More Info:

The ’50s saw a revolution in the automobile industry. As technology advanced, carmakers and maverick car dealerships started to push the limits of performance by racing their production­modified creations against one another.

One of these dealerships eager to sponsor a racecar was Chicago’s Nickey Chevrolet. All that was needed was a driver. Jim Jeffords, an accomplished competitor, was approached by Nickey Chevrolet sales manager Lionel Lindfeimer in 1958. Jeffords responded famously, "I’ll win the national championship."

Jefford's brash attitude was backed up by great driving skill and the awesome mechanical engineering of Ronnie Kaplan. The racecar Jeffords would drive was one of the greatest production racecars ever to take the track, winning the National Driving Championship, for its class, in 1959. It was based on a stock ’59 Corvette® convertible with the optional fuel­injected engine.

To extract maximum value from the promotion, Jeffords suggested that they paint it a loud color, so the folks at Nickey picked purple. Coincidently, the #1 song on the radio was Sheb Wooley’s "Purple People Eater." In an inspired bit of mischievousness, Jeffords suggested they name the car after the character in the song. And so, a racing legend was born.