Unable to find Dave MacDonald’s Corvette Special, he built his own

In four short years, Dave MacDonald went from zero to 500. His first road race came in 1960. Soon after, some of the biggest icons of the sport came calling to race their cars.

Zora Arkus-Duntov. Carroll Shelby. Mickey Thompson.

With marquee names came marquee events. 12 Hours of Sebring. Daytona 500. Indy 500.

Then it ended.

Second lap. Off Turn 4. A fiery wreck. It took two lives. One was Dave MacDonald’s.

Photograph Courtesy Ernie Nagamatsu

As quickly as he ascended in the racing world, Dave MacDonald dissipated into the sport’s fading memories.

People move on. People pass away. But a few people still remember.

And they want you to, too.

That’s the driving force behind the recreation of the No. 00 Corvette Special that launched the career of Dave MacDonald.

“I was 15 years old when this car was built–and that was my life back then,” says Doug MacDonald, referring to his brother’s Corvette Special. “Shortly after that, my life ended.”

Doug’s world changed on lap two of the Indianapolis 500, May 30, 1964. As Dave came off the final turn, his car slid across the track and into the inside retaining wall, igniting a massive fire. 

Blinded by the smoke, Eddie Sachs ran into the side of MacDonald, creating an even larger fire. Eddie died instantly. Dave perished 2 hours later. He was only 27, and Doug had lost his hero.

Earlier that year, in February, Dave raced another marquee motorsport event for the first time: the Daytona 500. The November before, he finished second in the NASCAR race at Riverside International Raceway while driving the iconic No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford. Two weeks later, it was another runner-up finish at Augusta International Raceway for Holman-Moody Racing.

At the Daytona 500, he teamed up with Ford legend Bill Stroppe to finish 10th in only his sixth-ever NASCAR start.

After that, Dave won his class at the 12 Hours of Sebring while competing for Shelby American. Later in May, he scored the USRRC victory in Kent, Washington, and was first in the drivers’ point standings. He was poised to have a breakout year in 1964.

But it wasn’t meant to be.

Photograph Courtesy Ernie Nagamatsu

When Dave took over the Mickey Thompson-owned Indy cars, they were already notorious for being difficult to handle. In 1963, two-time Formula 1 champion Graham Hill tested one of them and then refused to ever drive them again. Numerous Indy 500 veterans declined to race them. But Dave accepted the challenge.

On Carb Day, the final practice before the Indy 500, another two-time Formula 1 champ, Jim Clark, noticed the erratic behavior of Dave’s car. Reportedly Jim told Dave, “Get out of that car, mate. Just walk away.” 

Dave continued. Over the years, some of the biggest names in the sport had put faith in his ability behind the wheel of their cars, and that arguably contributed to Dave’s confidence level.

The year before, Carroll Shelby had hired him to race his Cobras. He stole Dave away from Chevrolet after seeing his skills firsthand. When Shelby debuted the Cobra at Riverside International Raceway in October 1962, Chevrolet debuted its Z06 Sting Ray with Dave behind the wheel. The Cobra driven by Billy Krause battled tooth and nail with Dave’s Corvette before both entries dropped out due to mechanical failures.

In June 1962, Zora selected two drivers to help develop the Corvette Sting Ray: Dave and Dick Thompson. Dave earned a reputation racing Corvettes, with 28 wins in 64 races over the course of his road racing career. Before that, Dave used Corvettes to set land-speed records and drag race.

The Corvette Special, however, seemed to draw even more attention to Dave. He ran it fewer than a dozen times, from October 1961 to September 1962. Nevertheless, some believe it may have inspired Zora to have GM create the lightweight 1963 Corvette Sting Ray Grand Sport.

Interestingly, Dave’s partner on the Z06 Sting Ray project, Dick Thompson, was known as “The Flying Dentist.” The Corvette Special you see today is owned by another dentist, albeit retired, Dr. Ernie Nagamatsu.

Nagamatsu had something that would help with his recreation: a long relationship with Max Balchowsky, the builder of the original Corvette Special.

Ernie intended to build the Corvette Special in tribute to its builder and his friend, Max Balchowsky, in addition to Dave MacDonald and legendary Sting Ray designer Larry Shinoda. Max earned his fame by creating a series of Old Yeller race cars. The original No. 00 Corvette Special is sometimes referred to as Old Yeller V. Max built the original Corvette Special in collaboration with Dave and Jim Simpson.

Ernie also owns Old Yeller II. Before he acquired that car, he had photographs and other documentation of not only that particular car but other Old Yeller cars.

[The amazing underdog story of Old Yeller II]

“I saw pictures and drawings of [an Old Yeller] X car that was never finished,” Ernie explains. “I said [to Max], ‘I want to finish that project. Here’s a check, and build a chassis just like you did for an Old Yeller chassis.’ 

“So we started, and he welded a chassis and [built] a front suspension unique to him. Working with Max can be difficult–he’s a very independent, spirited guy–so I parked the project. For over 30 years, it sat.”

Meanwhile, Ernie came across a story about the Old Yeller V car.

“I knew Old Yeller V was a Dave MacDonald Corvette Special,” Ernie recalls. “There was a car dealer in Hawaii that bought the car. So, it was sent back to the mainland to race at Kent, Washington, in ’62, and Dave raced it. That was the last race for the No. 00 Corvette Special. Then they shipped it back to Hawaii. Some writer said it was last seen in a junkyard near an airport in Oahu.”

Ernie never found the original No.00 Corvette Special, but the wheels in his head started turning. “I’ve great bones, so to speak,” Ernie recalls. “I have a real chassis welded by Max. I have suspension parts. I had a dozen torsion bars ready for the Old Yeller, and other bits and pieces. I also discovered a Pontiac drum [brake] with a Max Balchowsky-drilled backing plate … and it was damaged. 

“Max only used Pontiac on one car, and that was the Dave MacDonald Corvette Special. That was because it was Dave’s request. There was one race where the wheel came off … and I think this is the original [backing plate].”

Another connection to Dave MacDonald: Nagamatsu has also run a Cobra fitted with a hardtop from the very car that MacDonald drove for Shelby.

Ernie never met Dave MacDonald, but he’s crossed paths with Dave over the years. For example, Ernie also has a Shelby Cobra 289, No. CSX2203, which he has raced for 30 years. It’s the same car that battled Herbie the Love Bug at Riverside International Raceway in the 1969 film.

“A friend of mine bought a Cobra with a Le Mans hardtop, and they had only made three,” Ernie explains. “One went to England, one went to France, and one went to Carroll Shelby. [Shelby] used that hardtop one time [in racing], and that was the Continental Divide, and the driver was Dave MacDonald. 

“So I, for 25 years or more, had raced [my friend’s] Cobra under the roof that Dave MacDonald had raced under. The guy who bought the Cobra knew I had the hardtop that raced that one time, and I sold it to him.”

The connection gets deeper.

“A friend of mine was a dentist, and he had a Speedster, and he took me to Riverside [International Raceway] and went around a lap,” Ernie remembers. “I said, ‘Wow, a race car.’ So I thought I better learn about this. The first race I went to was at Dodger Stadium. They had this race one time. I went alone. I don’t know why I went. I didn’t know anything about cars. So I go to that race, and Dave MacDonald won in a Cobra.”

That one race led to a lifetime preoccupation with the sport and eventually down the road to recreating the No. 00 Corvette Special that Dave MacDonald once ran.

By the time Ernie got to building the No. 00 Corvette Special, Max Balchowsky had passed away. Dave MacDonald, of course, was no longer around, either. However, Ernie had a wealth of documentation, photographs and one key magazine illustration.

“There was a Sports Car Graphic magazine,” says Ernie. “They had a cutaway of the car. The cutaway is very clear. And there were articles explaining this and explaining that.”

Doug, despite being only 15 at the time of building the car, provided valuable input, too.

“The trumpet exhaust, [Doug] told me he put baffles inside from a motorcycle and he gave me the model of the motorcycle,” Ernie says. “People thought the baffles helped torque range.”

In March 2020, Ernie took the chassis Max had built, complete with its unique suspension, and the research he had done and brought it to the Hot Rod Fabrication Shop in Orange County, California. There, they recreated the original No. 00 Corvette Special, which made its debut in July 2023 at Kent, Washington, the site of the original car’s last appearance and Dave’s final win.

"Dave said, ‘Racing this car is unnerving,’” says Ernie. “So he took it to Frank Kurtis, of Indy fame, [to set it up]. He was used to sliding a car, and Max had set it up differently than Dave liked. He struggled for a little while.”

Dave eventually earned wins with the Corvette Special. They did call Dave MacDonald the “master of oversteer,” after all, as he was completely comfortable manhandling the wildest of cars.

“It’s a handful,” says Ernie of the Corvette Special. “It’s the same track, wheelbase of an Old Yeller, but it’s a big difference between a monster Buick Nailhead and a 327 Fuelie. This is super lightweight with a paper-thin fiberglass body. We’re coming in at 2000 pounds with me in the car. It’s a rocket.”

But Ernie didn’t build this car to necessarily win in vintage racing. He had other plans.

“Our mission was certainly to pay tribute to Dave,” says Ernie, “but [his] family is important, because this car was so important to them. We wanted to share that.”

Part of the family includes Dave’s son, Rich. Rich was only 6 when his father passed away. At the time the car made its on-track debut, Rich was being treated for an aggressive form of cancer. Last year, Rich got the opportunity of a lifetime at Kent, Washington, before he succumbed to the terrible disease in May.

“They shut the track down and he got in the 00,” says Ernie. “They gave him a solo lap, by himself. It was very emotional. Before he went out, he held my hand tight and said, ‘Ernie, I don’t know how many days I have left, but this is the best day of my life. Dad is watching.’”

During last year’s Monterey Car Week, Ernie wanted to let Rich drive the car from The Quail to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. “The car’s not the best,” Ernie says of its racing condition while at Laguna Seca. “I’m focusing everything on The Quail run. We’re here for that. We can race for any time.”

And a third tie to the past: Nagamatsu also goes back with Peter Brock, the first employee at Shelby American who, previously, worked for Balchowsky.

Rich, unfortunately, wound up in the hospital due to complications from his illness. Instead, his Uncle Doug, Dave’s brother, got to ride in the car. Ernie says Doug kept repeating, “I’m 15 again. I’m 15 again.”

“It’s all coming back, those memories,” Doug says. “I’m just so happy, especially since he recreated it in such exact detail.”

Doug hopes this car draws attention to the hero he idolized as a kid.

“I want people to remember Dave,” says Doug. “He only road raced for four years, but he helped make Corvette famous. He helped make the Cobra famous.”

Thanks to Dr. Ernie Nagamatsu, Dave MacDonald isn’t just a memory for those who knew him. Now a new generation is developing memories of the No. 00 Corvette Special and discovering the incredible impact Dave had on the sport.

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