This is a fascinating one-off 1975 Chevrolet Corvette design study that was styled by Jerry Palmer, the General Motors designer who penned the C4 Corvette as well as the C3 Camaro/Firebird, amongst a number of other production cars.
The project to build this car was led by Frank Milne, owner of Harry Mann Chevrolet in LA, at the time it was billed as “The World’s Largest Corvette Dealer.” Milne would become known for the handful of unique Corvettes that he commissioned and displayed at his showroom, including the car you see here.
Fast Facts – A 1975 Chevrolet Corvette Design Study
- This is the 1975 Chevrolet Corvette Design Study, styled by Jerry Palmer, it was a one-off project commissioned by Frank Milne, owner of Harry Mann Chevrolet. It was created to showcase future Corvette styling and has notable design similarities to the C4 Corvette, especially in the nose and front fenders.
- The C3 Corvette, produced from 1967 to 1982, became Chevrolet’s longest-running Corvette generation, known for its lightweight fiberglass body, V8 engines, and sleek styling influenced by the Mako Shark II concept.
- The 1975 Corvette Design Study started as a standard 1975 Corvette convertible, which was extensively restyled by Jerry Palmer. The car was built by coachbuilder Eric Ruffo using fiberglass, and it was featured in automotive magazines during the 1970s.
- After being displayed at Milne’s dealership in LA, the car was sold and spent years in Europe before returning to the U.S. in early 2025. It has since been serviced, with an overhaul to the carburetor, brake servicing, and fluid changes. The car is now available for sale via Bring a Trailer.
The C3 Corvette: A History Speedrun
The C3 Corvette, the third generation of the model series, made its debut in 1967. It would prove to be a critically important model for Chevrolet, carrying the badge from the 1960s right the way through into the early 1980s, making it the Corvette with the longest production run at 15 years.
Here you can see the styling of the post-chrome bumper C3 Corvette, much the same as the 1975 model that the Corvette in this article started out as. Image courtesy of General Motors.
Much like its predecessor, the C3 had a lightweight fiberglass body fitted to a steel chassis, independent four-wheel suspension, seating for two, limited trunk space, and a front-mounted V8 powering the rear wheels.
The C3 featured beautiful, curvaceous styling based closely on the Mako Shark II concept car designed by Larry Shinoda, and it would be offered in both T-top and convertible versions. It as only ever offered from the factory with a V8 fitted, engines ranged from the 305 cubic inch V8 on the lower end to the 327, the 350 (by far the most common) through to the 427 and 454 big block V8s.
The C4 Corvette would make its formal debut in 1983 with far more understated styling by GM designer Jerry Palmer that was perhaps better suited to the market of the 1980s.
The 1975 Chevrolet Corvette Design Study
Interestingly, there was another car designed by Jerry Palmer back in the mid-1970s that might have had some influence on the later C4 styling.
It was called the 1975 Chevrolet Corvette Design Study, it was a privately commissioned design study by legendary Corvette dealer Frank Milne showing what the Corvettes of the future might look like.
The 1975 Chevrolet Corvette Design Study was styled by GM designer Jerry Palmer, who would later go on to design the C4 Corvette as well as the C3 Camaro/Firebird, and a number of other cars.
The car started out as a relatively standard 1975 Chevrolet Corvette convertible, powered by the 350 V8 mated to a 3-speed automatic transmission. Jerry Palmer’s design saw both the front and rear end of the car completely restyled, and the sides modified to bring it all together.
The styling of the car has been compared to the C4 Corvette, perhaps unsurprisingly given the fact that it has the same designer, and there are undeniable similarities around the front end and front fenders to the later Corvette model.
Once the design was completed it was turned into a reality by coachbuilder Eric Ruffo using fiberglass, the same as the original body shell. Milne, Palmer, and Ruffo would later collaborate on a second car in 1977, a fastback hardtop, and both cars were featured extensively in the automotive magazines of the period.
After it was built and displayed at Frank Milne’s dealership in LA, the car would find its way over to Europe where it remained for many years. It was brought back to the USA in early 2025, and since it arrived it’s had servicing on the brakes, the carburetor has been overhauled, and the fluids changed.
Although the styling of the 1975 Chevrolet Corvette Design Study might not be for everyone, it does offer a glimpse into the mind of Jerry Palmer in the lead up to the start of the C4 Corvette design process, which began just three years later.
The car comes with a removable hardtop that matches the body color, as well as a beige soft top, a Positraction differential, 15″ BBS wheels, a Pioneer AM/FM cassette stereo, power windows, and air conditioning.
It’s now being offered for sale on Bring a Trailer out of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina with a clean South Carolina title. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Bring a Trailer
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.