Clearly, they had aerodynamics on their mind, which was kind of odd because the Shark Corvettes were notorious for their front end lift at high speed.
The running Mako Shark-II was a stunningly beautiful car, so can you imagine what it might have been like for the designers and builders that were tasked with the job of CUTTING THE CAR UP to make the Manta Ray? Oh, that first cut must have been painful! It must have felt like sacrilege taking a zip saw to such a beauty.Įven though $2.5 million had been spent on the Mako Shark II, General Motors spent almost another $3 million on the Manta Ray! The biggest change between the two Sharks was the long, tapered tail, a ‘la the Astro Vette Show Car. Perhaps the most unfortunate part of the whole Mako Shark-II story is the fact that the configuration of the the running Mako Shark-II is gone! When Mitchell decided to try out a few more design elements for the Shark Corvette, the quickest way to get there was to start with the ‘66 running Mako Shark-II.
#Manta car corvette full#
Designers often have concept ideas that they just want to try out in full size, and it seems that the Manta Ray was such a car. The Mako Shark-II-based Manta Ray was kind of, “been there, done that” by 1969. Those were heady days between the new production Corvette, Chevy and other exciting muscle cars, and tremendous advances in all kinds of race cars. The ‘69 Manta Ray was the end of the line for Mitchell’s shark theme that started in ‘61, and was somewhat overlooked for a time. Dateline: 1.5.1 Bill Mitchell’s longer, lower, louder, sleeker Mako Sharkīill Mitchell and his design team cranked out an amazing number of concept and show cars through the ‘60s.
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