The Biscayne show car was built for the 1955 Motorama. It employed many Corvette design ideas, and is presented to management
as a new direction for the Corvette. The body is a special shell of glass-fiber-reinforced plastic for light weight and impact
resistance. The Stratospheric windshield sweeps over the driver’s head to form part of the roof. The new four door design
requires no center pillars.
The engines is an experimental high compression Chevrolet V8 of 215 HP with dual exhaust, four barrel carburetor and
high lift cam.
The Car was sent to a junkyard.
Fortunately, the wreck was rediscovered at Warhoops Junkyard in approximately 1990. The Biscayne had been cut into several
large pieces and hidden for almost four decades until the Bortz Auto Collection tracked it down.
Summer of 2005 -
the chassis is being hand crafted by Kerry Hopperstad Custom Shop, the number one custom hot rod shop in the Midwest, who
performed the time intensive and tedius task of duplicating the original chassis from detailed pictures of the Biscayne that
were discovered in 1999 in the General Motors Tech Center. The Biscayne file was discovered buried in a file cabinet at the
General Motors Tech Center. This afforded the opportunity to have the chassis and running gear duplicated to its exact original
specifications.
Joe Bortz proudly shows off the find of the century in Warhoops Junkyard in approximately 1990. The car had been cut
up into eight major pieces and was due to be crushed but Warhoops owner, Harry Sr. managed to hide all of these pieces until
around 1990 when he turned over all of the pieces to the car to the Bortz Auto Collection.
Summer 2005 the chassis is being hand crafted by Kerry Hopperstad Custom Shop, the number one custom hot rod shop in
the Midwest, who performed the time intensive and tedius task of duplicating the original chassis from detailed pictures of
the Biscayne were discovered in 1999 in the General Motors Tech Center. The Biscayne file was discovered buried in a file
cabinet at the General Motors Tech Center. This afforded the opportunity to have the chassis and running gear duplicated to
its exact original specifications.
October 2005 – the excitement is mounting – the Biscayne chassis is getting extremely close to
being
brought together with the body!
November 7, 2005 – The Biscayne body is placed on its exact replica chassis, the engine and running gear are in
place and the hubcaps have even been placed on the car. It is ready to roll!
