1959 Scaglietti Corvette

Primarily known for their coachwork on Ferrari race cars, Scaglietti handcrafted three Corvette Italias in collaboration with Gary Laughlin, Jim Hall and Carroll Shelby. Three bare 1959 Corvette chassis were shipped to Scaglietti of Maranello and constructed with a special lightweight alloy body. Their intention was to race the cars against the Ferrari 250 Testarossas and 250 SWB Berlinettas. Scaglietti's principal customer, Enzo Ferrari, was not pleased, and the cars took more than two years to complete.

The 1959 Scaglietti Corvette Italia was intended to be produced in limited numbers, and would have competed in the same market as high-performance European sports cars.

The concept was to use an inexpensive, reliable American drive train mated with an exotic Italian body. One chassis had a four-speed transmission, the others the powerglide, all came with a 283 cubic-inch engine. One of the Scaglietti Corvettes was advertised for sale in Hemmings last year for $995,000.