“Confident, poised, and every bit as capable as it looks…”

Are we too late for Shark Week? As Mike McNessor pointed out recently, visitors to Pebble Beach this weekend will get a chance to see a trio of historic Corvette concept cars – the Mako Shark, the Sting Ray, and the Manta Ray – but one they won’t be able to see is the Mako Shark II. Sorta.

That’s because the Mako Shark II, introduced in 1965 on a contemporary Corvette chassis, eventually became the 1969 Manta Ray, and in the process it appears a number of the special features of the Mako Shark II – as highlighted in this video uploaded to YouTube by mrpitv – went away. For instance, the 1960s interior suddenly became all spacey-agey 1980s, the retractable backlite louvers (and, for that matter, the entire boattail rearend) suddenly became a straight piece of glass between flying buttresses, and it looks like the retractable rear spoilers got replaced with flip-up panic brake lights. Either way, it did a pretty good job of predicting the shape and styling of the third-generation Corvette. After watching the video (and if possible checking out the Manta Ray at Pebble), tell us which version you prefer.