1959 Chevrolet Corvette “ZR 59”

Introducing ZR 59. This Vette is exactly 50 years old to the new 2009 ZR1. The idea is to pull some of the new ZR1 into the old Vette. The car has been fit with an Art Morrison complete chassis that you can see in the pictures. The Chassis is equipped with front C6 Corvette suspension, and in the rear a Currie Ford 9 inch. Instead of coil overs which Art Morrison traditionally uses, we decided to go with air-ride suspension all the way around. According to Art at Art Morrison, the chassis performed equally on the track with the air-ride compared to the coil overs (which is hard to believe!). Brakes are Wilwood 6 piston calipers in the front, and 4 piston in the rear. As you can see in one of the pictures, the car sits real nice and low. Those are mock up wheels.

After the car was dropped onto the chassis, the rear was cut out to fit the future wide tires. Also, the center of the car had to be modified to fit the large Tremec T-56 6 Speed transmission.

Next the car went to Palmers Custom’s for some customization, fabrication, and lots of body work. Alan built new wheel wells in the rear out of metal, and then fiberglasses in to match the rest of the body.

Next was to wait for the motor to arrive. The Vette is getting an LS9 motor just like the new 2009 ZR1 Corvette. The motor was supposed to be released in August of 2008, but GM decided to hold onto them because they did not want to weaken the sales of the new Vette. Anyways, after a long and patient wait, it arrived at our shop in a huge crate. The motor is simply awesome looking! Take a look. Next we will fit the motor, and check for hood clearance, and then proceed to build the engine compartment. More to come…………….

May 2009 – The LS9 finally arrived! We dropped it into the chassis and it seems to fit well. Lots of planning ahead now that the motor is in, so we can end up with a motor only engine compartment. This motor has an external oil cooler, and external oil reservoir, an intercooler radiator, and of course a custom made radiator. Lots of stuff to mount while trying to hide it all.

Nov. 2009 – Check out the rendition drawings from artist and car designer Gary Ragle.
July 2011 – OK, it’s been a long time since an update. So here we go. The car, as you can see by the newest pictures, has come a long way! It is all painted, and looks awesome. The paint scheme is white, with a thin red stripe flanking the large flat black center stripe. The car is mostly assembled at this point. The chassis was completely dismantled, painted and powder coated, and put back together for final.

The car has well over a year of fabrication in trying to achieve the original concept of the rendering drawing. When I met with the designer, Gary Ragle, we had plenty of discussions about what I was trying to achieve. I explained that I wanted custom, however, I did not want someone to walk up to the car and not know what it was. I wanted it to still look like a ‘59 Vette, but just better. So that’s what we strived for. Many of the changes are maybe not that noticeable unless you really know the original car. I also explained that I wanted this to be a racecar; meaning, not a show car, but a car that can go to the track and put the power to the ground. I remember telling Gary that I wanted this to be a Vette, with Ferrari, Lamborghini, and other current supercar characteristics and feel. And of course, I wanted it to look mean, like a racecar should. I am proud to say, as the car is almost done, that we stayed true to the original drawing and concept almost to the tee. We made a few slight changes that I will tell you about. The other thing that is mind blowing to me is how many parts were custom fabricated from nothing. I had no idea until I started looking at them at the shop when everything was laid out ready for paint. Literally probably close to 100 hand made pieces are on this car. I guess that is what makes the ZR59 a one of a kind car.

The car was co built by us, Cal West Customs, and Palmers Customs in Camarillo, Calif. Alan Palmer and his team have taken the car from a chassis with a stock corvette body on it, to one of the most custom Corvette’s in the world. Palmer and his team are responsible for fabricating almost every hand built piece on the car, making everything fit perfectly (and I mean perfectly!), completing the bodywork to perfection, and laying paint on like no other. Like an art. That’s what Alan Palmer is known for……….perfection. Alan has quite some cars under his belt, with several AMBR roadsters, and making the great 8 of the Riddler, to name a few.

So let me tell you about some of the hand built parts. Starting from the front, the grill openings were opened just a bit to give the car a mean mouth. The grill trim pieces were made from scratch, as whole round pieces (instead of two pieces – top and bottom, like the original). The grills themselves were hand molded and contoured to give the perfect custom fit. The front chin spoiler was fabricated out of aluminum, then attached and fiber glassed to the car. We deviated just a bit on the chin spoiler, but just a bit. Check it out. The same was built for the side rocker panels. The hood was custom built, and sunk down to meet up with the top of the LS9’s intercooler. We were able to buy directly from GM the hood glass that sits on top of the intercooler. We kept the original look of the hood, installed the glass, and built the reverse scoop to meet up with the motor. We had hinges made, and hung them off the custom built inner fender wells. The inner fender wells are beautiful, and are as close to the motor as possible without touching it! On the passenger side, you will see the oil fill and oil dipstick, and on the driver side you find the water fill for the supercharger intercooler. You will also notice, especially if you’re a Corvette buff, that the hood opens unorthodox for a Corvette. We did not want to hide what we had planned for the engine compartment.

Back to the front end. The bumpers were made to comply with our plans, and are completely boxed, and built to fit the body of the car by about 1/16th of an inch. The headlight bezels are original, however, we deleted and relocated all the mounting screws so none could be seen, and altered the top just a bit so our handmade fender molding could hang over. All of the moldings on the top of the fenders, the side door trim (around the black inset coves), and the two door spears, on the outside of the doors, and on the interior panels (not three like the original) were hand made out of solid brass by Lil’Louie in Rialto, California. The windshield frame is probably the most extensive piece that was fabricated for the car. It was made from flat aluminum, and fits unbelievably. Inset in the top of the frame is the built in rear view mirror. The windshield was custom cut and ground to meet the same exact tolerances. Connecting to the windshield on either side is the cock pit trim pieces that encompass the top of the doors, and around the raised tonneau cover, and meet in the middle down the rear center console. The tonneau cover was also made, with raised humps on either side to give it that race cockpit look. The rear and front center console was made to bring some comfort to the car, as well as a nice place to house the 6 speed gear shifter, as well as the IPAD that will be the control center. The gauge cluster was designed to look much like the stock cluster at a glance, but much different when you really start comparing. I wanted analog gauges, although they are not your normal gauges. They were custom painted to match, all electric, including the speedometer that is GPS driven.
Engine Compartment: The idea of the engine compartment was to only see the motor. That’s it. We started with a custom smoothed firewall, getting rid of the ridged and quite frankly, ugly, stock one. Inner fender wells were designed, and made to fit as tight to the motor as possible. They are a structural part of the engine compartment, and are the main mounting points for the hood hinges. Popping out of the panels on both sides are fill tubes for the engine oil, and water for the supercharger intercooler, plus an oil dipstick. Behind the panels are custom built reservoirs for the oil on the passenger side (this is a dry sump motor), and another reservoir for the supercharger intercooler on the driver side. All of the motor accessories are designed and built perfectly by Street and Performance, except for the power steering reservoir that we made (in the front driver side next to the intake), and a couple added brackets to move the alternator in just a bit tighter. We had to make an adaptor between the intake plenum and the throttle body, changing the angle of the throttle body to fit under the low hood. Then we made the air intake tubing that runs through the inner fender well, into an air plenum in front of the passenger wheel, and finally to an air filter that gets straight access to direct air from the front passenger grill. We mounted the mass airflow sensor over there to keep it away from any heat of the motor, or exhaust. Long tube headers were made to fit by Art Morrison, and powder coated black to disappear. The car has three master cylinders; one for the front brakes, one for the rear, and one for the transmission. None are visible from the hood because we mounted them all under the dash tucked up next to the steering column. You will also notice that the steering joints and rods are hardly visible. We directed them into the fender near the drivers wheel, and then the rod comes through the inner fender well at the last point, before terminating into the rack and pinion.

You will notice that we slightly reshaped the rear fender curves around the wheels just so slightly changing it from the original half circle opening. In the rear, the first thing to catch your eye is the huge bumper we made that stretches across the entire back of the car, and swoops around the side to match the front bumpers. This bumper was a lot of work, but it really made the back of the car. Under the bumper, and following the race theme, we built the air diffuser out of aluminum, and in the center, you cannot miss the 8 inch or so huge single exhaust tip. Lambo stlye. The rest of the exhaust is all mandrel bent, 3 inch, custom built by Palmers, and topped off with one off, sized to fit, stainless Borla mufflers for the perfect sound you would expect.

Electronics: With the vision of making an old car feel like a new one, the Vette is equipped with lots of electronics. All the wiring is being complete by Ken Whitney of Wire 1 Hot Rod. Ken makes his own complete wire harnesses to fit the exact application, so nothing is just sitting around for nothing. We decided to use a FOB system for the car. In other words, the driver must have possession of a FOB to do anything. When the FOB is recognized, the door actuators will now respond, the door will open, and the electronics will light up. If you’re ready, the car can then be started with the push button start on the upper center console small gauge cluster. The Vette is equipped with auto H.I.D. headlights, and full time accessory power when the car is shut off until the drivers door is opened. Lights dim on, dim off, stay on for a selected amount of time to exit the car, etc. I guess all the stuff we are all accustomed to in a new car. The engine harness was made specifically for the car by Street and Performance, as well as the engine computer program. In the center of the dash you won’t miss the IPAD that is staring out. This will control all Audio, Video, GPS mapping, itunes, internet access, solitaire, or video poker, and whatever else you can dream of that an IPAD can do. We designed the IPAD bezel on a computer CAD program, because we wanted the ability to remove it at will. Once designed, it was cut using a CNC machine. The entire IPAD plate electrically comes out with the flip of a switch, allowing the driver to pull out the IPAD and take on the go.

Interior: Custom built by Ron Mangus in Rialto, California. Ron has had the car several times already, designing the interior panels, etc. The interior door panels are unique, and actually recess into the door since there are no windows, allowing for the same door cove with spears to be present inside. The interior will be a mixture of black and red leather, yet to be exactly determined. The seats were made at Mangus’s and fit exactly to the center console, rear tonneau, the custom doorsills that we made, and my butt.

More pics to come in the coming weeks. The car should be done in about 4 weeks, and will be present at SEMA for the first time.

SEMA 2011.

The show is over, and i would say it was a success. The car had the ultimate response for all 4 days. People stared, and stared, and took pictures, and stared some more. It was real exciting. People of all came to see…..builders, designers, customers, general car enthusiasts, and people just to see what everyone was looking at.

There was a surprise as well. General Motors gives away 5 or 6 SEMA Design awards. Well, guess what, the Corvette won a big award from GM – Best Chevrolet Sports Car – We were all excited to say the least. We took pictures with execs from GM, and they presented us with a beautiful trophy that was solid billet, anodized blue, about 20 pounds, and really cool!