Five of the coolest Corvettes that never made it to production

Since its introduction, the Corvette has been the object of the dreams of stylists and engineers. Numerous seemingly viable concepts have been pitched yet never produced. Here are five of our favorite Corvettes that never made the leap onto the showroom floor:

1. 1977 Aerovette– The mid-engine, gullwing Aerovette was so ahead of its time that in spite of the fact that it was designed in 1969 as the XP-882 concept car, it was seriously considered as the C4 Corvette with production to commence in 1980. At one, point, it was shown with a four-rotor Wankel engine but when GM canceled plans for this engine, it was trotted out again with a 400 cid piston engine.  The project lost steam when backers Ed Cole, John DeLorean and Zora Duntov retired from GM.
2. 1972 Two-Rotor Wankel Corvette– This was another mid-engine Corvette project, that was considerably smaller than the Aerovette (the prototype was built on a Porsche 914 platform). Code-named XP-897 GT, GM execs reportedly disliked the car because of its steel construction and Wankel engine.
3. 1954 Corvette Nomad– Built for the 1954 Motorama show season, the Nomad (not to be confused with the 1955 production car) was a station wagon version of the original 1953 C1 Corvette. It looked stunning but with the original Corvette anything but a sales success, it never made it to production. Sadly, it was destroyed after the Motorama. Several replicas have since been built.
4. 1954 Corvette Corvair– No relation to the air-cooled 1960 Chevrolet compact, the Corvette Corvair was a fastback coupe version of the 1953 Corvette. It was extraordinarily handsome and would have remedied some of the early complaints about the 1953-55 Corvette in terms of comfort. Sadly, the Corvette Corvair disappeared some time in the 1950s.
5. 1959 Scaglietti Corvette– The notion of an Italian Corvette has been a popular and recurring one throughout history. The Iso Grifo and Gordon-Keeble are two cars that combined Corvette power with Italian styling. The Scaglietti Corvette was the first attempt at an Italian Corvette. Sergio Scagliette, Ferrari’s captive coachbuilder built just three of them before Enzo Ferrari got wind of his moonlighting and urged him to cease building cars that looked suspiciously like the Ferrari Tour de France.