This is a Kellison J6 Panther from 1964, this model was a period competitor for the likes of the Chevrolet Corvette developed by Jim Kellison and sold in reasonable numbers as either a kit car or turn-key vehicle.
The styling of the Kellison J-series cars has long been heralded as some of the best looking low-volume automotive design of the age, made all the more impressive by the fact that Jim Kellison wasn’t a trained designer or stylist.
The Kellison J6 Panther
- This is a 1964 Kellison J6 Panther, designed by Jim Kellison. It was a low-volume sports car that competed with models like the Chevrolet Corvette, using lightweight fiberglass bodies that helped lower curb weight for improved performance.
- Kellison, a USAF former fighter pilot, founded his car-building business after serving in the Korean War, creating several J-series models, including the J6 Panther, which was designed to fit over a Corvette chassis.
- The J6 Panther was a strong competitor on California race tracks, often racing against Ferraris, Jaguars, and Corvettes, among many others. Lord March of Great Britain bought a J6 Panther for his own collection, which is often seen at the Goodwood events.
- Later in life, Kellison designed the “Kellison Stallion,” a wider, longer Cobra replica, with 117 examples produced. One of these Stallions appeared in the 1995 film “Bad Boys.”
The Incredible Origins Of The Kellison J6 Panther
James Frank “Jim” Kellison enlisted in the US Air Force as a young man, he became a fighter pilot during the Korean War, and he was honorably discharged from service in 1958. At this point he moved to the town of Folsom, California and set about pursuing his passion for hot rods, sports cars, and racing.
Above Video: This is a short interview with Lord March of Great Britain, he’s the man behind the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Goodwood Revival, and he’s a proud Kellison J6 Panther owner.
Kellison had already made a name for himself building and racing hot rods as a teenager, so he turned these skills into a business while reading every issue of Hot Rod Magazine cover to cover and hoovering up as much information as he could find.
Jim’s big dream was to design and build his own car, and in America in the 1950s there was a boom in low-volume automakers, many of which used fiberglass for the body as it was affordable, lightweight, and easy to produce in molds.
Fiberglass has been called the carbon fiber of the 1950s, and in many respects it was. It was a new “wonder material” that was being used for cars, buggies, boats, yachts, and even aircraft. Up until this point many sports cars had bodies made from aluminum alloy or thinner gauge steel, both of which are difficult to form into complex compound shapes, requiring great skill, special equipment, and plenty of time.
Jim offered his first J-series car to the public in 1957 under the Kellison name. He would eventually develop a whole series of these cars, including the J1, J2, J3, J4, J5, and J6. These different models had similar designs, but they were developed to fit over different chassis and such they had different lengths, widths, and wheelbases.
Of the J-series Kellisons, the most refined was arguably the J6. This was a model designed to fit perfectly over a 1953 to 1962 Corvette chassis, it helped significantly reduce the weight of the car, but kept the drivetrain, chassis, suspension, brakes, steering, and everything else in place.
The J6 was known as the J6 Panther, and a well-built example would have been very hard to beat on the Southern California race tracks where they often competed side-by-side with competitors like the Ferrari 250 GT series, Jaguar XK series, various Aston Martins, Corvettes, Maseratis, Mercedes, and more.
The styling of the J-series Kellisons, the J6 Panther in particular, has long drawn in fans from across the automotive spectrum.
Lord March of Great Britain famously bought himself a Kellison J6 Panther and had it restored, it’s now undeniably the best put together J6 in the world, and it’s a common sight at his events in southern England, including the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Goodwood Revival.
Later in his life, after he had stopped building J series cars, and stopped building the fiberglass buggies he had as a side business, Jim Kellison launched his own vision for the Shelby Cobra. He designed the chassis and body to his own specifications, making it wider and longer, and more stiff than the original.
This Kellison-designed Cobra replica was called the “Kellison Stallion,” 117 were reportedly built, and interestingly, one of them was used in the 1995 film Bad Boys directed by Michael Bay and starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as Miami detectives.
The 1964 Kellison J6 Panther Shown Here
The car you see here is a Kellison J6 Panther from 1964, the J6 body was designed to be fitted to a Chevrolet Corvette chassis and this one seems to have been assembled in this way, it’s titled as a 1964 Chevrolet and the Corvette chassis number is stamped into the car’s VIN plate.
Power is provided by a 350 cubic inch small block Chevrolet V8 sending power back through a 4-speed manual transmission with a Hurst shifter. The engine is fitted with a Holley double-pumper carburetor, Mickey Thompson valve covers, and Hooker short-tube exhaust headers that flow into a dual exhaust system with cutouts and polished finishers.
This car is equipped for racing, with a roll cage, racing seats with a driver harness, a fuel cell, a fire suppression system, and more.
The car rides on independent suspension on all four corners, with four wheel disc brakes. It has a roll bar fitted inside, along with fixed back bucket seats, and a full harness for the driver. A fuel cell is mounted in the rear and the car has a fire suppression system.
The car is now being offered for sale on Bring a Trailer out of Phoenix, Arizona on dealer consignment at no reserve with a logbook, service records, and a Washington title. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Bring a Trailer
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
