Harley Earl Custom Corvette Up For Auction

A one-of-a-kind 1963 Corvette Sting Ray originally owned by General Motors Co. design icon Harley J. Earl goes up for auction on Oct. 12.

The Corvette is the highlight of some 1,000 cars expected to cross the Mecum Chicago auction block on Oct. 10-12.

The custom car was given to Earl in recognition of his achievements at GM. Earl joined GM in 1928 and became the company's first head of design, retiring in 1958. Earl kept the car in Palm Beach, Fla., and used it as his personal car once driving it in the 1965 Daytona 500 parade. The trophy given to the winner of the Daytona 500 is named after him.

Earl's Corvette is one of only four built with side exhaust header pipes emerging from the front fenders. It also sports a duplicate set of instruments on the passenger's side of the dashboard.