The Chevrolet Corvette made its debut in 1953, marking the first, and arguably the best, generation for the iconic sports car. Crazy as it seems, an owner of one of these first generation jewels wasn’t satisfied and made a call to Pogea Racing to give his 1959 Corvette some "modern" treatment. Now that classic sports car can boast of "contemporary driving characteristics, a terrifically powerful engine, dependable brakes and a refined vehicle interior with classic bodywork."

One of the things we are certain the Corvette had when it entered Pogea Racing’s shop was class, so getting it to the next level would seem to be an easy task. For this, Pogea Racing painted the Corvette in a classic combination of the original Ferrari colors, Rosso and Bianco. That’s red and white for us common folks. The Corvette was then given a generously-sized sports brake system taken from the Corvette LS5 and a new set of 18" racing wheels to top it off.

The red and white motif continues to the interior where the tuning company also added a combination of carpeting and smooth leather. A Vallelunga steering wheel with flattened lower rim was also added for that modern touch, as was Cobra seats, an Alpine multi-media system including satnav, a retro-fitted AC unit, and servo-steering.

A modern edge could not be complete without an ode to the powerful engines of our time, so Pogea Racing slapped in a new 6.2-liter LS3 V8 engine to replace the small block V8 engine in the original model. This left the Corvette with 485 HP at 4400 rpm and 431 lbs-ft at 6200 rpm, an increase from the original 283 HP. In addition to the engine swap, the tuner also installed aggressive camshafts and a direct, open intake with tip cone filter, plus a tuned exhaust flow. The result is a 0 to 60 mph sprint time of 3.9 seconds and a top speed of 179 mph.