Five Special Chevrolet Corvettes You Probably Never Knew Existed

1956 Corvette SR-2 - The Corvette is not only the most iconic American sports car ever built, but it also made a huge name for itself at the race track. The nameplate went racing as soon as it hit showroom floors in 1953, but Chevrolet didn't make a Corvette specifically designed for racing until 1956. That's when the SR-2 was born.

The story goes that the car was created to prevent a publicity fiasco when Harley Earl's son, Jerome, announced his plan to race a Ferrari in the 1956 season.

Based on a regular Corvette pulled off the St. Louis assembly line, the SR-2 emerged into the light with covered headlamps, a low windscreen, and a big fin behind the driver's seat.

Originally fitted with a 265-cubic-inch (4.3-liter) V8, the SR-2 was later upgraded to a 331-cubic-inch (5.4-liter) unit equipped with an experimental fuel injection system. The car had moderate success through the 1957 racing season. Chevrolet built two more SR-2s before the AMA racing ban put an end to Chevrolet's motorsport efforts.

1956 Corvette Impala concept - What what? Both the Corvette and Impala names on the same car? Yes, this thing was born in 1956 when Chevrolet toyed with the idea of a four-seat Corvette. And like most concepts from the era, it was showcased on the GM Motorama tour.

Known internally as XP-101, the Corvette Impala was introduced in January 1956, long before the Impala became a production model in 1958.

A fiberglass body with a stainless steel roof on a conventional sedan chassis, the concept was longer than a Corvette and borrowed only a few design elements from the sports car.

Sadly, like most GM Motorama concepts, the Corvette Impala was scrapped after a couple of years on the auto show tour. The reverse C-pillar and the "Impala" badge are the only two features that made it on production models.

1958 Corvette XP-700 - Yet another creation that disappeared after only a couple of years, the XP-700 was created in 1958 as a personal car for Bill Mitchell, the vice president of GM Styling. While based on a 1958 Corvette, the XP-700 looked nothing like one beyond the doors and parts of the front fenders.

Quite futuristic at the time, it came with a few innovative features, including an aluminum-coated, double-bubble canopy roof. The XP-700 influenced the styling of the 1961 Corvette before it was redesigned into the more iconic Mako Shark I concept. The latter previewed the second-generation Corvette.

1971 Corvette ZR-2 - The only factory production model on this list, the ZR-2 may look like a regular 1971 Corvette on the outside, but it sports an equipment package that makes it rarer than hen's teeth.

The ZR-2 package was similar to the more famous ZR-1 bundle, but for the 454-cubic-inch (7.4-liter) LS6 engine (instead of the LT1).

The package included a unique high-performance radiator, the F41 sports suspension, heavy-duty power brakes, and the M22 four-speed gearbox. And while all the other 1971 Corvette engines were detuned to run on low-lead fuel, the LS6 V8 carried over unchanged and underrated at 425 horsepower. The ZR-2 was a beast!

But it was far from popular, as only 12 customers went with the expensive package. The figure makes it notably scarcer than the ZR-1 (53 units) and a rare sight nowadays. In short, most of us will never get to see one in the metal.

1995 Guldstrand GS90 Corvette - The newest car on this list, the GS90 wasn't conceived in a Chevrolet factory. It came out of Dick Guldstrand's shop.

Having raced Corvettes (quite successfully, too) for many decades, Dick used the then-new Corvette C4 ZR1 to build a modern rendition of the Grand Sport.

And the project wasn't just an optional package. The GS90 featured all-new bodywork with more muscular lines, six-point taillights, and regular headlamps instead of the C4's pop-up units. It was also more powerful than a factory C4 thanks to an LT5 V8 tuned by Doug Rippie Motorsports to deliver 475 horsepower.

Introduced at the 1995 Los Angeles Auto Show and met with positive reviews in the media, the GS90 Corvette didn't catch on. Out of a planned run of 100 to 150 cars, Guldstrand built only six examples. Not exactly surprising given that the GS90 came in at $135,000, about double the sticker of a ZR1.

Needless to say, these custom Corvettes are almost impossible to spot nowadays.