Chrysler styling chief Virgil Exner rocked the Motor City to its core with the Chrysler Forward Look line for 1957. But behind the scenes, he had even bigger ideas. 
The career of an auto designer follows a familiar arc, many will say. As the years go by, their work tends to become more refined and restrained. Not Virgil Exner, vice president of design at the Chrysler Corporation through the ’50s and the architect of the company’s Forward Look. As his career advanced, his designs only became more daring and audacious. His 1957 Chrysler family of cars rocked the Detroit auto industry to its core with their low, sleek lines and bold tail fins, throwing GM and Ford back on their heels. And while it never saw production, back within the walls of the Chrysler styling studios, Exner had an even bolder stroke held in reserve: the Chrysler 300C Ghia, also known as Project 613.

​The color rendering above and full-size clay model below show the essential elements of Project 613: It’s the car that became the production 1957 Chrysler 300C, more or less, but with some obvious revisions.  First, there’s a radically faired-in application of one of Exner’s favorite gimmicks, the faux continental spare tire. (The tack-on tire cover on production Chrysler products was labeled by critics the “washing machine lid” or “toilet seat.”) Next, Project 613 sports the biggest, tallest, most spectacular tail fins ever seen on a Chrysler product, partially blocking the rear side glass. Virgil Exner, unleashed.

​Hardcore Mopar enthusiasts will notice that the Project 613 hardtop version uses the Plymouth/Dodge greenhouse with its slimmer C pillars instead of the bulkier roof structure found on Chysler production models that year. A fully functional, running and driving prototype, Project 613 reportedly rode on a 122-inch wheelbase, four inches shorter than the production ’57 Chrysler.

The body for the one-off  was constructed by Carrozzeria Ghia of Turin, Chrysler’s go-to Italian coachbuilder for show cars and other special projects. Upon its completion in mid-early 1956, Project 613 became Exner’s daily transportation—photos show it parked in the driveway of his home in the Detroit suburbs, and it was said to be one of his favorite cars. According to Exner’s son, Virgil Exner Jr, the car was then known as the “Chrysler 500.”
The eventual fate of Exner’s  fabulously finned Mopar is unknown (to us, anyway) but fortunately, the story doesn’t end here. Chrysler enthusiast Édouard Rodrigue of Québec constructed a faithful replica of the Ghia prototype using a ’57 Plymouth platform and ’57 Chrysler sheet metal components. The recreation took six years, is powered by a 392 CID Chrysler hemi V8 in 300C tune, and, according to Mr. Rodrigue, is “95 percent identical to the original prototype.” 
​Photo below courtesy of Lemire Media. 

​The Motor City’s automakers produced a fascinating variety of low-production, factory-lightweight race cars for drag strip competition throughout the 1960s, but the best known of them all might be the 427-powered Ford Fairlane sedans specially constructed for the ’64 season. That may be due in part to the memorable name Ford chose to give these special cars: Thunderbolt.

​The Thunderbolt headed for B-J Scottsdale  is reportedly number 35 of the 100 cars built for Ford by Dearborn Steel Tubing, a Dearborn contractor just a stone’s throw from Ford world headquarters. (The company also built 427-powered Comets, Falcons, and Mustangs that year for a production total of 127.) The only visible non-stock items on this example are the five-spoke cast racing wheels, an appropriate, period-correct addition. Except for the first 11 cars, which were finished in Vintage Burgundy, all Thunderbolts originally wore Wimbledon White paint like this one.
Dearborn Steel Tubing was operated by Andy Hotton, a gearhead entrepreneur with close ties to Ford’s racing programs. To create Thunderbolts from production Fairlane two-door sedans, his outfit performed a long list of modifications, guided by a prototype developed by Ford factory racer Dick Brannan. They replaced the front fenders, hood, and deck lid with lightweight factory pieces, partially gutted the interiors, modified the rear suspension with big, beefy traction bars, and rearranged the front suspension to allow the big 427 High Riser V8 to fit in the engine compartment, among other changes.

​Originally developed for NASCAR, the 427 High-Riser V8 sported a radical high-flow intake manifold and cylinder heads, generating somewhere north of 500 hp. Note the classic Thunderbolt fresh air system with its cast aluminum airbox for the dual Holley four-barrel carbs, fed by a pair of giant black hoses routed through the (former) inner headlamp bezels. The tall intake setup required an equally tall blister in the hood for clearance, just visible in the photo above—the trademark Thunderbolt teardrop hood bubble.

​Finished in Medium Beige Poly paint and trim, Thunderbolt cabins featured lightweight Bostrom truck seats, thin rubber floor mats, and an 8,000 Rotunda tach bolted to the top of the instrument panel. All Thunderbolts also sported a metal tag riveted to the inside of the glove box door warning that the vehicle was intended for competition use only. Forty-nine of the Thunderbolts were built with four-speed transmissions for NHRA Super/Stock competition, while 51 were produced with modified Lincoln Turbo-Drive automatics for the Super/Stock Automatic category.
Campaigned by Mefford Ford, a Springfield, Ohio dealer with an active racing program that included USAC star Jack Bowsher, this particular Thunderbolt was not terribly successful, and at some point the troublesome automatic transmission was swapped out in favor of a four-speed. While Thunderbolts were capable of mid-11 second times at more than 120 mph, this one reportedly never met its potential, and that may well be what saved it. Instead of being campaigned to death like so many race cars, it was tucked away in storage for decades, then treated to a complete restoration, emerging in 2017 to collect several major show awards. Barrett-Jackson has not declared a price estimate for the upcoming no-reserve sale in January, but authentically restored Thunderbolts typically sell in the multiple six-figure range. Photos by Barrett-Jackson.

The concept of a mid-engine Corvette is almost as old as the Corvette itself. Here’s the General’s first attempt at the driver-first vehicle layout, the 1968 Chevrolet Astro II.
If the press reports to date are any indication, it looks like the 2020 C8 mid-engine Corvette is going to be a winner. Almost universally, the automotive media has applauded its handling, ride, performance, and packaging. In their eyes, the new C8 is everything a Corvette ought to be. Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised by all the thumbs up from the reviewers. After all, General Motors has been kicking around the mid-engined package for future Corvettes for many decades now, so they’ve had plenty of time to get it right. The automaker’s first working prototype was the Chevrolet Astro II way back in 1968, bearing the internal GM designation XP-880.

​Above, the guy in the blazer is checking out the Astro II’s novel (for 1968, anyway) drivetrain setup: a 427 cubic-inch big-block V8 coupled to a two-speed automatic transaxle borrowed from the 1961-63 Pontiac Tempest—which in turn was based on the Corvair Powerglide, a unit not known for its torque capacity. The body shell is fiberglass, naturally, and everything rides on a Lotus-like backbone chassis of welded steel. Hidden in plain sight along the right side of the engine is a BF Goodrich Space Saver collapsing spare tire. The fuel tank resides on the other side, while the radiator is mounted over and behind the axle, aided by a large grille in the tilt-up bonnet.
First shown to the public at the 1968 New York Auto Show, the Astro II was a mere 43.7 inches tall. We note that for its debut, the show car was not officially badged as a Corvette, a sort-of tradition in Corvette concept vehicles. While the Astro II is widely heralded as the first mid-engine Corvette, it wasn’t the first mid-engine Chevy R&D vehicle; precursors included the CERV I and CERV II test mules and the GSII racer. And yes, there was an Astro I. That name was applied to a futuristic Corvair-based dream car that seems otherwise unrelated to the Astro II.

​Above, this overhead view of the Astro II’s cockpit illustrates one shortcoming of the backbone frame layout: In this case, there’s scarcely enough lateral space remaining for a driver and passenger. Like the make-do transaxle, the cramped cockpit demonstrates that the mid-engine Corvette was a work in progress. But then, that’s the purpose of concepts and prototypes: to explore all the advantages and pitfalls of various ideas. The new C8 Corvette has been acclaimed as one of the most comfortable mid-engine sports cars ever, so it appears they got that part right.
The rear-quarter view below recalls the Porsche 904 a bit, and shows that Chevrolet experimented with several wheel-and-tire packages over the years. Here, the cast-spoke aluminum wheels usually seen have been exchanged for production-style Chevrolet Rally wheels, caps, and trim rings. In various forms, the Astro II appeared on the cover of Road & Track magazine in July of 1968, Motor Trend in December 1969, and no doubt countless others. And so, with the 2020 C8 Corvette, another tradition comes to an end: magazines perpetually teasing their readers with headlines like “Coming soon—a mid-engine Corvette?” By the way, XP-880 is still around in pristine condition, and is usually on display at the GM Heritage Center in Sterling Heights, Michigan.