X-Sonic

This is THE car that set the custom world on it's ass, and changed customizing forever. Lemme School ya'll this little corvette was the first car with a bubble top, ther first car with hydro pumps out of a B-52 bomber to raise and lower the car, and the first remote powered car remotes to pop the bubble, hood, work the hydros and drive and steer the car.....one young mexican and a corvette and a dream.

In 1959, Ron Aguirre took a 1956 Corvette and built a fairly mild custom just in time for the 1960 Roadster Show. Through the next 18 months or so, Ron continued to show the car while making minor adjustments to paint and body work. The car looked good and showed well, but Ron wanted something more. Undaunted, he tore into the Vette with aspirations of creating something truly unique.
He started with the suspension. I’m unsure of the accuracy of such a statement, but many consider the X-Sonic to be the first car to feature an adjustable hydraulic suspension. Whether or not it was the first, the feature certainly caught the attention of such publications as Rod & Custom and MotorTrend.
“The Space Age X-Sonic featuring Hydo-Suspension!”
“Wild Vette operates entirely through electronic magic!”
With the variable stance in hand, Ron moved on to the body. Through the years he had reformed the fiberglass body to add strange ground effects, quad lights, and fins, but this time Ron wanted something even more outlandish. He started with pontoon shaped front fenders that rolled back gracefully to the previously formed rear fins. The headlights were then hid behind the concave Opel grille. Still, the shape Ron wanted wasn’t popping… The addition of a bubble top finally got the car over the hump.
The interior is typical 60’s show fair with one exception - there is no steering wheel or joystick. Inexplicably, the X-Sonic had “push button” steering. Now, I’ve got no clue how such a device would work… and while you would think that the bubble top would have already rendered the car useless as a street car, I’ve actually heard folks talk about seeing Ron bomb around The San Bernadino/Riverside area fairly regularly in the car.
In any case, I love the shape of the X-Sonic. And to prove my buddy wrong, I thought I would shout to the world that this very well might be (there is a Gene Winfield asymmetrical car I’m in love with too) my favorite “custom rod” ever built - crazy steering and bubble top and all.