Manufacturer

From the 1950s until just before his death in 1985, Vince Piggins was one of the most imaginative and effective business leaders in racing. He began at Hudson where he nurtured the Fabulous Hudson Hornets that dominated NASCAR and established the model for manufacturer involvement that remains to present day. Moving to Chevrolet in the mid-1950s he achieved similar success on the track and turned the small-block Chevy into the most dominant engine in racing history. During the ‘60s Piggins was the driving force behind the development of the Z/28 Camaro, which won multiple SCCA Trans-Am championships and turned Camaro into a nameplate still synonymous with performance over a half-century later. He signed the deal with Bruce McLaren that made aluminum block Chevy power dominate the Can-Am series and fueled the rise of Chevy power in drag racing with legends like Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins. And he did it all while carefully toeing the line of a corporate culture that shunned direct involvement in racing. Piggins was the first inductee into the Chevrolet Hall of Fame.