This is the ASVE AREX Super Coupe, it was developed over a period of almost 20 years by automotive design legend (and former Disney child actor) David Stollery, and it’s now being offered for sale for the first time out of museum ownership.
The ASVE AREX is said to be capable of a 200 mph top speed, with a 0-60 mph time of just 3 seconds. Just one was ever built, it was never intended to be a production car, rather it was built as a showcase of what Stollery and his company Industrial Design Research, were capable of.
Fast Facts – The ASVE AREX Super Coupe
- The ASVE AREX Super Coupe is a unique, one-off vehicle developed over nearly two decades by designer David Stollery. With a claimed 0–60 mph time of 3 seconds and a top speed of ~200 mph, it was built to demonstrate the design capabilities of his firm, Industrial Design Research.
- The car features a tubular steel spaceframe, double wishbone suspension, and disc brakes at all four corners. Power comes from a Magnuson-supercharged LT1 Corvette V8 paired with a ZF 5-speed transaxle. Styling is futuristic, with butterfly doors, no folding roof, and a fully enclosed cockpit shaped by aircraft design principles.
- David Stollery began his career as a Disney and Broadway child actor before moving into automotive design. He worked at GM and Toyota, where he led the second-generation Celica. He later founded Industrial Design Research, producing the Trihawk and FireAero—only 30 of the latter were built, making them rare today.
- In 2019, Stollery donated the AREX to the Zimmerman Automobile Driving Museum in Southern California, where it quickly became a star exhibit. With the museum now closing, the car is being offered for public sale for the first time through Worldwide Auctioneers, scheduled to cross the block on April 25th.
David Stollery: Child Actor Extraordinaire
David Stollery is best-known in the automotive community as a car designer of significant repute, having worked at General Motors for seven years before becoming the first design director of Toyota’s pioneering Calty Design Research California studio for another seven years. Outside the car community, Stollery is best-known as an actor who appeared in many Disney movies and television shows in the 1950s, and in the Broadway production On Borrowed Time.
After the FireAero, Stollery turned his attention to building his own supercar. He developed a space-age body strongly influenced by aircraft design principles, including an unusual “pointy” nose to better cut through the air.
Leaving Hollywood
Unusually, Stollery’s career became more interesting after he left Hollywood behind. He attended California’s Art Center College of Design, and then became an influential designer at GM, and at Toyota, where he had led the design of the second generation A40 Series Toyota Celica.
He would later go and work for Harley-Davidson. After this, millionaire Lou Richards would hire Stollery to develop the front-wheel-drive “Trihawk” three-wheeled sports car, tragically Richards would die before the project could be put into production, but Stollery liked the concept so much he founded Industrial Design Research (IDR) to produce it himself.
Approximately 30 examples of the Industrial Design Research FireAero would be built, and today they’re exceedingly hard to find, though we did find and feature one on Silodrome last year.
The ASVE AREX Super Coupe
After the FireAero, Stollery turned his attention to building his own supercar. He developed a space-age body strongly influenced by aircraft design principles, including an unusual “pointy” nose to better cut through the air.
Power is provided by a mid-mounted Magnuson-supercharged LT1 Corvette engine, and sent back to the rear wheels via a ZF 5-speed transaxle.
He named this creation the ASVE AREX Super Coupe. The car was built around a tubular steel spaceframe chassis with double wishbone suspension front and back, as well as front and rear disc brakes, a mid-mounted Magnuson-supercharged LT1 Corvette engine, and power is sent back to the rear wheels via a ZF 5-speed transaxle.
According to those who have driven the car, and there seemingly haven’t been many, it handles well and lives up to its spaceship styling.
The ASVE AREX is a pure roadster, with no folding or removable top, the windshield curves around and meets the fixed side windows that then flow back into the rear bodywork. The doors are butterfly-style, opening to show not just the interior which has two bucket seats with racing harnesses, and a well-appointed dashboard for a one-off car.
The rear clamshell opens to show the engine and the hidden side radiators, though the engine is largely buried underneath that prominent Magnuson blower.
In 2019, Stollery donated the car to the Zimmerman Automobile Driving Museum in Southern California. It was put on display, in pride of place, and quickly became one of the museum’s most popular exhibits.
The doors are butterfly-style, opening to show not just the interior which has two bucket seats with racing harnesses, and a well-appointed dashboard for a one-off car.
The museum is now closing its doors and selling its cars, as a result the ASVE AREX is being offered for public sale for the first time ever.
The car is due to cross the auction block with Worldwide Auctioneers on April 25th, and at the time of writing there is no price guide. If you’d like to read more or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Worldwide Auctioneers
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.