion Package (1956-1957) of which only 7 were produced by GM.
In other articles it is claimed that RPO 581 was tentative and never produced.
Can anyone enlighten me on this subject?
I believe the brake drum sold in the range of $2000.00.

[Loren L.]

Re: Rpo 581 ?

At the recent Bill King auction in Trenton, Ohio I ran across what appeared to be a NOS brake drum marked part number 3745534.
In resarching the part number I ran across an article "Chicken Coop" Corvette by Mike Hunt where he discussed RPO 581 Competion Package (1956-1957) of which only 7 were produced by GM.
In other articles it is claimed that RPO 581 was tentative and never produced.
Can anyone enlighten me on this subject?
I believe the brake drum sold in the range of $2000.00.

Whether or not the RPO 581 label was attached to these cars (Check Dick Robinson, John Neas and Larry Martin) the Work Order that created cars respresentative of those that raced at 1956 Sebring called out a total of 6 cars and specified that green was not a possible color.

[Joseph T.]

Re: Rpo 581 ?

At the recent Bill King auction in Trenton, Ohio I ran across what appeared to be a NOS brake drum marked part number 3745534.
In resarching the part number I ran across an article "Chicken Coop" Corvette by Mike Hunt where he discussed RPO 581 Competion Package (1956-1957) of which only 7 were produced by GM.
In other articles it is claimed that RPO 581 was tentative and never produced.
Can anyone enlighten me on this subject?
I believe the brake drum sold in the range of $2000.00.

The drum you saw is either a first or second generation 56-59 or 59 -62 heavy duty drum RPO 684 / RPO 687. The early drums had fins that wrapped around the face of the drum but caused some clearance issues and sometime mid 59 or so existing drums had the face fins machined off until new tooling was made and drums were cast without the wrap around fins.

RPO 581 was the pre cursor to RPO 684. RPO 581 used Houdaille shocks and 4 leaf springs. My Nassau car still has the RPO 581 set up intact and unrestored...but was most likely added to the car when it was sent from St.Louis to Engineering in Warren in preparation for the Nassau, Bahamas Governors Trophy Race where it and two sister cars introduced Rochester Fuel Injection to Corvette racing.

[Tom P.]

Re: Rpo 581 ?

Bruce,
Good info above.
Those cars (6 built on the 1956 St. Louis assembly line) are referred to as the SR1. Of the 6 built, there are TWO known survivors. My good friend John Neas owns the one pictured below. John has restored the car to as close to factory/GM documentation as possible. It took several years to FINALLY convince NCRS that these were St.Louis factory built cars and NOT modified by engineering/styling/design after coming off the assembly line. NCRS has now accepted them to be included/eligible for judging (and I won't make any further comments about that issue!!!).

I've mentioned this before, and I'll repeat it.
The St. Louis FACTORY built SR1s are NOT, and are NOT to be confused with, the 1956 cars that were modified by engineering specifically for the March 1956 Sebring race. Those cars are SEBRING RACE CARS-----------------and NOT SR1 cars-----------------TWO TOTALLY DIFFERENT CARS!










This is John Neas genuine 1956 Sebring race car.

[Joseph T.]

Re: Rpo 581 ?

Here is a red one!

[Bruce B.]

Re: Rpo 581 ?

Here is a red one!

Joe,
Any history on the picture of the red SR1?

[Steven B.]

Re: Rpo 581 ?

Here is a red one!

And a Polo White one;

[Bruce B.]

Re: Rpo 581 ?

Tom,

Thanks for the info and the great pictures.
I saw the SR1 down at Kissimmee a few years ago and it is quite a car.
The Sebring car was at Bloomington and I had a long talk with John about it.
At that time John also shared with me his pictures and info on the Bennie Osborn dragster, the info was amazing. But thats Johns passion.

Bruce B

[Steven B.]

Re: Rpo 581 ?

Were any of the SR1's hardtop or two top cars?

Thanks,

Steve

[Loren L.]

Re: Rpo 581 ?

Here is a red one!

It's the same car......

[Joseph T.]

Re: Rpo 581 ?

It's the same car......

Good friend to all...Mike Hunt!

[Joseph T.]

Re: Rpo 581 ?

Good friend to all...Mike Hunt!

Black one!

[Tom P.]

Re: Rpo 581 ?

It's the same car......

You beat me to it!

[Tom P.]

Re: Rpo 581 ?

Joe,
Any history on the picture of the red SR1?

Bruce,
Since that's John's car, he has ALL the history.
Maybe he'll chime in soon.
John, oh John, are you there?

[Tom P.]

Re: Rpo 581 ?

Good friend to all...Mike Hunt!

This is also the car that was once referred to the Chicken Coop car (which is John's car). As I remember, Mike is the person who "uncovered" the car and did an article on it MANY years ago. John pursued it and finally bought it.