MacDonald 1961 Corvette Special: A Prehistoric Grand Sport?
Way before Pratt & Miller’s customer Corvette race cars, there were Max and Ida Balchowsky’s tube-frame custom race cars.
To download the PDF version of the March 1962 issue of Sports Car Graphic to read the article about the MacDonald-Simpson 1961 tube frame “Corvette Special”, CLICK HERE.
To see the BIG version of this art, CLICK HERE.
UPDATE: I must admit, I can’t keep up with everything. I did not know that Dr. Ernie Nagamatsu (owner of Max and Ida Balchowsky’s Old Yeller II race car) commissioned a re-creation of the MacDonald/Simpson 1961 Corvette Special. Unfortunately, the re-creation car was recently severely crashed at Philip Island AU, and Dr. Ernie is recuperating. As my friend Jan Hyde said, “The car is toast!”. Here’s a link about Dr. Ernie’s re-creation of the 1961 MacDonald/Simpson Corvette Special.
The late Rich MacDonald (Dave MacDonald’s son) is behind the steering wheel and Dr. Ernie and his wife are outside the car on the right.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Californians Dave MacDonald and Jim Simpson beat up the competition in SoCal SCCA racing. Dave and Jim were “Corvette Guys”! Thanks to excellent preparation and MacDonald’s natural ability to drift his Corvettes around corners, the guys quickly developed a reputation as the team to beat.
Like most racers, they want to “go faster.” Carroll Shelby had not yet launched his Cobras and advised MacDonald and Simpson that they should take their racing to the next level with a Balchowsky tube frame chassis. Max and Ida Balchowsky’s solid race car builder reputation was based on their “Old Yeller” race cars, which were always contenders.
Max and Ida built MacDonald and Simpson’s chassis, and the guys made their own fiberglass replica body with a “borrowed for the weekend” 1961 Corvette from their sponsor, Don Steves Chevrolet.
When Zora Arkus-Duntov learned what MacDonald and Simpson were doing, he visited MacDonald’s house to check out their project. This could have been the moment the seed was planted in Duntov’s mind that he needed to build a tube frame race car with a lightweight Corvette body. Zora started work on the “Lightweight”, aka “Grand Sport”, within a few months of visiting MacDonald.
The Corvette Special wasn’t raced much, as they were also racing a stock body Corvette that was in a good position for a Championship win. The Corvette Special was sold and raced a few times, eventually seen in a junkyard in Hawaii, rusting and deteriorating into the earth.
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Sports Car Graphics magazine was so impressed with the MacDonald/Simpson Corvette Special, they not only published a feature story in the March 1962 issue, they also commissioned a cut-away technical illustration by artist “Templ”. By the mid-70s, Trans-Am cars morphed into tube frame cars with replica bodies, not much different from the 1961 Corvette Special.
To download the PDF version of the March 1962 issue of Sports Car Graphic to read the article about the MacDonald-Simpson 1961 tube frame “Corvette Special”, CLICK HERE.
Enjoy the look-back sixty-four years ago! – Scott
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