Category: Corvette People

Corvette Timeline Tales: August 31, 1992 the 2nd Corvette Chief Engineer, Dave McLellan retires

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August 31, 1992 – Dave McLellan accepts early retirement and steps down after 18 years as the Corvette’s second Chief of Engineering.

8-Dave-Mclellan
General Motors had a mandatory, “retirement at 65” policy, so as Corvette Chief Engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov was nearing retirement in January 1975 the big question was who would be chosen to fill Zora’s big shoes. Duntov was not consulted about his replacement and McLellan would not have been his choice, but Dave was definitely the man for the job. McLellan was an Alfred P. Slone Fellow with a degree in engineering and management. The ‘70s was not a fun time and there were serious issues to be dealt with besides horsepower, racing, and mid-engine designs. There were emissions and quality control issues, as well as the implantation of a new assembly plant and an all-new Corvette to be designed and developed.

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Along with ushering in the Corvette into the digital age of computer controls and guiding the design and development of the C4, the ZR-1 was arguably one of Dave McLellan’s biggest achievements.

When the C4 Corvette came out it received rave reviews – “The Best Vette Yet!” and under McLellan’s leadership kept getting better and better every year. By the late 80s, performance was back to late 1960s levels, Continue reading “

Corvette Timeline Tales: August 31, 1992 the 2nd Corvette Chief Engineer, Dave McLellan retires” →

First-Ever 1963 Z06 Corvette Stingray – Dave MacDonald Picks Up, Then Races Z06 #684 At Riverside

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The First Z06 Corvette Was a Race Car!

Dateline: 8.30.15 – The original Z06 was Duntov’s “racer kit” for the then-new 1963 Sting Ray. Unlike modern Z06s, there was no flash to the first Z06, it was strictly hardware designed for the racetrack – no badges, special body panels, or designations at all! But considering the official “we don’t race” policy of GM, 199 1963 Fuel Injected Corvettes with heavy-duty brakes and suspension, wasn’t anything in GM’s big picture. But, if you wanted to race your Corvette in ’63, it was everything, and Duntov made sure you got what you needed.
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Thanks to the SCCA rules that allowed the 2000-pound Cobra to race against the 3100-pound Corvette, even with the Z06 racer kit, the Vette was at a serious disadvantage. Continue reading “

First-Ever 1963 Z06 Corvette Stingray – Dave MacDonald Picks Up, Then Races Z06 #684 At Riverside” →

Corvette Timeline Tales: NCM inducts James Jeffords, Myron E. Scott, & John A. Cafaro to the Hall of Fame

Published on by Scott

August 30, 2002 – National Corvette Museum, inducts James Jeffords, Myron E. Scott, and John A. Cafaro into the Hall of Fame.

7-2002-NCM-Hall-of-Fame-TNDateline: 8.30.15 – The Corvette has lasted longer than Harley Earl, Ed Cole, Zora Arkus-Duntov, and Bill Mitchell ever imagined back in the 1950s, thanks to the continuing passion of men and women that understand the soul of the Corvette. The National Corvette Museum’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony has become a much-anticipated annual event in the Corvette community, as a “Thank You” to those that have carried the flame forward.

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James “Jim” Jeffords was two-time SCCA B-production champion and pioneered the successful use of Duntov’s first “racer kit” the RPO 684 that helped him be unbeatable in 1958 and 1959 driving the Nickey Chevrolet “Purple People Eater” 1958 Corvette.. Jeffords also drove Jerry Earl’s 1956 SR-2, as well as some of the top sports cars of the day including a Scarab, a Maserrati Birdcage, and Jaguar. Continue reading “

Corvette Timeline Tales: NCM inducts James Jeffords, Myron E. Scott, & John A. Cafaro to the Hall of Fame” →

Long Term Corvette Relationship, Al Paer still owns the 1967 427 Corvette he bought in high school!

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Al Paer and his 1967 427 Corvette prove that it can be worth getting good grades in high school!

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Photo by: Ana Venegas, Staff Photographer for Orange County Register.

Dateline: 8-29-15 – There is a handful of cars that endear themselves to their owners; Corvettes, Mustangs, Shelbys, GTOs, and several others. But what makes Al Paer’s story so sweet is that Al has owned his 1967 427/435 Corvette roadster since he was in high school! Because Al was getting good grades in school, his Dad let him drive his ’62 Pontiac Tempest. In 1967, Al’s Dad let Al trade in the Tempest for a new ’67 427/435 Corvette Roadster. WHAT’A DAD!

Al has made the ’67 Roadster his own. He has added Hooker Header side pipes, L88 aluminum heads, performance camshaft, aftermarket chrome wheels, a front chin spoiler, Continue reading “

Long Term Corvette Relationship, Al Paer still owns the 1967 427 Corvette he bought in high school!” →

Wil Cooksey’s 2013 Interview on Scott Teeters’ Far Out Radio Program

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Wil Cooksey shares his life story and career in GM and building Corvettes.

Wil-Cooksey

Dateline: 8.29.15 – Yesterday we told you about the 2015 Corvettes at Carlisle show and that Wil Cooksey is one of the special guests for the event. Actually, ever since Wil put on that stunning, explosive burnout display back in 2007, he’s become an almost permanent fixture of the Corvettes at Carlisle show.

On April 5, 2013 I had the pleasure of interviewing Wil Cooksey on my Far Out Radio program. The YouTube version of the program is below.


Continue reading “

Wil Cooksey’s 2013 Interview on Scott Teeters’ Far Out Radio Program” →

Corvettes At Carlisle 2015 is Corvette Enthusiast Sensory Overload

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The Biggest Corvette Party on the East Coast is ON!

Corvettes-At-Carlisle-2015.

Dateline: 8.28.15 – Corvettes at Carlisle is one of the top three Corvette events. The annual four-day event is situated on 82 acres, in beautiful, rural south east Pennsylvania, just down the road from the Carlisle Army War College. The 82 acre fairground is in a huge bowl shape with “Corvettes only” in the infield. It is absolutely, Corvette sensory overload!

Special guests include…

Ken Lingenfelter Remembers Father of Corvette, Zora Arkus Duntov

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Corvette collector Ken Lingenfelter sits in his 1954
EX-87 “Duntov Mule” Corvette in Brighton, Michigan.
Lingenfelter said the car is now worth $2 million.
John M. Galloway, Detroit News

by Lauren Abdel-Razzaq as republished from The Detroit News

Through seven generations, the Corvette has created a legacy of success on the race track, a performance parts program that rivals any in the auto industry and legions of devoted fans.

“General Motors is riding high on the Corvette now,” said car guy Ken Lingenfelter, owner of the Lingenfelter Collection and Lingenfelter Performance Engineering. “The car is so desirable.”

He would know. He’s got 75 Corvettes himself, including some of the most famous and rarest models built.

But none of them would exist without Zora Arkus-Duntov. He’s the man that put the Z in Z06. Continue reading “

Ken Lingenfelter Remembers Father of Corvette, Zora Arkus Duntov” →

John Greenwood Art Prints Special Offer!!!

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SPECIAL OFFER For John Greenwood Fans

For a limited time, we are offering 12, 11-inches by 17-inches art prints of the late John Greenwood’s racecars, as seen in my “Illustrated Corvette Series,” Vette Magazine monthly column.

12-Greenwood-Prints-72Dateline: 7-19-15 The Illustrated Corvette series has been in every issue of Vette Magazine since the spring of 1997, with over 220 installments. In the 18 years the column has been running, I have written and illustrated stories about John and Burt Greenwood’s cars five times. We offer two print versions of each story: one with the story copy and one without. Then I created two single image layouts for a total of 12 prints. Continue reading “

John Greenwood Art Prints Special Offer!!!” →

Corvette Racing Legend, John Greenwood Passes

Published on by Scott

 

A Brief Tribute to Corvette Racing Legend, John Greenwood
Dateline: 7.13.15 (There are four videos at the end of this post)

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The Corvette community lost another legend last week. On July 7, 2015 John Greenwood died. During the 1970s John and his brother Burt arguably made more of an impact of Corvette racing than anyone in their time.

Their most stunning legacy was the development of the Corvette wide-body, also known as the “Batmobile.” The wide-body kit was the last of what was unofficially known as “Duntov’s Racer Kit” series of Chevrolet engineered parts for road racing Corvettes.

By 1974 racing tires had almost quadrupled in width from those of the early 60s and were beyond the L88 fender flares that had been out since 1968. Racers were also learning about and making better use of air downforce. Chevrolet designed the wide-body kit and Greenwood developed and marketed the parts into a huge aftermarket enterprise, along with building all-out racing Corvettes for customers. The Greenwood brothers engineered suspension parts and setups and made them available to customers.

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The wide-body look was so popular that complete street versions were offered by Greenwood and privateers could build their own street versions by purchasing the body kits. John and Burt also made body kits for C4 Corvettes, but the term “Greenwood body” will forever be linked to what it undeniably the wildest Corvette look ever

Below is a tribute to John Greenwood written by Registry of Corvette Race Cars and Vette Vues contributing writer/photographer, Wayne Ellwood that was published on July 13, 2015. Many thanks to Wayne Elwood for his brief overview of John Greenwood’s racing career. Condolences to the Greenwood family. – Scott

John Greenwood, Innovator and Influencer
Died on July 7, 2015 age 71
Greenwood held sway in Corvette racing for a decade

By Wayne Ellwood
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The son of a GM executive, John Greenwood began drag racing as a teenager on Detroit’s famed Woodward Ave strip. A few years later, he caught the road-racing bug after entering his new 1968 Corvette in a parking lot solo event. That was enough. When he took his big block Corvette to Waterford Hills it marked the start of a remarkable career in SCCA and IMSA, a full-blown race shop, a sponsorship program with the BF Goodrich Tire Company, a thriving cars and parts business, and three trips to the 24 hour race at Le Mans, France. Continue reading “

Corvette Racing Legend, John Greenwood Passes” →

Dave MacDonald Inducted Into National Corvette Museum Hall of Fame

Published on by Scott

Corvette Racing Legend, Dave MacDonald Inducted Into National Corvette Museum Hall of Fame

NCM-macdonaldDateline: 9-27-14 Auto racing legend Dave MacDonald was inducted into The National Corvette Museum Hall of Fame on August 28, 2014, in Bowling Green, Kentucky. MacDonald’s induction took place 50 years after the extremely talented young driver was tragically killed in his rookie race at the 1964 Indy 500 that also claimed the life of driver Eddie Sachs. After the race, an investigation determined that there was, “No driver error.”

MacDonald learned his driving skills in Southern California behind the wheel of several championship-winning first generation Corvettes. A gentle, quiet family man off the track, MacDonald was known as “The Master of Oversteer” and a fierce competitor. His driving skills were such that they attracted the attention of two other legends in auto racing of that time, Corvette Chief Engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov and Carroll Shelby. MacDonald drove prototype test cars for Duntov and was eventually hired by Shelby to drive Cobras professionally.

His induction into The National Corvette Museum’s Hall of Fame was well deserved and more than a little overdue. Regardless, Dave MacDonald now has a prominent and permanent place in Corvette history.

I have written extensively about the life and times of Dave MacDonald and have had the pleasure of getting to know the MacDonald family. I have Dave MacDonald’s younger brother Doug to thank. Many years ago I created a piece of line art for VETTE Magazine as a column filler “spot art” illustration. Later I included the illustration as an art print on my IllustratedCorvetteSeries.com website and mistakenly titled the print, “Dave MacDonald’s 1961 Corvette Racer.”

The 2014 National Corvette Museum's Hall of Fame inductees included: Race Car Driver Dave MacDonald, Corvette Engineer and Race Car Driver John Heinricy, and Automotive Journalist & Author, Jerry Burton.

The 2014 National Corvette Museum’s Hall of Fame inductees included, left-to-right: Automotive Journalist and Author Jerry Burton, Corvette Engineer and Race Car Driver John Heinricy, and Race Car Driver Dave MacDonald.

Continue reading “Dave MacDonald Inducted Into National Corvette Museum Hall of Fame” →

Dr. Rollings’ 1971 Phase III GT Corvette “The Most Expensive of All the Motion Corvettes”

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Baldwin Motion Phase III GT Corvette Survivor!!!

ICS_II_No-204-1971-Rollings-Phase-III-GT-TNDate: 5.2.14 – Time has been kind to the Baldwin Motion Supercars. Today, complete and restored Motion cars are very valuable. Yenko cars have the pedigree of being COPO cars, but unlike the Phase III cars, they could not be personalized. Enter Joel Rosen, Marty Schorr, and the Baldwin Motion experience.

Rosen was the owner of Motion Performance in Baldwin, New York and Schorr was the editor of CARS Magazine (and founder of VETTE). The young men conceived of offering custom-built supercars through local dealer, Baldwin Chevrolet. Rosen knew how to build a Chevy muscle car into a dependable, supercar, with performance over-and-above the factory level. Joel spun the wrenches and Marty spun the spin. Schorr kept the sizzle hot with CARS Magazine “special road tests,” in-your-face ads, special features, and catalogs. A Motion supercar was guaranteed to run the quarter-mile in 11.5-seconds with a qualified driver. When a customer took delivery of their Phase III supercar, they were driving a custom-made supercar. It was all very heady stuff.

Rosen’s higher vision was to offer an American GT machine based on the big-block Corvette. Joel started with his basic 500-plus horsepower Phase III Corvette and added custom bodywork that included a fastback rear window that opened up the rear cargo area of the C3 Corvette. The car was christened the “Phase III GT.” A “regular” Phase III Corvette was already a beast, but if you wanted the next level, the Phase III GT offered all the performance hardware, plus unique, head-turning custom bodywork. The Phase III GT Corvette was Rosen’s vision of the ultimate Motion car for customers with deep pockets. Rosen expected to produce 10-to-12 Phase III GT Corvettes a year, but only made 12 cars from ‘69 to ‘71. Continue reading “Dr. Rollings’ 1971 Phase III GT Corvette “The Most Expensive of All the Motion Corvettes”” →

The Baldwin Motion Experience with Marty Schorr & Joel Rosen on Far Out Radio!!!

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 4.24.13

Listen to Archived Show – Click Here

Schorr-Rosen-FB-Graphic-72It’s a Friday Night Car Show at Far Out Radio! Our guests are Marty Schorr and Joel Rosen. Marty is the former editor of CARS Magazine, founder of VETTE Magazine, editor and chief of CarGuychronicles.com, and owns PMPR, an automotive public relations business. Joel Rosen is the former owner of Motion Performance and currently owns and runs Motion Models, a world renown scale military model company.

Back in the ‘60s, Marty Schorr was the editor of CARS Magazine and Joel Rosen was the owner of Motion Performance. Schorr and Rosen became friends and Motion Performance was CARS Magazine’s “special projects” shop. The two creative guys came up with a Chevy supercar concept, not unlike Carroll Shelby’s Ford Shelby Mustangs, only at a local level.

Baldwin Chevrolet was a local Mom & Pop Chevy dealership on Long Island. Schorr and Rosen pitched the concept of offering supercar versions of new Chevy muscle cars purchased through Baldwin Chevrolet. Rosen designed a near-bullet-proof parts package and took care of the assembly. The team created the Baldwin Motion “look” and Schorr took care of the branding, advertising, catalogs, and PR.

Rosen spun the wrenches and Schorr spun the spin. The cars had drop-dead, in-your-face aggressive good looks to go with their ground-pounding performance – all with a 100% Chevy warrantee!

The guys created a legend that still being talked about 45 years later! Survivor Baldwin Motion Supercars are today VERY valuable.

Continue reading “The Baldwin Motion Experience with Marty Schorr & Joel Rosen on Far Out Radio!!!” →