The fabulous custom Corvette Special. The all fiberglass body brought the overall weight down to a scant 1,700 lbs!
Background on the sensational lightweight Corvette below.

Dave MacDonald (below) went to race sponsor Jim Simpson and convinced him to build a smaller, lighter version of
the Corvette. They teamed with renowned car builder Max Balchowsky (Old Yaller fame) and built the Corvette
Special. The new racer was over 1000lbs lighter, 17 inches shorter and lightening fast! The Corvette Special also
proved to be the inspiration for Zora Arkus Duntov's lightweight Corvette Grand Sport.

In the sixties, purpose built cars, or "Specials" as they were referred to, were very common and came in all shapes &
sizes. Dave and Jim could have chosen a small Lotus style body to stuff their Corvette engine into but Dave was
adamant that the new racer still resembled his beloved Corvette. Dave, seen here working on the engine placement,
was heavily involved in both the design & construction of the Corvette Special.

Dave MacDonald (R) and Jim Simpson stand near the finished product

In early October Dave MacDonald took the newly built Corvette Special out to the Riverside Drags for a shakedown.
From a standing start, he clocked a 139 mph avg in the half-mile ... against a stiff headwind. He reached the Eliminator
finals before losing. A successful shakedown to say the least.

The Corvette Special was set to debut at the Riverside Grand Prix on October 15th 1962. (Sidenote: From the article
below it looks as though it was Carroll Shelby who steered Dave MacDonald toward Max Balchowsky).

Cars entered for the 1961 LA Times Grand Prix. (The Special however needed more shakedown time and was withdrawn)

Official Riverside race program shows some of the qualifying times to the left.

Driver comments on the upcoming Riverside Grand Prix. Note: While Dave and the Corvette Special were entered in this
race, they felt the Special needed more shakedown time and ultimately withdrew. Dave did race his new '62 Vette in the
previous day's race and won). Actual debut of the Corvette Special was 2 weeks later in the Pacific GP at Laguna Seca

The Corvette Special is a one-of-a-kind beauty and quite valuable. It was sold to Hawaiian auto dealer/racer Pat Mathis
in June 1962 and Pat had it shipped it out Hawaii where he ran it in local sports car races. Pat brought it back to the main-
land in Sep '62 and asked Dave to race it in modified races at Reno & Kent. After that Pat shipped it back to Hawaii.

Below is a letter from Corvette racer Red Faris to Dave MacDonald in July 1963. It shows that the Corvette Special was
now being used as a dragster on Hawaiian dragstrips. Unfortunately the last known sighting of this historically significant
custom modified racer was out by the Honolulu Airport in 1965. Anyone out there know its whereabouts??

Beautiful illustration by artist & motor racing journalist Scott Teeters comparing the Corvette Special to a stock Vette.

Another illustration of the Corvette Special - artist unknown.