The SS Dolphin is the hybrid “Corvette” you never knew you wanted

[Bryan]

Americana is alive and well in China: Be it my buddy getting paid ¥100 an hour in his ex-pat days to teach the son of a government official’s mistress how to speak English with an American accent (meeting at the local Starbucks, ‘natch) or Songsan Motors’ latest creation. The latter is, ahem, heavily influenced by Chevrolet’s first-generation flagship sports car. Your eyes do not deceive you—the SS Dolphin is indeed Songsan’s turbocharged, plug-in-hybrid-powered take on the 1958 Corvette.

Maybe we aren’t so very different after all?

Read the full article on Hagerty.com:

https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-ss-dolphin-is-the-hybrid-corvette-you-never-knew-you-wanted/

[BillL]

Disgusting.

[Maestro1]

It's absurd, and an interesting idea. The Interior is atrocious with all the techno crap. It should have '58 Interior design. I don't use Facebook nor other social media which is for juveniles and idiots, so I do not subscribe to the China tech thing. Gullwing Motors in New York at one point had a project 57 Corvette, one of my favorite years, and I'm not a Corvette fan, and I almost called Peter Kumar and bought it just to see if I could modernize it without losing any of the essential design qualities, stance, and so on. 

The car for sale was black, which is want i wanted, with a Beige Interior and a mess. 

Starting with an Art Forstman chassis and forward (upwards) from there, I would have made it mine, with no intention of selling it. After adding up the numbers including a labor estimate, I can't do my own wrenching any more due to health reasons, and the approximate time involved (I'm not getting any younger) I passed on the dream. 

A piece of advice to the Hagerty family other than wear a mask: Don't pass on your dreams.

[Vintageboater]

Seriously? The country that thought using two sticks to eat rice was a good idea has come up with another engineering marvel.  Advice to GM: don't wait for those royalty checks.

[okfoz]

The front shot and the rear shot look ok.  But the side shot clearly shows the poor proportions.  

[Pinks]

Clown car!

[hyperv6]

I still have no want of this!

What is worse than a copy is a bad copy. 

[Truck37]

Some things (like the beautiful '58 Corvette and the original Ghostbusters movie) should be left alone.

[BobR]

"what a pretty little car!" (say's the Chinese microchip surgically implanted in my brain while I was drugged and kidnapped...) 

[GoldSS]

Where is the "Dislike" button we need it?

[TrustyRusty]

What a piece of CRAP!  Why would you sully your image putting such a travesty on your website?

[MRHudgins]

Just a really dumb looking car!

[Mockingbird]

That hurts to look at

[pawl7295]

2020 CoVitte   

[Beestly]

Hagerty,  if you want to highlight a classic Chinese built car, fine, but please don’t glamorize, endorse or give free ad space to corrupt Chinese manufacturing.  We don’t want to see it, even if it is tongue in cheek coverage of an ugly Corvette knock off.   They’ve blatantly stolen billions of dollars in trademarked, copyrighted and patented physical, electronic and intellectual property from hard-working Americans for long enough.  

[40Ford]

"OK, so here's the deal . . . . ." 

Picked that up last night 🙂

[Okey78]

Remember those Ferrari 308 body kits for the Fiero, or the Kelmark GT attempt to look like a Dino?  This of that ilk.

The ChiComs either need to get a better copier, or better thieves.  Big time "swing and a miss".

[Okey78]

Maybe they forced enslaved Uighurs to design the body, and the Uighurs got their revenge.

[roundhousedog1]

No Chinese copy for me.

[Motown454]

One word UGLY! That long front end, count me out.

[VancMike]

Styling is just off kilter enough at first glance to think, "Hey, something's not right..." Then you realize nothing is right.  And if you're going to make a car for the 21st century, where are the cupholders?  (I jest)

[Flashman]

I love your little stylistic touch of stroking out words to insert the true meaning.

[ctclark99]

Chinese? NO F-ING INTEREST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(looks like sh— too!!!!!!!!!!)

[TonyT]

That deafening whirring sound is not coming from this... car. It's Bill Mitchell hitting 9,000 RPM in his grave.

[SilentBoy741]

The Daniel Baldwin of sports cars.

[Alfanorth]

About as appealing as the virus...

[erne75]

Chinese car, hybrid and automatic...Damn, this thing does less than nothing for me!

[jimliberty]

If bit comes from chinese flu china. I don't want it.   ...Jim.

[Papa-tony]

I'm afraid I'll have to agree with what every one else said... and more!

[AZDon]

Butt ugly communist POS.  Don’t buy Chinese.....  

[jc340]

Confucius  says he's confused.   EEEWWWWW.

[1d1a2d2a]

I LOVE IT !!!!!!!!! It shows just how far up their own butts some people can be to butcher

art in the name of capitalism. A total disregard for design and balance. Maybe it looks longer when you squint.

[Frank]

My Gawd !!! What a bunch of conservative, closed-minded, Luddites !!!

(Look it up).

[carguyjim]

awful... the scale and dimensions are cartoonish... Borrowing design cues can be meaningful from a design standpoint... This misses that mark entirely....

[Frank]

Hey, if you liked the Dolphin, you'll love their van, the Summer. Type 1 Volkswagen bus.

[jd426]

How perfectly ghastly.

[Hagerty Fan]

I'll never understand why American industry is in such a hurry to go to bed with countries that want to kill us.

[farna]

While it definitely resembles a 58 Corvette, I don't think there is any copyright infringement. Roxor makes a copy of an early Jeep. They were sued by Jeep over the grille, whose seven slot shape IS copyrighted. So they changed the grille. There is no copyright on the overall design, might be on a couple design elements. It's not like anyone would mistake this for a 58 Corvette... maybe from the rear, at a distance, but that's about all. Proportions are wrong, as noted. Maybe someone not familiar with 'vettes ould at a distance, but anyone who has ever seen a late 50s model would realize something just isn't right once they got closer. Remember, a Taiwanese company made a complete steel copy of the Mustang and early Camaro, close enough that they could be used as repair parts and fit originals. Not turn-key drivers, but complete bodies, add original or repro front suspension, drivetrain, and interior parts, and have a new bodied car, no rust! The steel was actually slightly thinner yet stronger than the originals.

There isn't much "made in America" anymore -- not totally anyway. I've seen "assembled in xxxx from US made components" and "Assembled in US", sometimes stating from components in one or more countries, sometimes just stopping there....   If it can't be made using mostly machines it's probably mostly (if not all) made somewhere else.

[MarkThistel]

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  No I wouldn't buy it, unless GM is getting the credit and serious royalties which they're not, because after all we're dealing with the Chinese.  That said, doesn't anyone else find it interesting that our enemies out there find us so compelling?  The American Icon lives, despite the mess we're in at the moment. 

[acooper529]

Looks like one of those die-cast metal toy cars with the doors that open? They go for something like $5 to $10 bucks, right? I think I have one at home in red and white? Sits over the fireplace , not in the garage with the real stuff!

[GoldSS]

Sum ting wong         More like the SS Minnow

[GTM]

Use it for a Shanghai Disneyland ride ... 

[toy83h2ssj53]

Used to be that tools were marked with the country of origin. I bought one of the ratchet combo wrenches at Ace Hardware, since they're advertising "buy American". Got curious and started looking at the wrench - nicely chromed, feels good in the hand, but no marks or indication as to its origin.  When I was back at Ace sometime later, I asked to see one of the ratchet combo wrenches, to see if there was any label or anything. Nice little "made in china" notation on the removable wall hanger/label. So once the paper hanger is gone, so is the origin information. It apparently was my misguided understanding that we had a law in this country that merchandise had to have country of origin embossed or labeled permanently on the article, but in our current state, laws are meant to be ignored. So if there is no label on the merchandise, I must figure it came from china.

[chrlsful]

"...copyright infringement ..."

    my thought ex-aka-lee.

And so what will be done? nuttin's my bet~

[MMC]

JUNK, PLAIN AND SIMPLE. THE QUESTION IS WHY THE UNITED STATES IS DEALING WITH A COMMUNIST COUNTRY & ALLOWING THEIR PRODUCTS TO BE SOLD HERE.  WHEN DID THIS START AND WHO IS RESPONSIBLE. GENERAL MOTORS HAS PLANTS THERE, BUT BASICALLY HAS CEASED OPERATIONS IN AUSTRALIA ? I READ WHERE CHINA IS THE BIGGEST MARKET FOR CADILLAC,,,,,,, 

[Smokefoot55]

No, don't want. 1) Hideous caricature of a Corvette. 2) Hybrid 3) Made in China. 4) Front wheel drive. 5) Insanely expensive for what it is. I could come up with more but for me it only takes one of these to take me off the "interested" list. 

[CHJ]

Beautiful 1958 Corvette. I bought a racing green 1958 Corvette convertible in 1970 for $900 and drove it home in Missouri. It later caught on fire from a carburetor leak and burned completely. My insurance company wrote me a check for the $900 a week later.

My wife and two year daughter were in the Corvette in Lee's Summit, MO. and escaped without a scratch, but mentally horrified with the fire. I had big plans for that old Corvette, but never happened. Herb Jenkins  

[TimK]

This is the 2nd time I looked at this story and I still don't want that ugly Chinese thing.

[3304HL]

"the hybrid "Corvette" you never knew you wanted"

and never will... 

Frankenvette!

[DougL]

I think it is pretty cool. Could have done better on the dash. It wouldn't have been hard to do an electronic imitation of the Corvette dash. Is this any worse than the many kit cars available that copy earlier designs? Not to my mind. Does intellectual property still apply after all these years? Need to talk to a lawyer about that. 

[yobbo]

"...something as tiny as the original Corvette."

The original Corvette was not all that tiny, there would be no need to "cut corners".

1955 Corvette 102" wheelbase
1997 Prius 100" wheelbase
2008 BYD 102" wheelbase

The short front end means a big rear end, it would have more trunk room than a C8.

Warren Buffet owns 25% of BYD. BYD just signed a joint venture with Toyota.

Going retro re-vitalized the Mustang.
GM sales dropped 25% from 10M in 2016 to 7 1/2M last year.
The Chevy Volt has been killed off.

Could this turn up on Chevrolet showrooms alongside the Corvette C8?