Ray Shimak, of Ray’s Collision in Mason City, Iowa, was putting the finishing touch on Lee Snell’s 1961 Corvette when the unthinkable happened.

After a 15-year restoration, the car was almost ready to deliver, just one more shifter adjustment and a short test drive to make sure it was perfect. Ray made the adjustment and took the Corvette for a final test drive. As luck would have it, during the road test, another car decided to change lanes without looking and accidentally collided with him, causing serious damage to the Corvette’s passenger-side front and rear.

Nobody got hurt in the accident, but the estimated damage is $20,000 or more and the owner will not get to drive it until early next year.

It’s probably not surprising the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 is destined for classic car greatness. Motor Trend calls it “easily one of the best Corvettes ever made.” This future classic is the first Corvette to break the 200 mph barrier.

Of course, we already knew this now didn’t we?

Check out the other 12 cars on the list at http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/enthusiasts/13-soon-to-be-classic-cars/ss-BBwyrF5?li=BBnb7Kz#image=1

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 [...]