The 1957 Chevy Black Widow is one of those rare cars that is loved and remembered as much for its build as it is for its backstory. The Black Widow was never a distinct machine by itself; instead, it was built off the 1957 Chevy 150 two-door sedan, which was a robust, lightweight, and pocket-friendly option. In fact, the ’57 Black Widow was initially nothing more than a special equipment package that did not even come from Chevrolet’s official factory line.
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After the 1955 Le Mans tragedy, where the French driver Pierre Levegh’s silver Mercedes crashed into the side stand and killed close to 80 people, racing was viewed as a starkly risky sport. This led to GM withdrawing its official support from racing teams. However, off the radar, GM established SEDCO under the leadership of Vince Piggins, a former Hudson engineer, which led to the inception of several iconic cars in the years to come, including the Black Widow.
The formula for building the first Black Widow, which debuted on the NASCAR circuit, was fairly simple — it was Chevy’s lightest sedan equipped with a ridiculously powerful engine. Though the engine of the car was certainly an attention grabber, it was the other minor tweaks and modifications that made it a raging success.
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[Featured image by sv1ambo via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY 2.0]