5 of the Most Legendary Production Cars That Featured Fiberglass Bodies

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Mainly because they wanted to reduce weight as much as possible and maximize performance, several manufacturers have opted to equip their high-performance cars with fiberglass bodies.

Glass fiber reinforced plastic composites, most commonly referred to as fiberglass, have been used on numerous occasions in the automotive industry.

Thanks to better overall weight and corrosion protection, fiberglass has been used for some or all body panels in motorsport and the kit car segment.

However, the advantages brought forth by fiberglass ultimately led to its use on some mass-produced models, such as the five legends in this article.

Chevrolet Corvette

General Motors'

flagship sports car for over seven decades, the Corvette was one of the very first production models to receive a full fiberglass body.

Unveiled at the GM Motorama in January 1953, the Corvette was an instant hit thanks to its combination of European sports car-inspired styling, built quality, reliability, and affordability.

Though there were plenty of concerns about the built quality and long-term reliability of a fiberglass body, and a steel one was considered right until the start of production, Chevy went ahead with the composite and proved that it could be successfully used in a mass-produced car.

The first generation, built from 1953 to 1962, wasn't the only

Corvette to feature a fiberglass body.

The composite continued to be used on subsequent generations. However, from mid-1973 onwards, Chevy switched to a proprietary composite it called SMC (sheet-molded compound), a reinforced polyester that features carbon or glass fibers.

Today, carbon fiber is the go-to composite for carmakers who want something better than steel or aluminum, but the current C8 Corvette continues to use SMC for most of its panels.

Studebaker Avanti

Long forgotten by the vast majority of enthusiasts,

Studebaker was an American car manufacturer that produced some very intriguing cars throughout its history.

Arguably, the most intriguing Studebaker was the Avanti, which was one of the last models produced by the company before its merger with Packard.

The Avanti was a combination of a personal luxury coupe and a thoroughbred sports car.

Produced from 1962 to 1963 in fewer than 4,600 examples, the model featured components from other Studebakers but received an aerodynamic body fabricated using fiberglass.

The low drag coefficient and low weight of the body, combined with the potent 289-ci (4.7-liter) Studebaker V8 that made up to 290 hp with the optional Paxton supercharger made the Avanti one of the fastest American production cars of its era.

Unfortunately, the company's financial issues ended the production of the Avanti prematurely, and the model, which was way ahead of its time, never got the exposure and respect it deserved.

BMW M1

During the second part of the 1970s, BMW decided to step outside of its comfort zone by creating the brand's first-ever mid-engine supercar.

To do that, the Bavarians entered a partnership with Italian manufacturer Lamborghini and styling powerhouse Italdesign.

The initial plan was to have Lambo help with development and also head the assembly process, but due to the Italian carmaker's failure to meet deadlines, the BMW supercar was ultimately finished and assembled in Germany.

Dubbed M1, the

mid-engine beauty looked more exotic than any other BMW production car before it.

The beautiful Giorgetto Giugiaro-designed body, inspired by the 1972 BMW Turbo concept, was fabricated entirely using fiberglass to reduce overall weight.

The M1 needed the weight reduction since BMW opted to equip it with a 3.5-liter inline-six that made 273 hp.

Even by 1970s standards, that wasn't very much for an advanced sports car, but in the end, the M1 was capable of a more-than-decent 5.6-second acceleration from 0 to 60 mph (97 kph).

Ferrari 308 GTB Vetroresina

Introduced in 1975, the Ferrari 308 GTB (or 308 GTS in targa-topped guise) marked a switch in strategy for the Italian carmaker.

For the first time, an entry-level production model with Ferrari badges came with a mid-mounted V8 and a proper, Pininfarina-designed body, which made it far more appealing than the outgoing Dino 308 GT4.

While praised for its looks and use of a V8, the 308 was criticized from the get-go for its lack of power. Though a Ferrari V8, the 308's motor only made 252 hp in Euro modes and 237 for those exported to the US.

Ferrari was well aware of its modest output figure, so its engineers attempted to counteract that by reducing the overall weight of the car.

Most of the weight reduction was achieved by commissioning Carozzeria Scagletti to fabricate the body out of fiberglass (vetroresina, in Italian), which made the 308 GTB the first-ever Ferrari road car to feature a fiberglass body.

However, only about 800 fiberglass-bodied units were produced before the company decided to switch to steel bodies.

Ford RS200

Ford wanted to dominate the rally world in the early 1980s and created a very special car on the backbones of the Mk III Escort.

Dubbed Escort RS1700T, the car showed a lot of promise, but several issues delayed the project on several occasions, and executives eventually decided to cancel everything.

Still, Ford didn't give up on its dreams of WRC dominance, so a new project was started.

That new project resulted in the Ford RS200, a bespoke Group B monster with a mid-mounted engine and 4WD.

The RS200 got to compete in the WRC but its involvement in a serious accident that led to the cancelation of the Group B also led to its early demise.

Still, the street-legal version built for homologation purposes became one of the wildest production models ever built by Ford.

Whether in street-legal or competition guise, the RS200 featured a fiberglass body designed and fabricated in Italy by Carrozzeria Ghia.