The Ridler Award is one of most prestigious awards in hot rodding. It is awarded at the Autorama, held annually in Detroit, and the winner is chosen from the Great 8 show cars. Placing in the Great 8 is a massive accomplishment by itself, which is where the car-building father-and-son team of Steve and Steven Sheats found themselves at this year’s event with their recently completed 1959 Corvette named XS Live.
Steve Sheats had wanted a 1959 Corvette for a long time. He found this one more than 10 years ago, chasing it down in Nevada with a plan to turn it into a modern supercar with 1959 Corvette styling. His original vision was to make it a nice driver, but things snowballed as they tend to do when building a classic car.
Steve and his son built the car at their shop, True Colors Customs, based in Brighton, Colorado. As the build progressed, they decided to submit the car for consideration for the Ridler award. When Steve looked at the cars he was going up against for such a prestigious award, it got even more serious.
XS Live is built on a complete Art Morrison chassis with coil-overs all around and a 700-horsepower LS7 with a TREMEC Magnum 6-speed transmission. There are lots of custom body mods – some obvious and some very subtle – all painted in a striking PPG Blood Orange.
The car wasn’t finished until midnight before loading in the trailer to head to the Autorama in Detroit. Steve and Steven look forward to driving the car and showing off all of the craftsmanship that they put into their creation.
