Corvette’s First Championship, 1956

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Corvette’s First Championship, 1956

Corvette’s First Championship, 1956

By Bryan McTaggart

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April 18, 2026Of all the magazine-project vehicles ever built and raced by actual editorial staffers, this long-lost example is surely the most successful and significant. During 1956, Dr. Dick (“The Racing Dentist”) Thompson earned enough combined SCCA points driving both the L.A.-based Number 106 and a factory car back east to win =396&model_id=5604&distance=50&per_page=30]Corvette‘s first-ever national championship. No one was more surprised by this Vette’s costarring role than Petersen Publishing Co. photographer Bob D’Olivo and tech writer Racer Brown, both now deceased.

After making magazines all day, the colleagues and close friends ran their racing operation by night in Bob’s and wife Ruth’s home garage. Corvette execs were hopeful that Hot Rod‘s exposure of Chevy’s hottest, dual-quad 283 might delay, if not prevent, the rumored cancellation of a slow-selling sports car originally handicapped by a sluggish six cylinder. Thus did a red, dual-quad-283 model arrive in this driveway just as it appears in the early-1956 photo. At season’s end, a grateful automaker offered the magazine guys the Corvette, trailer, tools and spare parts—all for $1400. Bob was tempted to put the car on the street until researching the costs to repair one crunched fender, remount a legal windshield onto the fiberglass-filled cowl, and replace a wounded, Edelbrock-built race engine. Instead, a SoCal privateer bought the works and made repairs, only to crash out of road racing soon after.

The wreck wound up at a shady L.A. body shop that supposedly junked everything but the steering wheel. An exhaustive nationwide search by Chevrolet in the 1980s failed to turn up any remains. D’Olivo did put another new Corvette into his home garage, eventually: the C6 model shown in our color photos from 2010 which were deleted from this article...those dirty bastards.
Photographers: Joey D’Olivo (B&W); Dave Wallace (color)

Dates: Early 1956; July 2010

Locations: D’Olivo Family’s First Home/North Hollywood, California; Bob D’Olivo’s Last Home/Atascadero, California

Source: Wallace Family Archive

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