- BODY: Aurora
- WHEEL & TIRES: Road Race Replicas
Ah, the cars of futures past! The 1965 Mako Shark II show car, AKA the “XP-830”, is still well remembered today, and its easy to see where the inspiration for my favorite Corvette, the 1968-72 “C3”, came from! It seems a little odd to have one of these in the fleet as if it’s an actual car that people could buy and race back in the day, but in fact I have 2 of them; the other is in the Muscle Car fleet, which makes even less sense.
Or, does it? Maybe it makes all the sense in the world, because…that’s the coolest thing about Corvettes, isn’t it? See, I hear some people argue that a Corvette isn’t a muscle car, it’s a sports car; while others argue the Corvette isn’t a sports car, it’s a muscle car! Thing is, both sides of that argument are right! So, I’m happy to have this piece of Corvette history in both my fleets…even if it was never actually called a Corvette!
I got a great deal on this white version, especially considering that the front A-pillars are NOT broken, which they often are (although they are bent, which they always are, if they are not broken). Unlike the green one in the Muscle Car fleet, which started life as a freewheeling Cigar Box model before meeting my Dremel tool and getting “Thunderjetized”, this one was made as a slot body, and thus has the plastic rear bumper. Perhaps the white versions of this car aren’t as collectible of some of the other colors, but I think it looks terrific, especially shod with the Road Race Replicas “Star” wheels, a style I have so far used on only one other car in my fleet. Those wheels wear super sticky full sized silicone tires, also by RRR, and sitting on a nearly new Ultra-G chassis, she goes as good as she shows.
Dubbed “Dirty Harry” due to its driver being Harold “Happy” McArthur, this reconfigured show car now hits the track running a race-built small block Chevy mated to a 5-speed box to give it an extra gear up on the contemporary competition. This is a better fate than the real Mako Shark II, which was redone by GM in 1969 to become the Manta Ray…which isn’t necessarily bad, but I wish they’d just built a new car to be the Manta Ray and left the Mako Shark II alone for posterity. The Manta Ray was fitted with the uber rare ZL-1 all aluminum 427 big-block, so it must have been awesome to drive, but IMHO was just a little too “gee whiz” in the styling department for my tastes. For my money, the Mako Shark II was the best of this series of Chevy show cars…nice to know there’s “one that got away” still racing at Drag City!
