39 Facts About Pete Brock

Peter Elbert Brock is an American automotive and trailer designer, author and photojournalist, who is best known for his work on the Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe and Corvette Sting Ray.

Pete Brock was first exposed to professional racing when he went to his first road race at Pebble Beach, California in 1951, photographing cars and drivers, including Phil Hill in the 1952 race, but was still too young for a racing driver's license since the SCCA minimum age requirement was 21 at that time.

Pete Brock started looking for something faster than his MG and found a half-completed 1946 Ford convertible on a used car lot.

Pete Brock started in on the customization of the Ford, which included converting the livery into the white and blue American racing scheme.

Pete Brock won the show again with the car in 1956, months before he left California for General Motors in Detroit.

Pete Brock subsequently dropped out, having driven to Los Angeles to enroll at what was then called the Art Center School, later known as the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

At age 19, while still attending Art Center School, Pete Brock became one of the youngest designers ever hired by General Motors' GM Styling design department.

In November 1957, Pete Brock drew the sketch which GM VP of Design Bill Mitchell picked to become the design of the 2nd generation Corvette, the Corvette Stingray.

The production car was renamed the Stingray and was released in 1963 with a rear split window, almost 4 years after Pete Brock had left GM.

In 1959, having now turned 21, which allowed Pete Brock to obtain his SCCA race license, Pete Brock left GM to return to California and become a race car driver.

Pete Brock worked at Shelby American until the end of the 1965 season on the Shelby American brand, creating the logos, merchandise, ads, and car liveries.

Pete Brock designed the Shelby components of the Shelby Mustang GT350s and designed race cars for Shelby such as the Lang Cooper, Nethercutt Mirage, De Tomaso P70 and the Shelby Daytona Cobra coupes that won the FIA GT World Championship in 1965.

In December 1965 Pete Brock started his own design firm and motor racing team, Pete Brock Racing Enterprises which worked with Hino, Toyota, and Datsun.

GT cars Pete Brock designed for BRE clients included the Hino Samurai, the Toyota JP6 and the Triumph TR-250K.

Pete Brock continued racing, now driving his own Lotus 11 MKII and paid rides with a TVR and Mercury in the NASCAR series.

Pete Brock began performance development on the Hino 900, which then evolved into their Hino 1300 Contessa.

When Toyota took over Hino, Pete Brock designed for them the JP6 Prototype.

In 1968 Toyota contracted with Pete Brock to give BRE two Toyota 2000GTs for use in SCCA racing, but when Toyota instead gave the cars to Carroll Shelby, Pete Brock approached Datsun.

The race team was disbanded at the end of the 1972 season when Pete Brock moved on to hang gliding.

Pete Brock stopped and a winded flyer offered him his kite to try it out.

Pete Brock went back to his BRE shop and made a set of high-quality parts to build kites with.

Pete Brock went back to the sand berms and showed them to the flyers.

Pete Brock built UP into the largest hang gliding company in the world and developed the sport of long distance hang gliding competition.

Pete Brock was inducted into the Rogallo Hall of Fame in 2024.

Pete Brock became an instructor at his alma mater, Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California after leaving the world of hang gliding.

In 2013, the 50th anniversary of the '63 split window Corvette, Pete Brock wrote the book: Corvette Sting Ray: Genesis of an American Icon on the development of the 1963 Corvette sharing his insider view of how this iconic car came about.

In 2018, Pete Brock shared the details of the cars he designed while at Shelby American in the book: The Road to Modena: Origins and History of the Shelby-DeTomaso P70 Can-Am Sports Racer.

Pete Brock shared the different design techniques used in the US, which he employed while building the Champion Daytona Cobra Coupe, as compared to the Italian way of designing and building cars which he learned while working in Italy building the Shelby DeTomaso P70, a joint effort by Carroll Shelby and Alejandro de Tomaso in 1964.

Always designing, in 1999 Pete Brock worked with Hi-Tech, a company making automobiles in Port Elizabeth, South Africa to create a modern version of the Daytona Cobra Coupe, called the Pete Brock Coupe.

Pete Brock continues to be active in the automotive industry, giving presentations on automotive history, writing articles and editorials, judging car shows, and designing new automobiles using his original techniques of designing with clay models.

In 2008, Pete Brock designed a lightweight and aerodynamic car trailer called the Aerovault, made of aluminum and composite materials, employing his successful aerodynamic effects with race cars, including a fully skinned underside.

In 2013, Pete Brock was awarded the Phil Hill Award by the Road Racing Drivers Club.

Pete Brock was presented the award at the Daytona Speedway by Bobby Rahal.

In 2016, Pete Brock was awarded the Spirit of Competition Award by the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum.

In 2017, Pete Brock was inducted into the Sports Car Club of America Hall of Fame.

In 2022, Pete Brock was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame.

In 2022, Pete Brock was voted by a worldwide group of his peers to receive the Eyes On Design Lifetime Achievement Award for design.

Later in 2022, Pete Brock was bestowed the American Speed Festival's Master of Motorsports Award.

In 2024, Pete Brock was inducted into the Rogallo Hall of Fame for his groundbreaking work in the field of hang gliding.