This 1958 Corvette soared through the air as part of the popular Joie Chitwood Thrill Show, thrilling audiences across the nation.
After a long career as a dirt track racer beginning in the 1930s and a seven-time Indianapolis 500 competitor from 1940 to 1950, Chitwood moved on to a brief stint in Hollywood as a stunt driver, consultant and coordinator, and even minor actor.
In the early 1940s, Chitwood began to operate the Joie Chitwood Thrill Show, an exhibition of auto stunt driving that proved so successful he cut back significantly on his racing career and eventually even had his talents displayed on ABC’s Wide World of Sports in 1967. Known as “Hell Drivers,” Chitwood had five units that thrilled audiences across North America with their death-defying stunts for more than 40 years, from 1945 to 1998. His sons, Joie Jr. and Tim, continued to run the thrill show after their father’s retirement, and Joie Jr. even set a world record in 1978 when he drove a Chevy Chevette on just two wheels for 5.6 miles!
Chitwood Sr. used this 1958 Corvette roadster for only one year, making death-defying jumps over obstacles and off ramps with little to no changes made to the car! According to a 2006 article in Corvette Fever, “there are not too many members of the NCRS today, who would give their beautiful convertible the Dukes of Hazzard treatment, but at the time, it worked for both Chitwood and Chevrolet to display how rugged and brawny these roadsters truly were.”
Indeed, an unconfirmed rumor has it that Ed Cole of General Motors gave the car to the Joie Chitwood Thrill Show so the Chitwoods could demonstrate the rugged, sure-footed stamina, balance, and quick response to acceleration of the ’58 Corvette. Since it would be used for such stressful purposes, the car left the factory with two rare options, a 4.11 positraction rear axle and 15-inch rims. The 283/290 horsepower V8 engine featured mechanical fuel injection and dual exhausts.
Now, this historically significant Corvette, beautifully restored in 1998 and professionally maintained since over the past quarter of a century, is being sold on Bring a Trailer. Appropriately enough, the bid for this daring Corvette has soared to a high of $77,858, with four days left in the auction.
The new owner will receive plenty of documentation for this one-of-a-kind ’58 Corvette, including the original registration signed by Chitwood himself, state-issued titles for the next two owners, an original 1958 Joie Chitwood Thrill Show program, and original 1958 Corvette advertising literature.
The history of the car is well documented, with Chitwood selling it in July 1959 to the second owner, Gerald C. Francis. His widow then sold it in August 1995 to Harry and Marianne Strong, with the odometer reading 16,195.4 miles. A two-year body-off restoration was completed by the Strongs in August 1998, taking care to preserve the historical significance of their car and getting permission from the Chitwood family to restore the Joie Chitwood Thrill Show graphics on the fenders.
In 2005, the restored Corvette earned a prestigious American Heritage Award from the National Corvette Restorers Society, becoming one of only 44 Corvettes to have been so honored at the time. The award was created in 1998 to recognize unique Corvettes that don’t meet NCRS judging standards because they were GM styling cars, GM experimental cars, or factory or vintage race cars.
The auction for the 1958 Corvette ends on Saturday, July 29th at 3:00 pm ET. You can read the entire auction description and see the photos at Bring a Trailer.
Source:
Bring a Trailer
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