1963 Chevrolet Corvette ‘Asteroid’ Goes For Just Under $190,000

Bob Nordskog was best known as a high-speed boat racer, but he had a love for speed. That love translated into a road going project of his own, and what you see here is the result.

In 1963, Nordskog took delivery of this Chevrolet Corvette with ten miles on the odometer, and began his lofty project from there. The body was radically transformed to differentiate the Corvette, and finished off in its unique metallic paint job. Nordskog’s boat competition center ended up rebuilding the motor, while his brother-in-law took a stab at the very trick custom interior. What they ended up with was a 352 cubic-inch V8 paired to a four-speed manual transmission, and the mechanical bits did their part at the track.

After all was said and done, a show car was born, and it was named Asteroid. The car took top honors at the 1963 Long Beach Motorama and the Mickey Thompson Auto Boat Show. But Nordskog didn’t just want it to be a show car. He decided to take it racing, because this was a man who loved moving fast.

Nordskog would arrive on street tires, but then swap them over to American Racing mags and uncork the side pipes upon his arrival. The results were indeed good for a street car in 1963. The Corvette ran 12.20 seconds in the quarter mile at 118 mph, scaring off many of its street competitors.

After Bob Nordskog’s passing in 1992, the car remained in the family’s possession for year before winding up at Barrett-Jackson, where it sold for $187,000. The price included a no-expenses spared restoration to return the car to its former show going glory.