1965 Mako Shark II XP-830

The Mako Shark II show car made it's first public appearance at the New York International Auto Show in April, 1965. It's lines were the culmination of two beasts of the oceans, the Manta Ray and the Great White Shark. It was timeless. This one was truly a Bill Mitchell inspired car with the narrow waist or coke-bottle shape and pronounced fenders. Bill and Zora didn't agree on the design at first. But this was in the era when design came first and engineering then got to work within the major parameters we set.

There is always some confusion about the Mako Shark II based on different photos. There were, in fact, two primary versions of the Mako Shark II and then the Manta Ray version. So three basic versions with quite a few re-paints and minor changes over the years!

The first Mako Shark II, as shown at the New York show in January 1965, was a non-running model with the outside side pipes rising up into the front fenders. It also sported some interesting, futuristic details, such as a squared-off steering wheel.

The interior of the Mako Shark I got a lot of criticism, particularly the steering wheel which was a small rectangular piece with controls for turn signals and transmission built-in. By the Paris show this was changed to a more conventional wheel with the main controls moved to stalks o the steering column. Most of the 'informational" gauges were placed on the passenger side of the instrument pod, while the drivers side instrument panel had only the tach and speedometer. In addition to the gauges, there was also a system of warning lights for all major fluid levels and another series of lights to warn of open doors and the like.

The second Mako Shark II, first shown at the Paris Auto Salon in October of the same year, was a running model with more conventional rear-exiting exhaust system (left). The exposed ends of the exhaust were quite highly styled in a boxed and finned arrangement much like Larry Shinoda had done for the SS Racer.

It also had a retractable rear spoiler, and a square section bumper that could be extended for added protection.

There were other interior features which may yet come to pass as standard features. In Mako Shark I and II, the seats were fixed and the accelerator/brake pedals moved on a one-piece control board. Adjustable pedals have since been used on race cars and show cars; they may yet find their way to street cars as a way of increasing the "fit" for a wider range of driver sizes, especially as we come closer to acceptance of drive-by-wire features.

The Mako Shark II was powered by a 427 Mark IV engine, which became available on production Corvette models. The paint scheme continued the Shark I tradition, with blue/gray on top and silver/white on the bottom (along the rocker panels).

The were several core design elements which were common to both the non-running and running models, of course. The basic design included the chopped roof, hinged roof panel which raised to permit easier entry, the sharp-edged fender lines, highly styled front clip, hood bulge and upswept tail.

There were lots of other gadgets thrown on the car as repeats from Mako I, including the prism-type periscope rearview mirror, the pop-up brake flaps, James Bond retractable bumpers, and the louvered rear window treatment. When the car was converted to Manta Ray the louvered window concept was dropped in favour of the more conventional sugar-scoop arrangement.

Initial high speed tests revealed that the car was unstable at high speeds. The nose was too low, the front fenders were too high and obstructed the drivers visibility. Rear visibility was next to nothing and the overall 'lift' of the car at speed was unacceptable. So much work needed to be done that there just wasn't enough time for a 1967 introduction for the new body style. 1968 would be the year that we would all see the newest Corvette. The front and rear fenders were more proportional, visibility was good, lift was minimal with the standard front air dam, and of course, the legendary 427 big block engine was available in 5 different versions.

The SHARKS and Bill Mitchell

The first sketches by Larry Shinoda of the new car, the XP-755, showed only minor alterations with the addition of the double-bubble canopy from the XP-700. This was dangerously close to the actual form of the XP-720. A radical new "cover" theme was needed, and this was supplied when Bill Mitchell hooked and landed a shark during a deep-sea fishing holiday off Bimini. The aggressive look and graded coloration of the mounted shark's head set the styling motif for the car that became the Corvette Shark.

From inspiration to realization took no more than a few months, the aim being to debut the Shark during a race weekend at Elkhart Lake in the summer of 1961. Painted in an iridescent blue that blended into a white underbody, like its namesake, the Shark caused a sensation when it toured the course at its Elkhart Lake debut and when it was displayed officially by Chevrolet for the first time at the New York Show in April, 1962.

Broad hints by Bill Mitchell and GM public relations men left no doubt in the minds of most magazine editors that the Shark foreshadowed in some way the shape of the 1963 Corvette, though the writers could not know that the Shark had been built after the shape had been finalized and was not a true predecessor of the coming Corvette.

Among the Corvette-related dream cars and experimental cars, the Mako Shark II was as significant in the history of the production model as the original racing Stingray. When it was designed and built it was no more than an idea, a concept, a product of the creative imagination embodied in plastic, plating and paint. It was one of a handful of different ideas for Corvettes of the future, ideas promoted by different and competitive factions within Chevrolet and Styling Staff. This one had a little something extra going for it: It was the personal project of William L. Mitchell.

Sensing the shifts in the shapes of sports cars, Bill Mitchell decided to extend exploratory probes in new directions. He did so literally the moment the 1963 Sting Ray was in production, for in that instant the earlier dreams, the Stingray racer and the varicolored Shark, became commonplace reality. It was time to forge a new dream of the Corvette of the future and, if possible, to create simultaneously a new and stimulating personal car for GM's top stylist.

There was also a plan to see it as a star attraction on the Chevrolet stand at the New York International Auto Show in April, 1965 - not too far in the future. The last traces of a late snow were still on the ground in March when the Mako Shark II was rolled out to the Styling viewing yard to be photographed by Chevrolet's Myron Scott before its New York appearance. Though it was founded on an actual Corvette chassis, it was at this stage a full-size exterior/interior mockup rather than a running car. It had originally been simply dubbed the Mako Shark, but at the last minute the decision was made to rename the original Shark the Mako Shark I and make the new design the second in the second in the series. It was not the last time the new car's name would be changed.

Painted with the gradations from dark to light used on the first experimental Shark, and rolling on Firestones 8.80 up front and 10.30 in the rear, the Mako II was indeed a powerful attraction on the Chevy stand in New York. When it returned to Michigan again it was changed in only one way: The paint was removed from the external "exhaust systems" and the aluminum surface was buffed all over. While this was being done, work was already well along on the completion of the running Mako Shark II - on which the external exhausts were not used.

Fully functional in every detail, the operational Mako Shark II was an utterly fantastic machine in the quality and extent of its advanced equipment. It was launched to newsmen in Michigan on October 5, 1965, before flying it off to Paris, where it would adorn the GM stand at the world-famous Automobile Salon, opening on October 7. Thereafter it became a temporary captive of GM's Overseas Operations Division, which displayed it throughout Europe. It returned in time for the New York Show April, 1966.

By the fall of 1967, the shape of the Mako Shark II began to be mirrored on the road by the new 1968 Corvette, and the Mako II no longer enjoyed its unique avant garde status. It was time, thought Mitchell, for some changes. In 1969 this aquatic creature had switched its species, making a return to the undersea family that had been so successful a decade earlier. Now it became the Manta Ray, through a transformation made mainly from the cockpit to the rear of this elaborate car. Only the tapered "boat tail" motif remained with the addition of a new and considerably longer rear end in place of the abrupt duck tail.

During the winter of 1969-70, the Manta Ray underwent subtle additional changes. These were the last changes to a dream car that had since become reality. Mako Shark/Manta Ray was built at a time, not so many years ago, when an exercise in pure automotive form could be undertaken at its own pace, for its own sake. It had been built in the tradition of the great GM dream cars, the Le Sabre, the Firebirds, the Motorama Corvette, as an automobile whose many advanced features were fully operational. It had not been cheap to do it this way. It had cost some two and a half million dollars to create the running Mako II, and probably close to three million as the car stands today.

Does this mean that the Mako Shark II is the last of the bigtime dream cars from GM? In a world as ephemeral as that of styling there are no absolutes: such a prediction would be rash indeed. But the controversial Mako II sets a standard that's hard to surpass. For the men and women who shape the Chevrolet sports cars that should be challenge enough.

Mako Shark II and Manta Ray: Interview with Larry Shinoda

© Wayne Ellwood, 1995
Used here with permission by the author

From Larry Shinoda:

I can tell you more about Mako I another time, Right now let's talk about Mako II. The year was 1965 and we were already looking forward to showing-off a design exercise for the introduction of the 1968 car at the New York show.

This one was truly a Bill Mitchell inspired car with the narrow waist or coke-bottle shape and pronounced fenders. Bill and Zora didn't agree on the design at first. But this was in the era when design came first and engineering then got to work within the major parameters we set.

Actually, Zora thought that the shape imposed some limitations on the passenger pod. But I think he changed his mind a little one day at the track. He was driving the new car at the proving grounds when there was a tire failure. Zora held it up against the wall until he ground the fenders off right down to the door line and wheels. By the time it got down this far, the car had stopped. After that, I think he changed his mind about the utility of the wider fender area.

There is always some confusion about the Mako Shark II based on different photos, too. There were, in fact, two primary versions of the Mako Shark II and then the Manta Ray version. So three basic versions with quite a few re-paints and minor changes over the years.

Mako Shark I, as shown at the New York show in January 1965 was a non-running model with the outside side pipes rising up into the front fenders. Mako Shark II, first shown at the Paris Auto Salon in October of the same year, was now a running model with more conventional rear-exiting exhaust system. The exposed ends of the exhaust were quite highly styled in a boxed and finned arrangement much like I had done for the SS Racer.

Speaking of models, I should also mention the young girl who is often seen in the GM photos of the day posing with this car. That was Connie Van Dyke and she was Miss Teen America just two years before. She was found by Myron Scott (the guy who named the Corvette) and he got her into a lot of the shoots. She was really a nice girl and reflected the style GM was looking for. Myron is still around Detroit and you can talk to him, but he won't travel.

The were several core design elements which were common to both the non-running and running models, of course. The basic design included the chopped roof, hinged roof panel which raised to permit easier entry, the sharp-edged fender lines, highly styled front clip, hood bulge and upswept tail. There were lots of other gadgets thrown on the car as repeats from Mako I, including the prism-type periscope rearview mirror, the pop-up brake flaps, James Bond retractable bumpers, and the louvered rear window treatment. When the car was converted to Manta Ray the louvered window concept was dropped in favour of the more conventional sugar-scoop arrangement.

Now, going back to the inception of the Mako Shark II, I think that it is fair to say that the design for what turned out to be the 1968 was not so far locked-in that public reaction to this show car was not going to have some effect. In fact, even as we were drawing the two of them there were perceptible differences in the sharpness of the lines and the exaggeration of major features like the wheel bulges. There was certainly no shortage of reaction in the automobile media to some of the "added" features that Bill had requested even when some of it might have been just a little short-sighted. But that's the purpose of some of these cars. The public reaction has to be interpreted, you don't just take it at face value. People, by and large, tend to think "right now" while we are supposed to think "in the future". As I look back on the articles which have been written about the cars 20 years later, I see a lot of retrospection. The authors now recognize the fact that some of the original criticisms were off-base, the core ideas have been realized.

The interior of the Mako Shark I got a lot of criticism, particularly the steering wheel which was a small rectangular piece with controls for turn signals and transmission built-in. By the Paris show this was changed to a more conventional wheel with the main controls moved to stalks o the steering column. Does anything sound familiar here?

Most of the 'informational" gauges were placed on the passenger side of the instrument pod, while the drivers side instrument panel had only the tach and speedometer. In addition to the gauges, there was also a system of warning lights for all major fluid levels and another series of lights to warn of open doors and the like.

The interior was comfortably molded in vinyl to provide a wrap-around feel. This was the beginning of a design theme which, looking back, could have been pushed much harder. We (the whole industry) were slow to pick-up on ergonomics and the "safety-cell" concept.

There were other interior features which may yet come to pass as standard features. In Mako Shark I and II, the seats were fixed and the accelerator/brake pedals moved on a one-piece control board. Adjustable pedals have since been used on race cars and show cars; they may yet find their way to street cars as a way of increasing the "fit" for a wider range of driver sizes, especially as we come closer to acceptance of drive-by-wire features.

The original Mako Shark I was powered by a 425 HP 396 big block; it was later changed to a ZL-1 style 427. And the cars have been driven. You will know from your own experience that GM was fairly generous in putting these cars out on display. That's part of the reason they had so many touch-ups and minor changes.

Looking back, I don't know of many other show cars of that era which made such an impact or have stood the test of time so well.