Dateline: 7-29.12
Subtitle: A Blueprint salute to the power of the Corvette!
Note: Be sure to check out the below slide show of Corvette engines!
If the Corvette used a regular passenger car engine, do you think there’s be much excitement? Of course not! In 59 years of building Corvettes, Chevrolet has only once used a standard production car engine in the Corvette and that was in 1980. Unfortunately for Californians, because of very tight standards, Chevrolet did not certify its 350 engines for sale in that state. So for that year, the only engine available for California Corvettes was the lowly 305 passenger car engine. Fortunately, that was a one-time occurrence.
Aside from that one incident, Corvette engines, even the base engines, have always be a cut above the regular car engines. At the top of the feeding chain, many Corvette engines achieved legendary status. And even though Corvette engines didn’t become truly “exotic” until the introduction of the LS1 in 1997, where it matters them most – who wins the races – small and big-block Corvette engines delivered the goods, regardless of their basic simple design. The slide show is below…[nggallery id=71]
Back in ‘06 I authored a multipart feature for VETTE Magazine titled, “The Power of the Corvette” that covered all of the important performance Corvette engines up to that point. Since then, I have dedicated numerous Illustrated Corvette Series articles specifically to Corvette engines. So, to date, I have written about and illustrated all of the important Corvette engines. I started my career as a draftsman and technical illustrator, so it’s always a delight to sit down and draw all the nooks, crannies, bosses, and bolts of an engine. I just dig it!
So, a few months ago when I stated my Fine Art America enterprise, I knew I had to do something interesting and unique with my collection of famous Corvette engines. Back in the olden days, engineering drawings were reproduced with the technique called, “diazo blueprints.” In the earliest days, the reproductions were called “blueprints” because the negative image reproduced was a unique blue color, which eventually became known as “blueprint blue.” But an engineering drawing with white lines and dark blue background were hard to mark up for corrections, so the technique was perfected to produced blue lines on white paper. Today with large format photocopy machines, it’s very hard to find an old fashion blueprint shop.
So, being a history buff and a Photoshop expert, I recreated the diazo blueprint look in Photoshop. We how have available in a unique square format, 18 Corvette engines from the 1953 – 1955 Blue Flame Six to the mighty LS9 ZR1 engine in both positive and reverse blueprint blue. “What’s under the hood” is usually the second question Corvette owners are asked after, “What year is your Vette?” While all Corvette engines are unique (except for the 1980 California LG4) some have bigger bragging rights than others.
What a better way to pay tribute to your Corvette’s power plant that a blueprint wall hanging for your man cave or special garage. Through our Fine Art America store, our square-format Corvette engine art prints are available in sizes from 8” x 8” to 48” x 48.” You can get a print in a variety of papers and canvas and even have your art print professionally framed by choosing from a huge selection of frame colors, styles, and colored mattes. You can custom design your framed print to fit perfectly into your man cave or special car garage.
So, we invite you to stop by and check out our collection of 18 individual prints, plus six special engine montages. And while you’re there scoping out your Corvette’s engine, have fun playing with the paper, frames, and matte selections with the interactive preview feature. Enjoy! – Scott
PS – We’re also working on a line of tee shirts with all of the engine graphic layouts, available through our Zazzle store, soon!
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