Corvette’s Founding Fathers, Pt 1 of 6 – Designer Extraordinaire, Harley J. Earl

Published on September 11, 2018January 31, 2019 by Scott

The Roman philosopher Seneca is credited for saying, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” When Harley Earl attended his first organized road race at Watkins Glen in September 1951, (the very first Watkins Glen Sports Car Grand Prix was in 1948) two things were glaringly obvious to him; First; “sports cars” were not a fad, there was real passion for the unique European cars he saw racing through the streets of Watkins Glen. And second: General Motors needed to build an American sports car – right away!

By 1951 Harley Earl was entering the twilight years of his long career in design and innovation. He was a true living legend. Earl knew everyone who was anyone in the automotive world and then some. He wielded so much power inside General Motors that he had a button on his desk to get a direct call to GM’s president Alfred P. Sloan. Earl was a personal friend of United States Air Force General Curtis LeMay and one day in the early 1950s the general said to him, “Why don’t you make an American sports car?”

The Strategic Air Command general loved sports cars and owned an Allard J2. GM even built LeMay a special Cadillac-powered Willys Jeep. LeMay was also instrumental in helping start the Sports Car Club of America and in 1954 was the recipient of the Woolf Barnato Award, the SCCA’s highest award for club contributors. Barnato won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1928, 1929, and 1930 and he was the only driver to ever win the Le Mans race every time he entered! Continue reading “Corvette’s Founding Fathers, Pt 1 of 6 – Designer Extraordinaire, Harley J. Earl” →

Video Interview With Rick Walker, Owner of a Most Beautiful 1976 Short Tail Silva Maco Shark Corvette – Video

Published on August 29, 2018August 30, 2018 by Scott

Northeast Wheels Events interviews Rick Walker about his rare Silva-built 1976 Maco Shark Corvette.

This Maco Shark was a barn find car! It’s a real beauty today.

Dateline: 8.29.18 – The 2018 Corvettes at Carlisle event is history and from what I have heard from Vette Vues editor, Bonnie Wolf and out Corvette friend, Rick Walker, it was a beautiful show! Rick is no stranger to Corvette Report. I met Rick at the 2011 Corvettes at Carlisle show when he was part of 2011 Chip’s Choice Display of “Barn Finds.”

Pamela Hirschhorn of NortheastWheelsEvents.com caught up with Rick and his beautiful Maco Shark, and posted this very nice video on their YouYube channel.

Also, I want to let you know that Continue reading “

Video Interview With Rick Walker, Owner of a Most Beautiful 1976 Short Tail Silva Maco Shark Corvette – Video” →

Corvette Daytona Prototype (DP) OBSOLETE? WHAT? – Video

Published on August 24, 2018August 30, 2018 by Scott

Shades of the 1963 Grand Sport, the Corvette Daytona Prototype is now racing in the Historic Sportscar Racing series!

Dateline: 8.24.18 – Illustrations by K. Scott Teeters – Time flies when you are having fun racing and winning. But five years can be an eternity in prototype sports car racing. I was shocked to see a report on Jalopnik.com that the five year old Corvette Daytona Prototype is now relegated to vintage historic racing events.

The story points out that just two years ago in 2016, the Whelen Engineering Action Express Chevrolet Corvette Coyote Daytona Prototype took the Driver’s Championship with Eric Curran and Dane Cameron in the driver’s seat.

The above 3-minute 20-second in-car video gives you a sense of what an awesome machine the Daytona Prototype Corvette is. GM Racing’s only involvement was with the basic body design. Pratt & Miller, along with Riley Technologies, Dallara, and Coyote designed and built the Daytona Prototype’s chassis. Power comes from a racing version of the C6 Z06’s LS7 engine. Continue reading “

Corvette Daytona Prototype (DP) OBSOLETE? WHAT? – Video” →

Vintage Grand Sport Corvette Films from 1962 and 1963 – 2 VIDEOS

Published on August 13, 2018August 30, 2018 by Scott

See the original Grand Sports in action at Sebring 1962 and Nassau 1963!

Dateline: 8.13.18 – Photo: GM Archives Last week while finishing up a story about Bill Tower’s Grand Sport #005 Corvette for Vette Magazine, I came across two YouTube videos posted by GM Heritage Center. The videos are silent and were probably shot with an 8mm camera that someone brought along to the events. The film looks like hand-held and amateurish, not at all the same quality of the Jam Handy films from that era. But, you do get to see the Grand Sports in action.

The above film was shot in December 1962 when Zora Arkus-Duntov took Grand Sport #001 to Sebring for testing. Note how “stock” the original batch of Grand Sports, originally called the “Lightweights” looked. Grand Sport Corvettes always suffered from front end lift which was mostly attributed to the shape of the Sting Ray. While the front end design of the Sting Ray indeed let way too much air flow UNDER the car, another big factor in the lift was how the new Corvette’s rear suspension would “squat” down. Continue reading “

Vintage Grand Sport Corvette Films from 1962 and 1963 – 2 VIDEOS” →

AutoWeek Reposts Their 2003 Grand Sport Reunion Story

Published on August 2, 2018August 30, 2018 by Scott

Fifteen years ago, all five Grand Sport Corvettes gathered at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance event.

Dateline: 8-2-18 (Photo Credit – AutoWeek) This was arguably the first time ALL FIVE 1963 Grand Sport Corvettes were all together in one place. Perhaps “once” after all five Grand Sports were built in the last months of 1962, all five cars might have been together, but there’s no documentation. So, it only took 50 years for all five Grand Sports to be in one place and be formally documented.

Zora Arkus-Duntov wanted to build 125 Grand Sports to be homologated as “production” Corvettes, available through local Chevrolet dealerships. Imagine that! And, Duntov also wanted to take a team of Grand Sports to Le Mans. Ahh, it could have been so cool!

No sooner had the Grand Sports been completed, word got up to the top level of GM and Duntov’s racing program came to a screeching halt. From there, Continue reading “

AutoWeek Reposts Their 2003 Grand Sport Reunion Story” →

Scott & Karen Teeters’ 1999 “Sebring Special” GT Corvette Coupe

Published on July 10, 2018November 5, 2020 by Scott

A cool, hot ride for exploring beautiful Florida!

Dateline: 7.10-18 (Photos by K. Scott Teeters) – For a good long time I have been asked, “So, when are you going to get another Corvette?” My standard answer was, “I’m working on it.” And I was, really. But, as we all know, life gets in the way sometimes, and sometimes for a long time. But it gave me time to really think about what I wanted.

For the longest time, I was focused on a 1996 Collector Edition Corvette with the optional LT4 330-horsepower engine and a six-speed transmission. I liked the car for several reasons. 1996 was the last year for the C4 generation and was the most refined of all of the C4s. The LT4 was the end of the line for the classic small-block Chevy engine and stands as the most developed of all of the small-block Chevy engines. While my favorite color for Corvettes is white, I also like silver Corvettes, as many experimental and prototype Corvettes have been silver. And I like the Collector Edition’s silver ZR-1 five-spoke mag-style wheels.

But as I trolled around on Craig’s List, CarGurus.com, and eBay, I noticed that 1996 Collector Edition Corvettes were going for as much as mid-year C5 Corvettes. Anyone who has studied Corvettes knows that while the C4 was a vast improvement over the C3, that was riding on a frame/chassis designed in 1960. By 1996, the C4 was riding on a frame/chassis that was designed in 1980.

Continue reading “

Scott & Karen Teeters’ 1999 “Sebring Special” GT Corvette Coupe” →

Keith Busse Corvette Pace Car Collection Sells for $1,760,000!!! – VIDEO

Published on June 4, 2018August 30, 2018 by Scott

Keith Busse puts his entire private collection of Corvette Pace Cars on the block at the Mecum Indy Auction.

Dateline: 6.4.18 – Here’s something you don’t see every day. Keith Busse had a fascination with Corvette Pace Cars. He bought his first Corvette Pace Car in the early 1980s, obviously a 1978 Corvette Pace Car. Then he got a 1986 Corvette Pace Car and just kept going.

Up until 2008 Chevrolet offered Corvette Pace Car replicas in limited quantities, so if you could afford the premium and acted quickly, you could own a Corvette Pace Car, minus the actual track hardware that typically included strobe lights and safety equipment. Corvette Pace Cars never needed any extra power enhancements because the basic car was more that capable of handling its task.

Eventually, Keith had 16 Corvette Pace Cars, including; two Official Pace Cars (one of which was a factory pilot car), Continue reading “

Keith Busse Corvette Pace Car Collection Sells for $1,760,000!!! – VIDEO” →

Is Chevy Working on a COPO Corvette?

Published on May 25, 2018August 30, 2018 by Scott

This could be just another concept Corvette, or it might be a COPO road racer Z06 Corvette!

Dateline: 5.25.18 – The last time we saw something like this was in 2010 when Chevy showed the Z06-X Concept Corvette. The formula is the same; your basic Z06 with all the latest racer-type hardware. This is right out of the old Zora Arkus-Duntov RPO “racer kit” model from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s.

Autoblog.com has a full set of images of this variation-on-a-theme, and a report that you can read HERE.

The first time we ever saw something like this was back in 1969 when Duntov held court at the GM Proving Grounds with one of his mule development Corvettes. Zora and his team built a big-block Corvette like a racer would have; they removed everything that shouldn’t be on a racecar and added everything that should be on a racecar, plus a ZL-1 engine! Continue reading “

Is Chevy Working on a COPO Corvette?” →

BIG Plans for the National Corvette Museum

Published on May 17, 2018August 30, 2018 by Scott

Kentucky’s tourist attraction jewel is about to be even better!

Image courtesy National Corvette Museum.

Dateline: 5.17.18 – The National Corvette Museum just announced that BIG plans are in the works. The proposal calls for more display space, more office space, and more storage space. Hemmings Motornews posted a very comprehensive article that you can read HERE.

I was surprised to learn that the Museum owns 81 vehicles and that the museum does not have an example of every year Corvette. That’s just one of the many things on the Museum’s Wish List.

And just an interesting FYI, in December 2017 at USA Today poll, readers voted Continue reading “

BIG Plans for the National Corvette Museum” →

Excellent Engineering, Stunning Performance, INSANE Speed!

Published on April 30, 2018August 30, 2018 by Scott

After a very long wait, the 2019 ZR1 delivers the goods!

Image: GM Archives

Dateline: 4-30-18 – Years ago, a good friend gave me a book about race car driving. Inside the cover Joe wrote, “The insanity of speed is only understood by those that cautiously extract it.” With a two-run average speed of 212-mph, the new ZR1 has entered the Insane Zone for production automobiles.

The 2019 ZR1 will go down as one of the all-time great Corvettes.- Scott

The History of Mid-Engine Corvettes, 1960 to C8: Part 3

Published on March 6, 2018 by Scott

The 1964 Corvette GS-II – Frank Winchell’s Mid-Engine Engineering (Racing) Study with Jim “Mr. Chaparral” Hall

Dateline: 3.6.18 – Images GM Archives – This article was originally published in the November 2016 issue of Vette Vues Magazine

While Duntov lead the charge when it came to racing Corvettes, he wasn’t the only power player inside Chevrolet with a vision for a mid-engine Corvette. Frank Winchell was a low-profile company man who, unlike Duntov, did not like or seek out fame and attention. He was comfortable in his role as a corporate man. Winchell ran the Chevrolet R&D group from 1959 through 1966 and was a “take no prisoners,” “lets try it” kind of guy. While not a degreed engineer, he had a natural sense of how things worked and specialized in the design and development of automatic transmissions.

In Chapter 35 of Karl Ludvigsen’s 2014 edition of “CORVETTE – America’s Star Spangled Sports Car”, in Chapter 35, titled, “Winchell’s Raiders”, Karl shares that one of Winchell’s nicknames was, “General Bullmoose” after Al Capp’s Li’l Abner character, General Brashington T. Bullmoose, the cold-blooded capitalist tyrant tycoon. (This was obviously NOT a compliment) Chevrolet engineer and author of the book, “Chevrolet = Racing…? Fourteen Years of Raucous Silence!!, Paul Valkenburgh, said, “Winchell hated the phrase, ‘That can’t be done.’ Upon hearing that, there would be an inner explosion like a mine blast. He might grab an engineer by the lapels to bellow, ‘What that means is that you can’t do it. So, by God, I’ll find someone who can!’ And he usually did.”

It has been said that Duntov managed with love and enthusiasm, where as nobody worked “with” Frank Winchell – they worked “for” him. Frank was a tough “take no prisoners” kind of guy. So, it is no surprise that the two strong willed men had different ideas of what the Corvette should be. Duntov and Winchell respected each other, but they often locked horns. Continue reading “

The History of Mid-Engine Corvettes, 1960 to C8: Part 3″ →

John & Patti Hutchinson’s 1996 & 2017 Grand Sport Twins

Published on February 17, 2018 by Scott

Question: What’s better than a Grand Sport? Answer: TWO Grand Sports

Special Edition Corvettes are a fun part of the Corvette hobby. Production numbers for this group vary widely from as low as 20, 2009 Competition Edition Z06 cars to a staggering 11,632, 2004 Commemorative Edition coupes, convertibles, and Z06 cars. Chevrolet only made 1,000 1996 Grand Sports – 820 coupes and 180 convertibles, which puts the C4 Grand Sport in the rare zone of special edition Vettes. The Grand Sport convertible (only 180 units) is in the VERY rare category.

John ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson, owner of the Grand Sport Registry, says their current membership consists of 261 C4 (1996) Grand Sports. But he emphasizes that the GSR caters to all GS generations, be it C2, C4, C6, or C7, and that total membership is close to 800 Grand Sport enthusiasts from across the USA and 12 other countries. So, yes, all Grand Sport Corvettes are indeed special. Corvette product planners have a unique way of surprising the Corvette faithful with special editions. But in 1996, no one dreamed that the Grand Sport would become what it is today.

Hutch and Patti Hutchinson are the proud owners of TWO Grand Sport Corvette convertibles, both obtained Continue reading “

John & Patti Hutchinson’s 1996 & 2017 Grand Sport Twins” →