What I'd Do Differently: Peter Brock
Designer of the Shelby Daytona Cobra coupe, Brock, 76, helped style the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray, built championship hang gliders, watched Alejandro de Tomaso abuse his workers, and feuded bitterly with Carroll Shelby.
C/D: You attended Art Center?
PB: I walked in the back door, sat in on some classes, and was blown away. They said, “This is professionals teaching professionals—you’ll have to show us your portfolio.” I didn’t know what that was. So I sat in my car for 90 minutes and drew little sketches of cars, walked back in and said, “Is this what you need?”
C/D: Did your family support that?
PB: Mom wanted me to be an architect.
C/D: You helped style the C2 Corvette?
PB: At GM, we called the [precursor] car the “Stingray racer.” I did a sketch in November 1957 and Bill Mitchell said, “That’s the direction I want to go.” My sketch was almost identical to the car that came out in ’63. Tony Lapine and Larry Shinoda did the refinement, but I feel like I did the original.
C/D: When you worked for Carroll Shelby, the staff was skeptical of your Daytona Cobra coupe?
PB: For a while, they refused to work on it, thought it was ugly, called it “Brock’s Folly” or “that piece of shit.” But then it was 3.5 seconds faster [than the Cobra roadster] at Riverside. Carroll said, “I want everyone to dive in and help build this car for Daytona.” That’s how it got its name—it was just “the Daytona car.” The next five coupes were built in Modena [1964–65]. The Italians said to me, “That’s a terrible-looking thing.”
C/D: Shelby doubted the coupe’s aero?
PB: He had Benny Howard, a famous aeronautical engineer, look at it. Benny said, “That’ll never work, all that bullshit around the roofline.” I said to Carroll, “Benny knows about airplanes. He doesn’t know about cars.” Carroll looked me in the eyes and said, “You better be right.”
C/D: You never bought one for yourself?
PB: I wish. That first California car eventually set FIA records with Craig Breedlove at Bonneville. The salt chewed it up so bad that the headlights were falling out. Back at the shop, Carroll said to us, “Anyone wanna buy it for $800?” We all turned it down.
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C/D: What was Shelby like as a boss?
PB: Well, he could be suave with women. But [Ford racing boss] Jacque Passino once told me, “That old chicken farmer is so dumb that I have to have three lawyers around me or I’ll lose my wallet and my pants.” Carroll was a good driver, but he didn’t know much about cars, so he surrounded himself with guys who did. He was selective about what he tried, so he came off as a guy who knew what he was doing. Man, he could lay that Texas accent on so thick you couldn’t understand a word, then he’d fly to Detroit and speak perfect English.
C/D: The two of you had quite a feud?
PB: I had a contract with Toyota to race 2000GTs in ’67. But Carroll scooped me on that deal. He would never admit it and never apologized for undercutting me like that. We became enemies, didn’t really speak for 20 years.
C/D: Why didn’t you become another Chip Ganassi or Carl Haas?
PB: It was hardly intentional on my part. My team wanted to go Indy racing or to F5000. When our F5000 car got totaled in Atlanta, that was the end of my ambitions to go racing.
C/D: Of all the things you’ve invented and created, what’s been your favorite?
PB: I made some good hang gliders—took the sport from hippies running them off the beach to winning cross-country world championships. That, plus winning a world title for Cobra.
C/D: What was industrialist Alejandro de Tomaso like?
PB: At his factory [de Tomaso built the Brock-designed P70 sports racer], he’d say, “Watch this,” and he’d start screaming at the top of his lungs at the workers until they were cowering. Then he’d say to me, “Interesting, huh? That’s the way you get things done.” Enzo Ferrari, Colin Chapman, Jack Brabham—all the same. Guys from that era were pure sons of bitches. Only guy I worked with who wasn’t was Dan Gurney. Polite, had a smile for everyone.
C/D: Do you still draw cars for fun?
PB: Absolutely. With pencil and paper, not a computer. Do it by hand; it’s the only way to form shapes that look good from every angle.
C/D: Is there anything you would have done differently?
PB: When I was at Shelby, I drew a 427 Daytona coupe—wider and set up for new tires and suspension—to be built in Italy. But through politics at Ford, it ended up being built in England. I wasn’t in control. The car came out ugly, a horror story. When I see it today, I want to run and hide.
