Corvette Passion Finally Fulfilled
PHOTO CREDITS: Scott Belyea and Dustin Segura
As you are reading this, it means that somewhere in your past, the “Vette Virus” got you. For some of us, it happens when we’re kids or teenagers. For others, later in life. But once you’ve got it, it’s with you for life. Some can fulfill that passion early on, and others when they’re older.
Scott Belyea grew up in beautiful Santa Rosa, California in the 1960s. Back in the day, “Auto Shop” was an Industrial Arts course taught in high school, along with Wood Shop and Mechanical Drawing. Auto Shop taught boys (mostly) the basics of car care and simple maintenance. For young car guys who were passionately waiting to get their driver’s license, it was the place to be. In Scott’s case, working on a friend’s 1964 409 Impala made the class even more fun.
Yes, Scott had a mild interest in cars until the day he saw and HEARD a 1965 big-block 396 Corvette with side pipes rumble by. “WHAT’S THAT?!?!?” he said. Scott had just been stung by a Sting Ray.
In the spring of 1965 Chevrolet released their new big-block replacement for the old W-Series 348/409/427 truck engine. As a truck engine, the W-Series produced plenty of torque for industrial use but didn’t like high rpm’s. But Chevrolet had its eye on covert racing efforts and knew that the W-Series engine needed to go.
A prototype Mark-II 427 “porcupine engine” was dropped into Mickey Thompson’s 1963 Z06 Corvette and raced at the 1963 Daytona 250. The press immediately noticed the Mark-II’s distinctive sound and dubbed the engine, “Chevrolet’s Mystery Motor”. According to Corvette development engineer, Bill Tower, sorting out the durability problems with the new engine was very challenging. But by the spring of ’65, the new 396 Mark-IV Big-Block was available to the public.
Chevy engineers learned that the easiest route to big horsepower was simple – cubic inches. The 327 Fuelie was maxed out at 375 horsepower; the new 396 big-block had 425 horsepower and only cost $292; the Fuelie cost $538. And, to go along with the new brutish big-block, real side pipes were a $134 option. Many have pointed out that the side pips weren’t as efficient as the straight-through $37 Off-Road Exhaust, but they sounded awesome. Like many of us, Scott heard the call of the wild new big-block Corvette, and that was it!
The expression, “Life gets in the way” applies to most of us at various times of our lives. While Scott’s passion for a big-block ’65 Corvette started over 50 years ago, it never left him. Along the way, Scott satisfied his Corvette itch with a Bright Red C4 1990 Coupe and later a Black 2009 C6 Convertible. Continue reading “Scott Belyea’s 1965 Retro-Mod Corvette Sting Ray Convertible”
The big speculation was patterned after how Porsche has leveraged their racing brands into other configurations. The “other” Porsches haven’t diminished Porsche’s sports car line, so why not use a similar template for Corvette?
The special “it” quality of Corvettes is ephemeral and hard to define in a way that “makes sense”. New Corvettes have always been expensive. Some old Corvettes were notoriously undependable. For most people, Corvettes are not comfortable cars. And Corvettes are not terribly “useful” cars. 
When I was ten, my mother took me to the 
Then someone gave me a stack of car magazines. I didn’t know much about cars, but I began to get familiar with the different brands. My brother Bob is seven years older than me, but his first car wasn’t ever interesting; a 1959 Rambler. But when he got a 1957 Bel Air, even I could see, that was a cool car. 
2006 marked the 13
It is mind-boggling how many early Corvettes were either ordered from the factory with the full-compliment of racer parts, unofficially known as “Duntov’s Racer Kits”, and/or, were built using the Racer Kit parts that were bolted on a Fuelie or dual-quad Corvette. Of course, just having the parts on the car, either factory or customer installed, didn’t instantly create a turn-key racecar – the cars had to be prepared for racing. Preparation and not over-building the engine, so it wouldn’t grenade, is also essential. The larger displacement 327 small-block used in the 1962 Corvette was enough to put the car into the A/Production class, whereas Grady Davis’ 1961 Corvette used a 283 Fuelie was in B/Production class. 
MacDonald was the classic American hero; Hollywood good looks, a family man, a gentleman, understated, humble, yet a hard-charging competitor on the race track. He loved America’s sports car but could take almost any kind of race car to the winner’s circle. MacDonald had the admiration and respect of his peers, as well as support from powerful men in racing. 
Like many young men of his day, Dave married his sweetheart. MacDonald first saw Sherry Gravett when she was in the lead of her high school play. The pair talked on the phone for two months before she finally met her future husband. Two months after Sherry graduated, the couple were married and started their life together. Dave had a good job at the local Chevy dealer and was able to afford a new Corvette every few years. Dave was still into drag racing, but Corvettes have that “handling thing” that inspires many to go around corners, FAST. But, that’s what Corvettes are designed to do. 
MacDonald struck up a friendship with car salesman Jim Simpson, who soon became MacDonald’s racing partner/sponsor. At Willow Springs in February 1960, MacDonald began his professional racing career. In the first year, the team entered 15 races, finished 1st place three times, 2nd place three times, and 3rd place four times. In his first year, Dave never finished lower than 4th place. 1961 proved to be MacDonald’s breakout year. In 20 events, Dave took 1st place 13 times and 2nd place three times. MacDonald won the first seven races of the season and went on to dominate the season.
Max and Ida Balchowsky had made quite a name for themselves with their “Old Yeller” racers. Shelby drove 
While Corvettes look small today, back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, they were huge compared to other sports cars. Max and Ida built the chassis and MacDonald and Simpson made the Corvette body to fit. There were no companies making fiberglass replica bodies in those days, so Simpson “borrowed for the weekend” a new ‘61 Corvette from Sorenson Chevrolet to make molds to make a Corvette-like body. 
The times were very good for Corvette and the new C4. With massive tires and modern suspension, the C4 could go around corners like never before. In 1985 electronic-controlled fuel injection was back and Car and Driver proclaimed the Corvette, “The Fastest Car In America”, clocking at 150 mph! Starting in 1985, Corvettes became the new “Untouchables” and started a three-year total domination in SCCA’s Showroom Stock racing. 
The competition was so flummoxed, Porsche bought a C4 to take apart to see why the car was so damn fast. Corvette fans enjoyed seeing Porsche eat some Humble Pie. Of course, the situation couldn’t run on too long. Rather than tell the other sports car manufacturers, to build a better car, Corvette was kicked out of the Showroom Stock Series. Yes, kicked out for being too fast! This is an amazing thing to consider because early C4s are the cheapest, least respected Corvettes around. Fans loved the Showroom Stock Series because they knew, “I own one of those too!”.
Corvette performance was back and race promoter John Powel, from Toronto, Canada wasn’t about to tuck tail and complain. Powel pitched Chevrolet the idea of a million-dollar, ten-race series with equally-prepared Corvettes. Chevrolet was warm to the idea, as they were heavily involved in NASCAR, the Callaway B2K Twin-Turbo was an official Corvette option, and the all-aluminum, double-overhead-cam (DOHC) ZR-1 was in the works. 
The new Corvette-only series was called, “The Corvette Challenge Series” and it came together quickly. The concept wasn’t new, as the International Race of Champions Series (IROC) had been around since 1974. IROC was launched with Porsche Carrera RSR cars that proved to be too expensive to build and maintain. From 1975 to 1989 it was an all-Camaro series. 
While the basic formula is the same as the IROC Camaros. The cars rolled off the Bowling Green assembly line as “RPO B9B” with the same options that included the following; the Z51 Performance Handling Package that included the new Bosch ABS II, larger-diameter stabilizer bars, Bilstein shocks, restyled 17×9.5-inch wheels with twelve cooling slots, shod with P275ZR17 Goodyear tires, higher-rate springs, a finned power steering cooler, larger 13.1”x1-1/6” front brake rotors and duel-piston calipers, the Doug Nash 4-3 manual transmission, 6-way power driver’s seat, a Delco-Bose stereo radio, Rear Window + Side Mirror Defogger, and removable blue-tinted roof panel. The 1988 Corvette base price was $29,489 and the additional options brought to total to around $33,500.
The L98 engines were specially-built at the Flint, Michigan plant and calibrated to equal horsepower levels, and sent to Bowling Green for assembly. Each engine’s bolts and screws were painted with special paint that could only be seen in low light with laser light to verify that the engine had not been tampered with. Fifty-six cars were built and forty-five of the cars were sent to Protofab, in Wixom, Michigan for preparation. “Protofab” later became Pratt & Miller. 
Each car received a roll cage, a racing seat, a safety harness, a fire suppression system, PBR racing brake pads and ducting, a low-restriction Desert Driveline exhaust, Dymag magnesium wheels with shaved-to-half-depth Goodyear tires, and special “Corvette Challenge” emblems. The Protofab preparation cost $15,000 for a grand total of $48,043. That’s just over $124,000 in 2023 dollars. Race cars have never been cheap.
The 1989 Challenge cars used the same formula, but with a few changes. Sixty RPO R7F Challenge cars came off the Bowling Green assembly line with the same package as the 1988 cars, but with the new-and-improved ZF 6-speed transmission. Upon completion, twenty-nine Challenge cars were sent to Powell Development America for the same preparation as the 1988 cars but received straight-through exhaust that exited the side out the rear fenders and a roll cage with sidebars.
During the 1988 Series, there were complaints that some cars had more horsepower. To assure this was not happening, an electronic telemetry box was installed in place of the passenger-side airbag to monitor engine output. And to keep things fair, ten cars per race were monitored in random sequence.
Unlike the 1988 Challenge cars that were built on the assembly line with certified, equally-built engines, they came off the line with the stock L98 engines. The stock, numbers-matching engines were crated and stored with Powell so that if the owner ever wanted to take his car back to “stock”, he could. Again, the L98 engines were assembled for identical power. According to Dan Barr, owner of the #9 Bosch Challenge Corvette, the power output was around 300 horsepower. While all Challenge cars were “purpose-built” race cars, they were all street-legal and carried the full factory warranty. The window sticker for Dan Barr’s Challenge Corvette totaled, $36,193. (around $89,500 in 2023 dollars) 
