1965 XP-819: The little-known rear-engine Corvette was built by GM to test the viability of a V-8-powered Porsche 911 killer. Larry Shinoda styled the car, which is said to have handled well, but only if fitted with special tires. It crashed in testing (on stock Corvette tires) and was quietly forgotten.
The XP-819, developed in the mid-1960s, was an engineering exercise to test a rear engine concept for the Corvette. Larry Shinoda designed the body. You can see styling cues in XP-819 that later appeared in Shinoda's famed "Sting Ray" design. The entire chassis, suspension, and steering are custom-made components unique to this car. A GM marine engine powers the car so the two-speed transaxle would operate adequately.
The XP-819 resulted from a clash between Zora Arkus-Duntov and engineer Frank Winchell, who'd been involved with the Corvair project. Winchell contended that you could make a balanced, rear-engine, V8-powered sports car using an aluminum engine and larger tires to compensate for the rear weight bias. Duntov adamantly disagreed. A loose design was drawn that received some very unflattering comments from Duntov and Dave McLellan. Winchell asked designer Larry Shinoda if he could make something beautiful with the layout, to which Shinoda told him that a tape drawing could be shown after lunch. Shinoda and designer John Schinella sketched out the basic shape shown here. Duntov asked Shinoda, "Where did you cheat?". It didn't look "too bad," so a working prototype was ordered. Shinoda supervised the styling, and Larry Nies' fabricators built the car. In only two months, the XP-819 was on the test track.
It turned out that Winchell's theory about rear-engine, V-8 cars didn't work out very well. However, Shinoda's design was well received. They were obviously into the "shark thing" and picked up styling points from the Chaparral cars. It even had wheels from a Chaparral.
This car was a Corvette, even though the back end was immense. Unfortunately, with all that weight behind the rear axle, it was only a matter of time before it crashed during a high-speed lane change test. Paul vanValkenberg hit it because he put the same (standard) size Corvette rim on the car front and rear and then wet down the track and went out and lost it. He bounced it off the wall several times and pretty well wrecked it. It was then sent off to Smokey Yunik, which was later found. The chassis was cut in half, and usable parts were removed. What was left was stored in a new paint booth as just "old junk." Years later, a Corvette collector bought some parts from Yunick and offered to buy the junked XP-819. So the pile of car scrap was rebuilt and finished as a streetable car, like a kit car. A cast-iron V-8 was used in place of the original all-aluminum engine. We're talking severe rear weight bias here. It's quick and now does incredible wheelies!
XP-819 now sits in the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green (KY). It is "on loan" from Ed McCabe, who runs his advertising agency in New York. Ed bought the car in 1990 at an estate auction run by Sotheby's in Palm Beach.
Source: Frank Markus - MotorTrend Magazine; Mario van Ginneken - www.corvettes.nl
Images: www.corvettes.nl; deansgarage.com
