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Most restomods start with a car. This one starts with a Corvette and ends up as something that barely resembles one. A one-off 2019 Velocity EXO-Silhouette, a tube-frame exoskeleton wrapped around the LS1, six-speed transaxle and suspension of a 1998 C5 Corvette, is live on Bring a Trailer, where bidding stood at $5,100 as of this writing. The auction ends Sunday, October 25.
A Car Built Around Its Frame
According to the listing, the builder is the seller, Jay Taylor, who designed and constructed the Silhouette before selling the Velocity EXO design to Flat Out Autos of Jonesboro, Arkansas. He describes it as a limited-production prototype completed in 2019. The structure is the styling: a TIG-welded tubular steel external frame finished in red paint, a MIG-welded interior cage, black Haartz canvas panels, a removable roof panel, a removable glass rear window and dihedral door bars.
The seller puts the car at roughly 14 feet long, 7 feet 2 inches wide and 4 feet tall, weighing approximately 2,500 pounds. Those are seller figures, not independently verified. The EXO name itself belongs to a small family of exoskeleton kit cars. Rare Car Network has described the Velocity EXO as a Colorado-area kit that appeared around 2016, with values in the neighborhood of $30,000.
The C5 Corvette Underneath
The donor was a 34,000-mile 1998 C5 Corvette. From it came the 5.7-liter LS1 V8, the Borg-Warner T-56 six-speed manual transaxle, the independent suspension and the disc brakes, which are fed by a Wilwood dual-circuit master cylinder. Up front the car uses QA1 adjustable coilovers, and the rear keeps the Corvette's transverse leaf spring setup. The 20-inch Fuel Off-Road wheels are wrapped in 235/30 front and 345/25 rear Nitto Invo tires.
Additional hardware includes an aftermarket intake, an aluminum radiator with the Corvette's dual electric fans, a 12-gallon fuel cell and a custom exhaust with three Magnaflow mufflers. The listing does not claim a horsepower figure. A stock 1998 LS1 was rated at 345 horsepower, which, in a car the seller says weighs about 2,500 pounds, is the whole idea.
The cabin is a mix of purpose and comfort. Heated bucket seats from a 2010 Volkswagen Passat, with a power-adjustable driver's side, sit in front of a vinyl-trimmed dash with red stitching. There is a MOMO steering wheel, a 7-inch touchscreen navigation head unit, push-button ignition, coolant-fed footwell heaters and three-point belts. The Corvette's digital speedometer is mounted near the A-pillar.
What to Know Before Bidding
Paperwork is the part to read closely. The car is offered with a salvage title for the donor Corvette and a clean Colorado title in the seller's name listing it as a 2019 Assembled Vehicle. The seller estimates about 200 miles have been added since the build was completed, and total mileage is unknown. An oil change was done in September 2026.
In the comments, the seller said the car is street legal in most states, including its hi-lo LED headlights, but that California, New York and possibly others may require catalytic converters. That is a seller claim, so a buyer should check local registration rules first. The car is in Denver, Colorado, and the buyer arranges shipping.
Why It's Worth Watching
A C5 donor hands a builder a proven LS1, a rear-mounted transaxle and a modern independent suspension, and this build shows what happens when the body is treated as an afterthought. Motorious has covered other oddball takes on C5 hardware, including Corvoucus, an LS-powered Ford Focus on a C5 Corvette chassis. For a more conventional route with the same engine family, there is a supercharged 2000 Corvette C5 street sleeper, and the Coolest Restomods On Motorious roundup and 5 Strange Cars at Auction Right Now cover more unusual builds.
This 2019 Velocity EXO-Silhouette is up for bid now. See the full listing on Bring a Trailer for the photo gallery, build details and seller comments.
