Carroll Shelby’s stillborn Corvette, and the Chevy Cheetah that never caught the Cobra

The passing of Carroll Shelby last week brought back a wealth of historical reminiscences, and none offer a bigger what-if than this car, Shelby's first attempt at building his own sports car that would end with the Ferrari-whipping Cobra. If only General Motors hadn't turned him down, Shelby might have put the Chevrolet bow tie across a few finish lines rather than a blue oval.

Even before his racing career was curbed by his health, Shelby paired with two Texas Chevy dealers on an idea to build a race car from the Corvette that could beat Enzo Ferrari on his own terms. Using three chassis from 1959 Corvettes, the trio shipped the cars to Italy, where they had them rebodied by the Scaglietti design house. The result was a beautiful, lithe coupe that while influenced by Ferrari, stood on its own, and looked poised for battle.

GM executives liked Shelby's plan -- but in 1960, the corporation barred itself from all forms of motorsport, part of a reaction by automakers worldwide to the rising number of deaths in the sport of drivers and spectators. Shelby moved on to British automaker AC Ace, and beat Ferrari using Ford power, leaving Chevy and Corvette engineers to wonder what might have been.