It’s almost impossible to see such a rare car in the wild but if you hang around Valley Stream, NY, specifically near Corvette Repair Inc. you just might see a sight like this.
Chevrolet enthusiast and employee at Corvette Repair Inc. Joe Stemmler posted up a rare sight on his personal Instagram earlier this week (June 4, 2019) the infamous 1964 GM XP-819 putting around on city streets, the progenitor to the mid-engined 2020 C8 Chevrolet Corvette that heads to production in the near future.
Check out the photo below!
Those familiar with the story of this XP-819 knows that there were several key moments in this car’s history that might’ve spelled the end for the rolling chassis being here today.
First, there was the XP-819 project being almost axed from the get-go. The brainchild of Chevy Engineer Frank Winchell and Father of the Corvette Zora Arkus-Duntov, it was only after the design work by engineer Larry Shinoda that a prototype was approved and birthed.
Then, after a high-speed lane change test crash during testing spelled the end of this particular prototype, it was only after a series of fortunate events did this XP-819 exchange ownership until it ultimately landed at Corvette Repair Inc. for a full restoration with the owner of Mid-America Motorworks, Mike Yager, as the current owner and custodian.
As the photo hints, it looks like Corvette Repair Inc. is working on an entirely new body, one that the public has never seen before so that’ll be quite the treat for Corvette enthusiasts when that’s revealed.
I’m guessing this restoration will be 100 percent, just in time for Corvette’s official unveiling of the 2020 Chevrolet C8 Corvette.
My mind is blown away, seeing this photo, to see how far technology has come in the past 70 years.
And to think that this was the first of many prototypes that would eventually lead us to where we are today, on the cusp of the C8’s reveal.
This is certainly not the first time the public’s seen the XP-819 rolling around on its own power. Several Youtube videos show this chassis making its way quite gingerly through a concourse crowd at Amelia Island six years ago.
And there’s even an hour-long video of just what went into the restoration from the owners themselves two years after that.
Did you know this XP-819 existed? What do you think the new body will look like? Let me know your .02 in the comments below.
