Vette Videos: Eckler Can-Am Custom Corvette Blast From The ’70’s Past

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 4.6.12

“Corvettes and Racing” A Wonderful Marriage!

“Corvettes and racing” have been perfect together since 1956. Without the influence of racing, I’m sure that the Corvette would have morphed into something else and been gone long ago. The other day CorvetteBlogger.com posted a story about a 2011 C6.R Le Mans Winning tribute Corvette that’s For Sale. The car looks as if it was just rolled out of the transport and is ready for a few hot laps, but this is a street machine sporting a brand new LS7 crate engine and a host of delicious racing goodies. The car has 52,000 miles on the odometer and the asking price is just $55,000. Almost begs the question, “So what’s wrong with the car???”

Seeing the car got me to thinking about earlier Corvette street machines with a powerful visual racing reference. Arguably the most over-the-top race track-influenced Corvettes were the ‘70s wide-body IMSA Corvettes. The wide body design was the last of Zora Arkus-Duntov’s “racer kit” Corvette parts program and first showed up on John Greenwood’s Corvettes around 1974-1975.

Previous Corvette racer body parts were limited to the functional L88 hood and fender flares. The fender flares were pretty big, but as tires got wider and wider, something else had to be done. Corvette stylists came up with a wild-looking and functionally aerodynamic full body kit that not only cover up the Can-Am-size racing tires, but improved the car’s aerodynamics. In full battle regalia, Greenwood’s IMSA Corvette looked like “the future” and was quickly nick named, “The Batmobile.” Continue reading “Vette Videos: Eckler Can-Am Custom Corvette Blast From The ’70’s Past” →

Vette Videos: Corvette Daytona Prototype Scores First Win!

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 4.4.12

The second time was the charm as the Corvette Daytona prototype STOMPS the competition in Hotlanta!

Congrats, Kudos, and Three Cheers to the Corvette Daytona prototype team’s first win! When the flag came down it was the electric blue Spirit of Daytona Corvette prototype to took the checkered flag at the Porsche 250 race at the Barber Motorsports Park, in Birmingham, Alabama. Richard  Westbrook and Antonio Garcia drove the car 103 laps with a best time of 1:22.245.

The next race will be the Grand Am Rolex Series Grand Prix in Miami on April 27-29. For more info about the team’s first big win, CLICK HERE.

And for AutoWeek’s coverage of the race, CLICK HERE.

NOW Feast your eyes on this beauty!

Continue reading “Vette Videos: Corvette Daytona Prototype Scores First Win!” →

Vette Videos: Larry Shinoda and Peter M. De Lorenzo Talk About Corvette Design Legend, Bill Mitchell

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 4.1.12

Shinoda shares his Mitchell “fish story” and De Lorenzo shares his “”neighborhood kid on a bike” Mitchell story!

Here's Bill Mitchell with his two favorite fish - the 1959 Stingray Racer and the 1961 Mako Shark-I. Snappy coat, Bill!

Here’s one for the Kawinkydink Department. I thought we were all done with our look back and the life and career of Larry Shinoda – wrong! This morning while surfing around the net, I found a video about Bill Mitchell. Before I knew it, there’s Larry Shinoda telling stories about his former boss, Bill Mitchell!

Most of us in the Corvette community are very familiar with the unique “shark” paint style used on the Mako Shark-I, Mako Shark-II, and the Manta Ray concept/show cars. Larry shared a wonderful story about how the guys in the painting department perfected that distinctive paint scheme.

Also interviewed in the video is the late David E. Davis, former Campbell-Ewald Advertising man, former editor of Car and Driver, and founder and former editor of Automobile Magazine. Here’s the video…

The second video is hosted by Peter M. De Lorenzo, editor and chief of AutoExtremist.com and son of former GM VP of Public Relations Anthony De Lorenzo. Continue reading “Vette Videos: Larry Shinoda and Peter M. De Lorenzo Talk About Corvette Design Legend, Bill Mitchell” →

A Look Back At Race Cars & Corvairs Designed by Larry Shinoda

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 3.30.12

A brief overview of six racing cars and three experimental Corvairs Larry Shinoda designed.

Check out our awesome slide show tribute to Larry Shinoda’s designs at the bottom of this post.

Larry Shinoda’s designs were so strong that when his name comes up, it’s almost always first associated with Corvettes. But Larry’s talent for designing fast-looking cars wasn’t limited to Corvettes. I suppose that when you are the go-to-stylist for a legend the likes of Bill Mitchell, you get a few peach projects. In retrospect, what helped make Shinoda’s design work so edgy was his passion for racing. In a sense, Larry’s NHRA Nationals win in ‘55 put him in the same category as 1954 Le Mans racer Zora Arkus-Duntov. As Bill Mitchell used to say, both men had, “gasoline in their veins.”

Shinoda’s race car design credits include: Pat Flaherty’s 1956 Indy 500-winning John Zink Special, Bill Mitchell’s 1959 Stingray Racer, Zora Arkus-Duntov’s CERV I and CERV II, the GS-II (Grand Sport II), Jim Hall’s Chaparral-2, and Peter Weismann’s 1963 rear-engine Indy car.

Although the Corvair never really caught on as a performance car or a sports car, designers such as Shinoda had some jaw-dropping ideas for Chevy’s rear-engine car. The 1962 Monza GT Coupe was in direct competition with Ford’s mid-engine 4-banger Mustang I concept car. What an interesting Chevy vs Ford battle that would have been! When you work in an R&D department often many “variations on a theme” are explored.

The Monza SS was an open cockpit-type design with a racer-like cut-down windshield. Another version was explored with a more traditional type of windshield. And in the same way that other GM divisions glommed on to Harley Earl’s Corvette concept in ‘53 and came up with their own “Corvette” concept cars for the ‘54 GM Motorama (the ‘54 Pontiac Bonneville, Buick Wildcat, and Olds F88). We have an example of a Monza variation that looks a lot like a roadster version of the 1964 XP-833 Pontiac Banshee. It was very common back then for designs to get tossed about within GMs divisions.

One Shinoda design that was not shared by any of GM’s other divisions was the 1967 Astro I. Corvair production peeked in ‘65 for approximately 235,000 Corvairs built. By ‘67 the number went to just over 27,000! The Corvair-based Astro I concept/show car arrived in 1967 and was probably started around ‘65 – ‘66, before the car started to tank. Unlike the Monza GT that eventually became the ‘67 Opel GT, the Astro I was so over the top, none of its design elements were used in any serious fashion. Instead, Chevrolet used the “Astro” name on one of their full-size vans and there was nothing “Astro” about it. Continue reading “A Look Back At Race Cars & Corvairs Designed by Larry Shinoda” →

A Look Back At Corvettes Designed by Larry Shinoda

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 3.30.12

Hot rodder Shinoda teams up with Bill Mitchell and defined the “Corvette look.”

Perhaps it was “in the stars” that Larry Shinoda was in the right place at the right time. If you strictly look at Shinoda’s resume in 1956, you might ask, “How did this guy get in the front door?” As a young man, the only thing Larry ever graduated from was high school, Army boot camp, and the School of Hard Knocks. Twelve-year-old Larry had his life turned inside out when along with thousands of Japanese-Americans, he and his family were sent to interment camps for the duration of WW II. The experience had a profound effect on his personality. A self-professed “malcontent” Shinoda could be a little difficult to work with.

After his Army tour of duty in Korea, Shinoda attended Art Center School of Design in Los Angeles, but truly hated being there. He could see no purpose in taking the classes in design and the various art mediums, such as watercolor painting. He was a car guy/hot rodder and he wanted to draw and design cars! So he left Art Center without graduating and based strictly on his car illustrations, landed a job at Ford, then Studebaker/Packard. Just a year after starting his career, he landed a job as a designer at General Motors.

The rest is the stuff of legend. Street racing and blowing the doors off of Bill Mitchell’s souped up Buick and quickly being taken under Mitchell’s wing. Things like that happens, but rarely. There was obviously some chemistry between the two men, perhaps it was because both men could be brash and had strong opinions.

Shinoda got his first big break when Mitchell tapped the 28-year-old to translate the body design of the ‘57 Q-Corvette on to the mule chassis from Duntov’s aborted Corvette SS project. The finished car became Mitchell’s 1959 Stingray Racer, which formed the styling theme for the ‘63 Corvette. From there, Shinoda got one peach project after another. It’s worth noting that the design of the Stingray Racer is held in such high esteem that current Corvette chief designer, Tom Peters (C6 Corvette and late model Camaro designer) is on record stating that his ‘09 Corvette Stingray Concept (aka Transformers Corvette) was influenced by the ‘59 Stingray. Continue reading “A Look Back At Corvettes Designed by Larry Shinoda” →

Larry Shinoda Interview From December 1997 VETTE Magazine

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 3.28.12

Tom Benford’s Summer 1997 candid dinner interview with car design legend, Larry Shinoda.

Our celebration of the life and career of car design legend Larry Shinoda continues with this delightful interview that was originally published in the December 1997 issue of VETTE Magazine. Tom Benford and his wife Liz connected with Shinoda in August of ‘97 at the Corvettes At Carlisle Show, in Carlisle, Pa. This may well have been Larry’s last interview, as he died just 2-1/2 months later. Larry’s kidney disease had progressed to the point where he was on the list waiting for a donor kidney.

According to the Pasadena City College Celebrated Alumni Larry Shinoda page , “In poor health, Larry Shinoda remained active to the end. Larry passed away at his home in Michigan of heart failure on November 13, 1997, while working at his design desk with a phone in his hand. Larry had just passed the final tissue-match test for his kidney transplant the day before he died. Though Larry is gone, his legacy lives on.” Continue reading “Larry Shinoda Interview From December 1997 VETTE Magazine” →

Corvette Timeline Tales: Happy 82nd Birthday Larry Shinoda

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 3.26.12

The next time you see a mid-year Sting Ray or Shark Corvette, think of Larry Shinoda.

He was born “Lawrence Kiyoshi Shinoda” but the automotive and Corvette world knew him as Larry Shinoda – Corvette designer and all-around carguy! Growing up in Southern California, Larry was steeped in the car culture and like many SoCal young men, was into the burgeoning sport of drag racing. In addition to his Corvette accomplishments, Larry also participated in an won his class at the very first NHRA national event in Great Bend, Kansas in 1955.

Larry was only 25-years old when after not completing his studies at Art Center School of Design in Los Angeles, he landed his first job with Ford in 1955. A year later, he briefly went to work at Studebaker/Packard, then went to General Motors late in 1956. Larry not only had an impressive portfolio, he had an intuitive sense of styling. If didn’t take long before his talent caught the keen eye of GM’s Bill Mitchell. But it wasn’t just Larry’s skill at wielding a pen and airbrush that helped acquaint him with Mitchell – it was drag racing.

The story goes that one day Shinoda and Mitchell had a chance encounter at a traffic light. Since both men had what Mitchell called, “gasoline in their veins,” neither man needed much goading to initiate a little stoplight grand prix. The light turned green and Larry put a whoop’n Bill, which may have been one of his best career moves. Mitchell drafted Shinoda into his special forces of car design, headquartered deep inside GM’s guarded facilities in a place called, “Studio X.” (sounds like a ‘50s sci-fi b-grade movie, doesn’t it”?) Continue reading “Corvette Timeline Tales: Happy 82nd Birthday Larry Shinoda” →

Bunkie & Florence Knudsen Had Some NICE Corvettes!

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 3.25.12

Former Chevrolet General Manager and all-around car guy, Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen’s “Executive Perks.”

Semon Knudsen was the son of former GM president “Big Bill” Knudsen. Although technically a “rich kid” Semon didn’t just have everything handed to him – he had to work his way up through the ranks and pay his dues. For those that are able to climb the corporate ladder into the rarified upper atmosphere of the corporate world, there are perks. And when you work for a car company, there are sometimes special “car perks.”

GM executives were able to have special custom-build versions of production cars, built to their specifications. Not all GM VIPs were offered custom cars, but those that were, got some awesome machines. Bunkie had at least three custom Corvettes built – a ‘63 Roadster and a ‘64 Coupe for himself, and a Mary Kay-like, pink ‘64 Coupe for his wife, Florence. Sweet! For my Illustrated Corvette Series column in the May 2012 issue of VETTE Magazine, I covered Bunkie & Florence’s custom rides. Below is the story copy and the art. Continue reading “Bunkie & Florence Knudsen Had Some NICE Corvettes!” →

CorvetteNews: 3-24-2012: Driver Reports From Gavin & Magnussen, 60th Anniversary TV Ad, & Bowling Green Readies For The C7

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 3.24.12

Breaking news and information for Corvette friends and fans around the globe!

* Driver Report: Corvette RacingTeam driver Oliver Gavin’s report on the team’s 2nd and 3rd place wins at the 60th Anniversary Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring race. CLICK HERE.

* Driver Report: Corvette Racing team driver,Jan Magnussen weighs in on the 2012 Sebring ALMS race. “We all expected the 12 Hours of Sebring to be one amazing battle, but even I didn’t think we’d end up with three cars from three different makes fighting it out on the final lap.” CLICK HERE.

 

* New Chevy Runs Deep 60th Anniversary Corvette “Candles” Commercial. Look’n GOOD for a 60-year old babe! CLICK HERE. Continue reading “CorvetteNews: 3-24-2012: Driver Reports From Gavin & Magnussen, 60th Anniversary TV Ad, & Bowling Green Readies For The C7” →

The 1954 Motorama Corvette Dream Beauties!

Published on by Scott2 Comments

Dateline: 3.23.12

The 1954 “Could-Have-Been” Motorama Dream  Corvettes

Back in ‘09 when General Motors was getting more negative publicity than they ever dreamed, I received a few emails from car pals with images of the 1954 Motorama Corvette variants – the Pontiac Bonneville, the Olds F-88, and the Buick Wildcat II. The gist of the emails was this, “Look at how GM screwed up! The 6-banger Corvette “could have been” a powerful V8, classic ‘50s beauty.” Bla, bla, bla.

While it is true that the above mentioned cars were beauties, there’s no way they would have made it into production. The ‘53 and ‘54 Corvette already had Cadillac prices. The Pontiac, Buick, and Olds versions would have cost even more. But it was an interesting look back, as it turned out that the ‘54 Motorama had numerous delicious concept cars.

In my Illustrated Corvette Series No. 178, I covered the “Chevy/Corvette” concept cars, the Corvette Coupe, the Corvair Fastback, and the Nomad. (The Pontiac, Olds, and Buick concept cars were covered in a later column) Keeping in mind that “concept cars” are three dimensional canvases for designers to try out new ideas, it’s always fun to look back to see what ideas made it into production and where they were used.

Continue reading “The 1954 Motorama Corvette Dream Beauties!” →

David Kimble “Art Of The Cutaway Car 2011” Book Update

Published on by Scott3 Comments

Dateline: 3.22.12

David Kimble “Art Of The Cutaway Car 2011” Book Update

 

Sorry Kimble fans, but David's book is SOLD OUT!

In February 2012 I posted a story about technical illustrator, David Kimble’s new book titled, “Art Of The Cutaway Car 2011.” Road & Track Magazine first published an ad for the book last Fall and indicated that Motorbooks International was to be the publisher. After running the post I heard from a friend at MBI that they did NOT publish the book after all and that they weren’t 100-percent certain, but CarTech Books might have had the honor. So, I checked in with my editor at CarTech Books, Scott Parkhurst (Scott edited my Illustrated Corvette Series book in ‘10) and YES, CarTech Books did indeed publish David Kimble’s new book!

But the story is a mix of good news – bad news. Obviously, the good news is that the 168-page, 10” x 12” full-color, $100 book, with 138 illustrations was published, so KUDOS to David Kimble and CarTech. Now the bad news. The book is SOLD OUT! Yes! All 1,000 copies have been scooped up and are no doubt thrilling 1,000-plus readers.

Since the first printing of the books are all sold, the mind wants to know, will more be printed and at what price? It’s a little disconcerting because if you go to Amazon.com, the book’s listing page says that Motorbooks International is the publisher and that no books are available. Also, there’s a mistake on the Amazon listing, as they indicate that the book is only 24-pages. Then if you go to CarTechBooks.com the title is not listed. And over at the world’s largest flea market, eBay.com, there are no listings. Parkhurst explained that since the book is sold out, they are not showing or advertising the book. Continue reading “David Kimble “Art Of The Cutaway Car 2011” Book Update” →

CorvetteNews: CERV III, Sebring Hall of Fame, 2012 ZR1 Review & C6.R Wins 2nd & 3rd at 2012 Sebring

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 3.22.12

Breaking news and information for Corvette friends and fans around the globe!

* Look’n Back! CERV III Video – Late ‘80s mid-engine experiemental advanced design Corvette – CLICK HERE.

* FINALLY! Corvette Inducted Into the Sebring Hall of Fame – CLICK HERE.

* Video Review of 2012 ZR1 Corvette by Cars.com’s Joe Bruzek – CLICK HERE.

* Corvette Racing Team Scores 2nd & 3rd at First 2012 Season First Race – 12-Hours Sebring – CLICK HERE. Continue reading “CorvetteNews: CERV III, Sebring Hall of Fame, 2012 ZR1 Review & C6.R Wins 2nd & 3rd at 2012 Sebring” →