The Corvette and Porsche rivalry dates back decades, but you probably wouldn’t have thought a German grand tourer and American sports car had common roots. Ah, but that is the case indeed.

Road & Track tells the story of Tony Lapine, a Latvian designer who began his career at General Motors in 1951. Lapine arrived at GM amid the rocket age inspired Bill Mitchell years and was commissioned to help design the second generation of the Chevrolet Corvette.

Lapine served as the studio engineer for the 1963 C2 Corvette Sting Ray before going on to work with Zora-Arkus Duntov on a number of Corvette related projects. Those include two mid-engined CERV prototypes.

GM transferred Lapine to Opel, but it wasn’t long before Porsche picked off the GM designer in 1969. Lapine arrived at a time when the Porsche 911 was due to be replaced by two new vehicles. One would be the 924, the other [...]

Sam Schmidt was told he would never be behind the wheel again, but some amazing technology is putting him, a quadriplegic, back on the road.

In the late 90s, Sam Schmidt had a promising career as an IndyCar driver, finishing fifth in the championship in 1999 after taking his first win in Las Vegas. In off-season, however, his ascension in the sport was derailed. During testing that following January, an accident at Walt Disney World Speedway in Florida left Schmidt a quadriplegic.

On Wednesday, the State of Nevada, and presented by Nevada Lt. Governor Mark Hutchison, the nation’s first autonomous vehicle restricted driver’s license. He can now drive his very own custom Corvette. He first took the car out for a spin at Exotic Racing and then headed out on public roads.

“Unbelievable. Many emotions for sure,” said Sam Schmidt.

“The advancement technology in this car is just amazing. I feel completely normal, in control. [...]