Testarossafied Corvette is Our Kind of Frankenstein
Testarossafied Corvette is Our Kind of Frankenstein
We won’t judge you for admitting that you kind of like it, too.
Usually, we’re not huge fans of most kit cars here on CorvetteForum. Our thinking is, why pretend to own a poorly-built knockoff of a thoroughbred sports car when Corvettes offer the same performance in a real car you can actually afford? Still, some kit cars transcend their humble fiberglass and chicken wire beginnings to be something truly special, blurring the line between “homebuilt” and “coachbuilt.”
This C4 Corvette convertible the crew at Road & Track found on eBay might fall into that category for some. Sporting a comprehensive bodykit that adapts the iconic 1980s styling of the Ferrari Testarossa with a contemporary Corvette, it becomes more than the sum of its disparate parts.
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This Corvette/Testarossa hybrid isn’t attempting to fool anyone into thinking it’s a real Italian exotic. Instead, it uses the Ferrari’s most distinctive visual features and paints them on the canvas of a Corvette, resulting in a striking car that sits in a sort of uncanny valley between “so wrong” and “so right.”
Road & Track‘s Brian Silvestro states that “the longer we look at it, the more we actually like it.” We wholeheartedly agree. Shock turned into intrigue, which gave way to appreciation as we took in the details. The proportions are ideal, taking nothing away from the Corvette’s silhouette or the distinctive Testarossa styling.
Whoever designed this kit — allegedly, California’s Classic International, who dubbed it “Brilliante” — put a lot of work into, well, making it work. It’s less of an unholy union and more of a match made in heaven. It’s rare that combining two things results in something greater than the two of them put together. We applaud the designer for bringing their vision to life, and while we’re tempted to ask, “why?” we feel more inclined to ask, “why not?”
