Meet Richard Prince, the Man Behind So Many Corvette Racing Images!
When Opportunity knocks, it’s usually wearing work clothes! This story was first published in the June 2024 issue of Vette Vues Magazine. It is hard...
Category: Corvette People
Meet Mr. Bloomington Gold; Guy Larsen
Recently we had a conversation with Guy Larsen, the current owner and CEO of Bloomington Gold. What started out as a regional Corvette parts swap-meet in 1973, quickly became a force of nature that added a depth of credibility to mostly-original Corvettes. When the event started, it wasn’t called “Bloomington Gold”, it was simply “Corvette Corral”, and was held in Bloomington, Illinois.
To put this into perspective, in our interview with Guy, he said, “People lament that the Swap Meet part of Bloomington Gold isn’t what it used to be. Well, of course not. Back then, if a Corvette owner was looking for missing parts, he had to hunt and scratch around at swap meets because it was the only way to find parts. Everything changed when the internet and eBay started and Corvette parts started to become available online.”
Corvette Quarterly’s 1999 Jay Leno Interview
Jay Leno Finally Gets A Corvette! Dateline: 5.4.22 (Corvette Quarterly interview below) – Jay Leno is arguably more popular today within the car community than...
The Duntov Files E-Book, Pt. 3: Corvette News June/July 1975 “The Marque of Zora”
June/July 1975 issue had what might have been one of Duntov’s last interviews before retiring as Corvette Chief Engineer. The article starts out, “As we entered his office at Chevrolet Engineering, Zora greeting us warmly…” What followed is an insightful, warm, eight-page interview with the Godfather of Corvettes.
Corvette Chiefs, Pt. 4 of 5 – Tom Wallace, Racer C6 Chief Engineer
Dave Hill was the VLE of Performance Car that included Corvette, Cadillac XLR, Saturn Sky, Pontiac Solstice, Opel GT. One day during a group vehicle-program review meeting with Bob Lutz; Wallace heard Hill outlining the Z06 with 505-horsepower and a dry-sump oil system, he said to himself, “What the!” Wallace said to Lutz, “My goodness, this is unbelievable. Do you know what Dave is about to do?” Wallace said that some of the VLEs had no idea what Hill was talking about. When Wallace expressed real concern about selling 505-horsepower cars to novice customers, it was explained to him that only select dealers get Z06s. These dealers understand performance and coach customers to have respect for the car and help get them into a driver’s school.
Corvette Chiefs, Pt 3 Dave Hill
Dave Hill once said, “My favorite Corvette is the next one.” Mr. Cadillac insisted on three key things; state of the art performance and technology; passionate design; and tremendous value. In an interview with c6registry.com, Hill said, “Being involved with Corvette brings out the best in all of us who have the privilege of working on it. It represents the best that GM has to offer; along with the best America has to offer. The Corvette is very personal. We’re not talking about transportation here; we’re talking about a product that changes someone’s lifestyle, and that causes us to be enthusiastic about our duty.”
Corvette Chiefs, Pt. 2 of 5 – Dave McLellan
When Dave McLellan took over as Corvette’s new chief
engineer on January 1, 1975, it was whole new world. The prevailing trends went from performance cars to safer cars with reduced emission. Not even Duntov could have made a difference in the ‘70s. But as performance went down, Corvette sales went way up! The sales department was happy, but the Corvette was really getting old. Dave McLellan was an unknown to the Corvette community and many wondered what he would bring to the brand. It turned out; he brought a lot!
Corvette Chiefs, Pt. 1 of 5 – Zora Arkus-Duntov, Corvette’s Nostradamus
As a young man, Duntov was into boxing, motorcycles, fast cars, and pretty girls. After his formal engineering training in Berlin, Germany, Duntov started racing cars and applying his engineering skills to racecar construction. In 1935 Duntov built his first racecar with help from his racing partner Asia Orley; they called the car, “Arkus”. Their goal was to debut the car at the Grand Prix de Picardie in June 1935. But after a series of mishaps, the car caught fire and never raced. From this point forward, all Duntov wanted to do was build racecars.
Jim Perkins Tribute: R.I.P. Corvette Corporate Angel
After graduating from high school, Perkins took courses at Baylor then served three years in the Navy. After his discharge from the Navy, he took a low-level job, sorting parts at a Chevrolet warehouse, while completing his college courses. With his Navy experience and eventual degree, Perkins quickly rose through the ranks at Chevrolet in Sales & Service. In the mid-‘70s, he landed a peach-of-a-job working for then GM president, Pete Estes. That’s where Perkins learned the ropes of GM corporate life.
The Duntov Files, Pt. 1 E-Book: Zora’s 1969 427 ZL1 Racer
I have a very large collection of Corvette magazines and magazine clippings that date back to the late 1950s. Recently I was talking to a Corvette restoration expert about a project that he wants to take on. George is considering building a replica of Zora Arkus-Duntov’s 1969 427 ZL1 development mule.
I’m calling the first wave of PDFs “The Duntov Files”.
Corvette’s Founding Fathers, Pt 1 of 6 – Designer Extraordinaire, Harley J. Earl
Harley J. Earl’s accomplishments were staggering. His beautiful concept cars and subtle innovations (such as turn signals and wrap-around glass) that live on today, unnoticed, aren’t nearly as impactful as his greatest legacy, the Corvette. His quote, “The Corvette was a little thing I started.” is one of the all-time great, automotive understatements. Sixty-five years after Earl took his LeSabre concept car to the 1951 Watkins Glen sports car race and was inspired, we are still captivated by Corvettes. That’s one heck-of-a legacy!
CONGRATULATIONS Burt & John Greenwood, Tom Wallace, and Mike Yager on Your Induction Into the 2018 National Corvette Museum’s Hall of Fame – Videos
Every year the National Corvette Museum inducts three members of the Corvette community into their Hall of Fame’s three categories; GM / Chevrolet, Corvette Racing, and Corvette Enthusiast.
In the GM / Chevrolet category, Tom Wallace, Corvette’s fourth Chief Engineer was inducted.
In the Corvette Racing category two men were inducted, Burt Greenwood & John Greenwood.
And in the Enthusiast Category Mid-America-owner and all-around Corvette cheerleader, Mike Yager was inducted.
Inside Bill Mitchell’s Secret Garage – 2 VIDEOS
My monthly column in VETTE Magazine, “The Illustrated Corvette Series” is now in its 21st year. I’m in the middle of a series I’m calling, “The Corvette’s Founding Fathers” that covers the careers of Harley Earl, Ed Cole, Bill Mitchell, Zora Arkus Duntov, Larry Shinoda, and Peter Brock. Each of these men played a foundational roll in setting the pattern and personality of the Corvette. Without them, the Corvette might not have survived the 1950s.
The Motion Performance Experience – Part II
Scott: Welcome back to Far Out Radio. Joel “Mr. Motion” Rosen and Marty Schorr, the creators of the Baldwin Motion Phase-III supercars of the 1960s and 1970s, are here with us this evening. We’re doing some bench racing and talking about those ground-pounding Chevy supercars from back in the 1960s and 1970s. So Joel, you got the drag racing bug, huh?
Joel: Yea, yea, I got that drag racing bug. One of the things, just to digress just a bit, is that back in the gas station I had, I was one of the first guys with a dynamometer in New York. I was into things like oscilloscopes before people knew what an oscilloscope was – on a car anyway, and I started to teach myself about that stuff. Then a product came out that was a capacitive discharge ignition system, the forerunner of all of the capacitive discharge units, and MSDs and all that. It was an EI-4 and an EI-5, and started to read up on this and the material said that you could run .005 to .006 sparkplug gaps and the engine will run much better and keep it in tune, bla, bla, bla.
