The royal Corvette

[COPO_Anders]

This corvette was ordered new by his royal highness, Prince Bertil of Sweden. It´s customised in these pictures, but the position of the fuelcap in the middle and the two cromeribs on the decklid is factory. It was specialordered this way.
10 to 15 years ago when my friend Dick sold his three #198 intakes to "Mr Corvette", the late Lasse Tidblom. We were taken on a private tour to see all his cars. Around 35 Corvettes Some were show quality and some were wrecked. L-71 and fulie cars for example, were kept to be restored. Among them was this -56, the prince Bertil Corvette, undergoing restoration . I remember it well.

Anders

[COPO_Anders]

[COPO_Anders]

I found a book about our "Racing Prince" at a flea-market today, and bought it just because of this picture. I believe it was taken when he took possession of the car at GM in stockholm, but I´m not sure. Some of the special factory equipment can be seen.

Prince Bertil tells a story about the Bugatti he raced in the thirties. The car was old and not fast enough, and he didn´t have the 7.000$ it would take to buy a new one. Then by pure coincidence, he ran into Jean Bugatti at a nightclub in Paris. He tells Jean about his Bugatti that is too slow, and asks him what can be done. Jean says "I´ll fix that". "I´ll talk to my dad when I get home".
He kept his promise. "To my big surprise I soon after received a brand new car from the Bugatti factory, AS A GIFT !" "Two mecanics accompanied the car, so now I could start racing." "I pushed that car to 190 mph in daylight."

[COPO_Anders]

Just found out that there is a site for this one-off Corvette. www.royalcorvette1956.com .There is little information on it right now, but I guess I´ll have to be patient.
The car is also mentioned in a few books, it seems.

[elcamino72]

Great post!

Thanks

[COPO_Anders]

Some more pictures that I found in the Colorod Magazine nr 9 from 1980.

Front of car when delivered by GM.

[COPO_Anders]

Photos of fuelcap, special crome-bars and Dayton wire knock-off wheels.

[olredalert]

-----So Anders,,,This car exists??? since the owner sadly passed who has the car now and is it still being restored??? This Vette should absolutely be restored back to original as delivered to the Prince. I have seen pics of it over the years and was always struck by all the small changes they made and how well they worked with the original design. I know people here in the Detroit area that would be of help to the present owner/restorer........Bill S

[COPO_Anders]

Bill, just click on www.royalcorvette1956.com and you will find some more information. I believe the car i being restored by his son now.