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2026 Subaru Crosstrek ReviewIncredible One-of-One ‘57 Chevy Corvette Super Sport
This 1957 Chevrolet Corvette Super Sport is the first Chevy to carry the SS name, and that’s not even the most unusual thing about this exceptional car.
The First Chevy Super Sport
If you’ve ever wondered which car was the first to carry Chevy’s Super Sport moniker look no further. That honor was bestowed on the 1957 Corvette Super Sport show car, a sport-oriented one-off concept created for the 1957 New York Auto Show to highlight the arrival of fuel injection and the new 283 V8 to the Corvette. It’s also one of the rarest cars we’ve ever had listed on Carsforsale.com, and since January is already Corvette month (it’s debut month way back in 1953), we thought it the perfect time to showcase this very special Corvette.
Background
The Corvette Super Sport concept is a unique collector’s car for several reasons. First, it’s a one-off concept and therefore a literal unicum, a singular historical object. Equally significant is how the car fits into the broader picture of the C1 Corvette’s evolution. The Corvette’s earliest days had been dogged by disappointing sales, and it wasn’t until engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov prevailed in getting the Corvette a proper V8 for the 1955 model did the car begin to make waves both at track and on the sales floor.
The SR and SR-2 racing versions, the latter designed for Harley Earl’s son Jerry and Bill Mitchell, had the Corvette poised to take on Europe’s best from Ferrari, Porsche, and Jaguar. The Super Sport concept showcased what some of the SR and SR-2’s sportier elements might look like on a production car and presaged the competitive follow-up to the SR-2, the Corvette SS, which debuted later in 1957.
The Corvette Super Sport began its life not as a ’57 but as a 1956 model-year car with a 262 cu.-in. V8 under the hood. For the advent of fuel injection and the new 283 V8, Chevy poured over $18,000 (roughly $200,000 today) into redesigning and upgrading the car, both mechanically and visually.
Shop Order 90181 gave the Corvette Super Sport a new 283 cu.-in. V8 equipped with the new Rochester Ramjet fuel-injection system to produce 283 horsepower. That output meant made Corvette one of the earliest production cars to achieve a horsepower rating equivalent to its engine’s displacement. Upon completion the Corvette Super Sport concept was given a new VIN and a new 1957 model designation.
The Corvette Super Sport debuted at the New York Auto Show in January of 1957 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, the traditional home of GM’s annual Motorama automotive show. The Super Sport made the rounds to several major auto shows including the Chicago Auto Show and Detroit’s Sports Car Club of America and even made the cover of Speed Age magazine in June of that year.
Part of what makes the Corvette Super Sport so special today is that it managed to survive to the present day. Typically, show cars of the time were scrapped by the manufacturer once they had made their run through the auto show circuit and outlived their usefulness. The lucky few were sold off or simply stored, but many met the crusher and were no more. In the case of the Corvette Super Sport it was sold to Dick Doane Motors, wrecked in a street race that demolished much of the front end’s fiberglass, and sat for years before finally being bought and restored by one John Baldwin. (For another great story of a historic car gone missing and neglected for decades only to resurface, check out our story on Lead Sleds and the Hirohata Merc.)
The ’57 Corvette Super Sport
It only takes a glance to realize the ’57 Super Sport is a very special Corvette. First, there’s no proper windshield and instead two small plexiglass windshields, an element taken from the SR-2 racing Corvette. Then there’s the pearlescent white paint with blue center stripe and the uniquely designed integrated taillights. The Corvette’s side coves, new in ’56, were another element shared with the SR-2 racing Corvette. Unique to the Super Sport’s side coves was the anodized aluminum finish and unique non-functional, air scoops. Similar air scoops would arrive on the 1958 production model but emanate from the opposite end of the side coves near the front fender line. Under the hood the fuel-injected is the 283-cu.-in. V8 good for 283 horsepower and mated to a three-speed manual transmission.
The white and blue theme continues in the car’s interior with the original blue leather upholstery and blue dashboard. The Super Sport was the first Corvette to carry leather upholstery as well as the first to feature a center console, in this case coming with the original magnetic drink cups.
Given the spectacular restoration and ultra-unique history of the ’57 Corvette Super Sport, the price tag of $1,750,000 makes sense for possibly the most collectable Corvette in existence.
