Arguably the most attention-getting, crowd-pleasing Concept Car of the 1960s, GM’s Mako Shark II caught the eye of Motion’s Joel Rosen, resulting in CORVETTE MACO vs MAKO: SHARK ATTACK!
Neither Joel Rosen, above, nor I had ever met Bill Mitchell, top, General Motors’ VP of Design, or any of the stylists who contributed to the design of the first Mako Shark II Concept that broke cover at the 1965 New York International Auto Show. But we were familiar with their previous head-turning Concepts, especially those based on Corvette platforms. We had hoped to meet one of them at the car’s official reveal, but it never happened. With its swoopy, streamlined body, incredible paint, and captivating outside exhaust, we were both awestruck when we first saw the Mako Shark II Corvette. It made other carmakers’ Concept Cars look like last year’s news!
Three years earlier, GM Design’s XP-755 Corvette Concept, designed by Larry Shinoda and strongly influenced by his boss, Bill Mitchell in 1961, also debuted at the New York International Auto Show. It became the Mako Shark I and was one of the top attractions of the 1962 Show. It forecasted 1963 (C3) Corvette Sting Ray styling cues. Like the Mako Shark II Concepts, it featured Shark-themed paint, knock-off alloy wheels, and elaborate outside exhausts.
I had just been promoted to Editor of CARS Magazine in 1965, and Joel and I saw it at the Press Preview before the show’s public opening. Neither of us realized that it was just a roller and not a functional, running automobile. After Joel saw the Mako Shark II, he couldn’t stop talking about it; he wanted to build one!
At the time, Joel Rosen had earned his drag racing cred at the wheel of his ’63 split-window, fuel-injected Corvette and a reputation for building and racing fast Corvettes out of Motion Performance, his dyno-tuning shop in Brooklyn. A year or so later he would move, along with his Clayton chassis dynamometer, to a larger facility in Baldwin, LI, NY. I was so enamored of Bill Mitchell’s show-stopper that when our son Stuart was born in 1966, his birth announcement/new-model introduction showcased a Mako Shark II!
It would be approximately five years later before Joel Rosen would meet John Silva, a Corvette enthusiast from Ipswich, MA who had created a replica-bodied Mako Shark II (C3) Corvette, and drove it to Motion Performance. Silva and Rosen had some dealings, ending with Motion building its own molds and creating cloned Shark IIs for customers. It was the dawn of the CORVETTE MACO vs MAKO: SHARK ATTACK!
The 1965 Mako Shark II Concepts, originally designated as XP-830, paved the way for an all-new Gen III 1968 Corvette Stingray. Its pointy “Shark” nose and curvaceous “Coke-Bottle” styling defined what would become the new Corvette styling. Some of the attractions of the show-only variant, above, were exotic outside exhausts and an odd square steering wheel. The functional Mako Shark II, sans outside exhausts and awkward steering wheel, was revealed later at the 1965 Paris Motor Show (Mondial de l’Automobile) in October. One of the Shark Concepts was displayed by GM at its 1965 New York World’s Fair exhibit.
The real Mako Shark II, above with Mako Shark I, was powered by a 427 big-block, an engine option available on 1966 (C2) Sting Rays. The Shark paint theme, championed by Bill Mitchell, a deep-sea fishing enthusiast, was similar to the original Mako Shark I & II show cars. After making the rounds of auto shows, both Shark IIs were returned to GM. The non-functional show car was dismantled, while the running Shark underwent a transformation, morphing into another iconic Corvette Concept, the Manta Ray. It debuted in 1969, powered by a rare, all-aluminum 427 ZL1 big-block (optional on 1969 Corvettes) that had originally been shipped from GM’s Tonawanda, NY engine plant to the Corvette Assembly plant in St. Louis, MO. It is even more dramatic with its tapered boat-tail rear styling than the Mako Shark II and has remained in the Show Car Fleet, maintained at General Motors’ Heritage Center.
In 1971, Joel Rosen cloned the star-power of GM’s (functional) Mako Shark II, but it wasn’t until 1972 that turnkey Motion Maco Sharks and conversion components were ready for marketing. The highly-styled outside exhausts on the original Mako Shark II show car gave way to period-popular chromed outside header-exhausts and production Corvette outside exhaust options on Motion Maco Shark Corvettes.
A duplicate of Rosen’s prototype was ordered by Virginian, George Hoadley, and built for competition on the International Show Car Association (ISCA) circuit. When completed, Rosen personally took the first production Maco Shark on tour, showing it in Canada and the U.S. After a successful trophy-winning season, Rosen delivered it – with its trophies – to Hoadley!
That was then; this is now! Fitted with its original Motion Phase III 350 LT1 small-block with a hot cam, modified heads, 12-to-1 pistons and rated at 460 horsepower, this show-winning Shark, above, has been owned by collector Dan McMichael since 2001. Smallenbarger Auto Restoration, Troy, OH, restored it, and Gary “The Local Brush” Kupfer, who originally painted it before its ISCA show tour, replicated the Shark-themed paint with airbrushed “scales” accentuated by unique painted Sharks. Considered the finest example of a surviving Motion Maco Shark, it will be a feature attraction at the Mecum Auction, January 5-17, 2027, in Kissimmee, FL.
In 1978, Joel Rosen and I were invited by the Swiss Corvette Club International (SCCI) to participate in its annual Euro-Meet in Holland. Approximately two years earlier, I had started VETTE magazine and planned cover shoots and stories about SCCI members’ cars. We spent four glorious days touring the country in Corvettes and enjoying Zandvoort’s Grand Prix circuit, a beautiful course that is surrounded by undulating sand dunes. We also had the opportunity to watch and photograph a Motion Maco Shark, above, compete in show and racetrack events. The car had been built in 1977 for Michael Pottkamper on a barge docked on the Rhine River in Germany! When Joel shipped a Maco Shark Kit to a shop in Germany, he wasn’t aware that the shop was literally on the water. He wouldn’t find this out until he saw the finished Maco Shark and finally met Michael Pottkamper and his wife, Connie, at the SCCI Euro-Meet.
Michael’s Motion Maco Shark had been built by Corvette enthusiast Rolf Gersch, Petty’s Vette Shop, on a barge on the Rhine River. It was docked at a marina, also owned by Gersch. In 1977, Joel visited Rolf Gersch, and upon returning, shipped him a Maco Shark Kit along with permission to build molds and produce and sell kits in Europe. According to Rolf, “We sold Petty’s Vette Shop in 2013 and, after selling six Motion Maco Shark Kits, the molds were destroyed.” (Special thanks to my friend and fellow Sarasota Café Racer, “Sebring Bill” Herron, a friend of Rolf’s for many years, for helping me research the Maco Shark’s European connection.)
GM’s original Mako Shark I & II Corvette Concepts not only revealed the styling cues of the all-new 1963 Corvette Sting Ray &1968 Corvette Stingray, respectively, long before they were in dealership showrooms; they also celebrated the incredible creative talents of the styling teams that worked for GM Design czar, Bill Mitchell. No displays at auto shows attracted as much attention, with crowds six-deep craning their heads to get a look at GM’s futuristic sports cars. Over the years, the Mako Shark II has developed a cult-like following among young and old alike. We recently spotted a Shark aficionado who actually had a Mako Shark II image tattooed on his forearm!
The same holds true for the Manta Ray that was built on the bones of the Mako Shark II and continues to draw crowds at concours and auto museum exhibits. In 2025, the Manta Ray and Mako Shark I were centers of attraction at the Speed – Style – Legacy: The Corvette Story exhibit celebrating America’s iconic sports car at the Saratoga (NY) Automobile Museum, below. Rare Motion Maco Sharks never fail to attract big crowds at classic and custom car shows. GM Design’s 60-plus-years’ Shark styling is truly evergreen, and I don’t think it will ever lose its charismatic appeal!
Photos of Dan McMichael’s Motion Maco Shark: Courtesy of Mecum Auctions, Inc.
Check out Dan McMichael’s CORVETTE MACO vs MAKO: SHARK ATTACK! classic @ https://www.mecum.com/lots/1176298/1970-chevrolet-corvette-motion-performance-maco-shark-coupe/
More information about CORVETTE MACO vs MAKO: SHARK ATTACK! @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mako_Shark_(concept_car)