Bone-stock Looks With Modern Performance

It May Look Like a Plain Old 1960 Corvette, But It’s Not 
 

- Taylor Kempkes

When you begin work on the project car of your dreams, you don’t usually plan on starting up a successful company along with it. Such is the case with Barry Perlin of Chesterton, Indiana, a practicing dentist whose 1960 Corvette spawned a whole new business of its own.

He was looking to build a stock appearing 1960 Corvette but wanted more performance than the stock parts would allow. One of the limiting factors being the scrawny 15-inch steel wheels that required thin tires, normally with wide whitewalls—not optimal for taking corners at speed. He had seen a few custom builds where wheels with mock white walls were used, but the price was insanely high. To combat this, he made it his goal to create a 20-inch wheel with simulated whitewalls at a more affordable price point.

Soon thereafter, Barry, with the help of his friend Jason Coleman who is a CAD designer by trade, started Deluxe Wheel Company (www.deluxewheels.com).

They offer a 20-inch wheel that replicates a 15-inch steel wheel with a 2 1/2-inch sidewall. The larger wheel diameter allows for a high-performance, low-profile tire to be used as well as more clearance for upgraded disc brakes.

So where did this whole thing start anyway? Well, after years of wanting to build a car that was the same age as himself, Barry finally picked up a 1960 Corvette. At first he thought he was settling for “close enough” since he was born in 1959, but he soon found out the car’s build date was actually December 1959, just a couple of months after he was born. Better yet, as he dove into restoring the Corvette, Barry found a date-stamp on the speedometer that read October 28, 1959—the day after he was born!