Why this Coachbuilt Corvette Is Like Driving a Work of Art
People who say the simplest designs are the ones with the greatest longevity are on to something. Take this beautiful one-of-a-kind Corvette, for example.
Not much is known about its designer, Gordon Kelly. In the Petrolicious video, current owner John Breslow tells us that Kelly was a Wisconsin-based designer who wanted to build his own car. So he brought his design to Italian coachbuilder, Vignale, to make it happen. If you haven't heard of Vignale, it's because the company was folded after being sold to Ford in 1973.
Which is what makes the Kelly Corvette so stunning and different. It really doesn't have many hard angles to it, and instead has elegantly long or gently rounded lines. It was shown at the Paris Auto Show and was featured on the cover of a 1961 issue of Car and Driver. And now it's gone on to bring someone else joy.
Breslow collects a lot of rare cars, but you can tell by his voice that the Kelly Corvette is his most treasured possession. Not only because of the ever-lasting beauty of the car, but also because of Kelly's story. "That's kind of the American Dream, to be able to do something like that," he says. "It's like a van Gogh that you can drive."
Most people would be terrified at the prospect at driving something as rare as the Kelly Corvette. But not Breslow. For him, keeping a car as a garage queen just isn't his style. He drives it and he's just really careful with it.
