The LA Auto Show might have been mostly new car debuts from manufacturers, but that's by no means all that goes on. One of the more interesting cars we saw was the 1963 Asteroid Corvette that was customized by George Barris for use as a drag racer and show car. It will go on sale in January at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale. Barrett-Jackson provided an un-proofread history of the car to show-goers:
"The original owner, Bob Nordskog, was a well known boat racer and an entrepreneur that loved speed. He built a dual purpose show/race car that was out of this world called "Asteroid." This car was delivered to Barris Kustoms in 1963 with 10 miles on the odometer. The body was radically transformed and finished off with an extreme metallic paint job. Bob Nordskog's brother in law, Don Ferrara, built the very trick custom interior. The car won the top award at several major auto shows including the 1963 Long Beach Motorama and the 1963 Mickey Thompson Auto Boat Speed Show. It was just as fierce at the race track as well. Nordskog would drive the car to the track on street tires, switch it over to track mode with American Racing mags and uncork the side pipes on the custom multi-piece exhaust system. It ran 12.20 in the quarter mile at 118mph, which was pretty fast for a street car in 1963. At one track, it was photographed for the cover of the Jan & Dean single Drag City. Jan & Dean are pictured taking off the side pipe for tack [sic] mode. It has only 12,000 actual miles from new. Bob Nordskog passed away in 1992 and the car sat for several more years in the possession of the Nordskog family. This vehicle has gone through a vigorous and extensive. No-expense-spared restoration [sic] to take it back to exactly how it looked when legendary George Barris from Barris Kustoms originally made the vehicle. It is a one-of-a-kind."
We love balls-to-the-wall crazy custom cars, and this certainly qualifies as that.
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