1960 Devin SS Special

Bill Devin, a racing driver and automotive inventor during the 1950s and 1960s, is known as 'The Enzo Ferrari of Okie Flats' due to his origins in Rocky, Oklahoma. In southern California in the late 1950s, Devin developed a sports car using Chevrolet components and a fiberglass body based on a Scaglietti design. The engines were modified to incorporate a belt-driven overhead camshaft for improved performance. Though the cars were great performers, they cost as much as three Corvettes and only 15 were sold. Devin then turned to sell bodies and components so individuals could build their own cars.

This Devin uses the SS body, arguably the most beautiful of the Devin line, a square tube chassis, a Chevrolet small block engine, 4-speed transmission, and Jaguar suspension. Construction began in 1960 but was never finished. It deteriorated in storage for some 40 years until a vintage race in Vermont found it and started to restore the chassis. When he could not finish the project, it was acquired by the current owner. The body was painted for the first time and fitted to the chassis. The car was completed and ran for the first time in 2012, more than 59 years after construction started.

There were 15 Devin SS models built at the DEVIN factory in El Monte, California between 1957 and 1959. These cars were sold as complete cars ready to race or for street use.

The rolling chassis with a 92-inch wheelbase were built in Belfast, Ireland. The front suspension was fabricated with equal length parallel A-arms, Coil-over springs/shocks were fitted between the A-arms with 13-inch Girling disc brakes. The rear axle was located by a pair of parallel trailing arms on each side with a 3-inch de Dion tube connecting the rear hubs and disc brakes that are mounted inboard.

The chassis were shipped to California for completion by adding a stock 283-cubic-inch Corvette motor, T10-4speed Corvette rear end. The bodies were molded from fine translucent tan fiberglass and placed on the frame.