Harley Earl retired from General Motors on December 1, 1958. He had reached GM’s then-mandatory retirement age of 65 and left GM after overseeing the final designs of the corporation’s 1959 model line-up. It came as little surprise to most within the GM Styling Department when forty-six year-old Bill Mitchell was named as Harley Earl’s successor.
Bill Mitchell, GM’s second VP of Design, succeeded Harley Earl in 1959. (Image courtesy of GM Media.)
The Automobile Manufacturers Association ban was still in full effect when Bill Mitchell succeeded Harley Earl as VP of Styling. Although a factory-backed race program was currently considered taboo by General Motors, Mitchell knew that offering consumers a high-performance sports car that they could race would have a positive impact on the company’s sales numbers. He also realized he could advance the reputation of the Corvette at the racetrack if he did so without the consent, cooperation, or participation of Chevrolet/GM. His success would also silence the nay-sayers who had questioned his promotion in the first place.
In 1958, Bill Mitchell negotiated an interesting deal with Ed Cole to obtain the original Corvette SS “Test Mule” chassis fabricated by Zora Arkus-Duntov a year earlier. He purchased the chassis from Chevrolet for one dollar against the wishes of Duntov, who realized his participation in the Corvette’s continued development would be restricted because of the AMA ban. Despite Zora’s efforts to prevent the purchase, Mitchell acquired the chassis with the strict understanding that the car would in-no-way be associated with either Chevrolet or Corvette. He agreed to the terms and started revamping the car for his private use.
The “test mule” of Zora Arkus-Duntov’s (in suit, left) 1957 Corvette SS provided the chassis for Mitchell’s Sting Ray racer. (Image courtesy of GM Media.)
Mitchell hired GM stylist Larry Shinoda to adapt elements of the short-lived Q-Corvette into a body for his newly acquired chassis. Shinoda created a highly stylized design with a low, wide grille and wedge-shaped profile. It also included fender flares above its squared-off front and rear wheel openings.
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