Bill Mitchell's Love Of Chondrichthyes... [PIC]

Ever since he vacationed in the Caribbean in the late 1950s, he's had a thing for Mako Sharks, Sting Rays and Manta Ray. For the earlier Mako Shark concept car, he brought the boys in his office and told them to paint it like the shark he had on his wall, he wanted his Corvette designs to have elements of those cartilaginous fish he loved. His last Corvette concept was this 1966 Mako Shark ll or the XP-755. Powered by the ZL-1 aluminum 427 V8 maximumly rated at 430 HP the design took the C-3 to another level. Like the first Mako Shark, it was painted a dark blue gray fading to a silvery white. The first car of two built shown in 1965 was non-functioning and had a squared off steering wheel and squared cross section exhaust pipes which were changed for the '66 car. It featured a flip top for easy access and two WWll style dive brakes that could be deployed from the rear deck. What people thought cute was the tiny hexagonal mirrors on the A pillars.