Betty Skelton never lived life at half throttle. Aviation, automobiles, advertising, even America’s early space program — she pushed into each with a mix of fearlessness and finesse that earned her a dozen Hall of Fame inductions and the nickname “The Fastest Woman on Earth.”

Now, one of the Corvettes tied directly to her remarkable career is headed across the block Friday at Mecum Monterey, where it’s expected to bring $120,000 to $130,000. It’s a 1965 Rally Red L79 convertible, and its story stretches far beyond its VIN.

This particular Sting Ray began life not on a dealer lot, but inside Chevrolet’s Central Office in December 1964. It was built as an advertising vehicle, photographed for print campaigns promoting the ’65 model year. When GM finished using it for promotional work, the company presented the car to Skelton in May 1965 — a gesture honoring her influential role at Campbell Ewald, the ad agency behind Chevrolet’s television and print campaigns.

Skelton had been shaping GM messaging since 1956, serving as the corporation’s first woman technical narrator at major auto shows and helping Joe Pike launch Corvette News, the internal magazine that later became Corvette Quarterly. Her fingerprints were all over Corvette culture long before she ever received this car.

By the time Skelton took delivery of the Rally Red convertible, she had already built a résumé that reads like folklore.

She won three straight U.S. Female Aerobatic Championships (1948–50), flew alongside the newly formed Blue Angels, and became the first woman to drive a jet powered car beyond 300 mph, hitting 316 mph at Bonneville in Art Arfons’ Cyclops.

She set Corvette speed records with Zora Arkus Duntov at Daytona Beach in 1956, then shattered Cannonball Baker’s 40 year transcontinental record from New York to Los Angeles. Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell even designed a translucent gold Corvette specifically for her — the car she drove to Daytona as a NASCAR pace car in 1957.

Her reach extended into the space program, too. In 1960, Skelton completed the same grueling NASA testing regimen as the Mercury 7 astronauts, earning the nickname “Mercury 7½.” Alongside Indy 500 winner Jim Rathmann, she helped arrange for America’s first astronauts to become Corvette owners.

Few people influenced the Corvette’s image more directly — or more boldly — than Betty Skelton.

Fast forward to the 21st century, and Skelton’s car continues to influence the Corvette world. Have you ever seen the vintage magazine ad with a couple holding hands on a dock, their red 1965 Corvette convertible in the foreground?

Well, that very car came into the possession of a Johnstown, Pennsylvania car restorer named Matt Barczak.

When he bought the heavily optioned ’65 with a 327/350 L79 engine and a four-speed transmission, Matt didn’t realize just what an extra special piece of history he was getting.

Once he had finally been able to buy the car – a long story in itself as one person had dibs ahead of him and the owner wasn’t even sure he wanted to sell – Matt brought it home and began to look over the accompanying paperwork. While checking out the Protect-O-Plate, he thought the name “B SKELTON” of LaFayette, Michigan sounded familiar.

It dawned on him that it was the legendary Betty Skelton’s old Corvette.

When he found the car in January, 2018, though, it didn’t look much like the one pictured in the iconic advertisement. Indeed, it had been parked in a garage for the past 20 years, where Matt said it was “stuffed in the corner between a furnace and a dog pen” and “buried in dust.”

This was no dog of a car, though. Since Skelton had a history with ad agency Campbell-Ewald, Barczak believes his car could well be one of the two Rally Red ‘65s used for advertising Sting Rays that year – one with a red interior and one with a black interior like his.

Matt has been able to determine that his car was built on Dec. 4, 1964 and went to Chevrolet Central Office on Dec. 21, 1964. He believes the NCRS order sheet confirms that Pike had the “brass hat” car built specifically for Skelton, who finally received the Sting Ray on May 12, 1965 after GM was through using it for advertising purposes.

The car still has its numbers-matching engine, along with options like power windows, power brakes, telescopic wheel, and AM/FM radio. Skelton would no doubt be proud her Corvette is still going strong and keeping her legacy alive 61 years later.

Source:
Mecum Auctions

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