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The most innovative of the Bob McDorman Collection’s GM Styling Corvettes is this Blue Metallic one-off enjoyed by GM Styling legend Bill Mitchell. The unique paint is accented with a custom made die cast front grille and matching dual front fender vents. A willing 327 CI engine gave this gem all the performance the boss could have asked for...
"Bunkie" Knudsen ordered it up in the spring of 1964 for his wife, Florence. This car is as much of a gem today as it was when Florence Knudsen first saw it, so says its current owner, Chevy dealer and noted Corvette collector Bob McDorman. It had custom Pink Pearl paint and custom pink leather interior.
The XP-819, developed in the mid-1960s, was an engineering exercise to test a rear engine concept for the Corvette. The body was designed by Larry Shinoda. You can see styling cues in XP-819 that later appeared in Shinoda's famed "Sting Ray" design. A GM marine engine powers the car so the two-speed transaxle would operate properly. The entire chassis, suspension, and steering are custom made components unique to this car.
For the 1964 New York World's Fair, Bill Mitchell and his Styling team at the Tech Center customized a production Sting Ray under Shop Order #10361 with a variety of items that transformed the already impressive Corvette into a showpiece like no other.  An opening was cut into the center of the car's hood exposing a polished fuel injection manifold with the Corvette crossed flags in its very center.
Bill Thomas had one goal in mind when he designed and produced the Cheetah: beat the Ford Cobra. 25 examples were produced until sadly, the factory burnt down. After the blaze, chevrolet pulled out of the project. The power to weight ratio was phenomenal (it was almost 500lbs lighter than the cobra!). The V8 was pushed back as far as possible leaving the engine almost in the center of the car. Some examples were tuned as high as 520HP.
1964 Chevrolet CERV II Corvette
The CERV II was entirely Zora’s car. The CERV II was conceived early in 1962 and developed over the next year, after the GS program was squashed. The car was built under Zora's direction between 1963-'64. Zora had it in mind to develop a separate line of racing Corvettes but the idea got terminated by management.
When first introduced to the world by Pontiac in 1964, the car showed so much promise that Chevrolet (allegedly) put a swift end to its development to prevent its production from hindering the sales of the Corvette.  Afterall, with the introduction of the 1963 Split-Window Corvette, Chevy was finally seeing an increase in sales, something lacking for most of the first-gen.
The XP-819 Corvette prototype was introduced in 1964 by Frank WInchell and Larry Shinoda as the first, experimental, rear-engine Corvette coupe. The XP-819 was developed in the mid-1960's as an engineering exercise to determine if a rear-engine platform was right for the Corvette program. During that time, Chevrolet was still under a racing ban.