Before The Corvette Report was a full-fledged blog, it was a monthly email newsletter. A regular feature of the newsletter was titled “Let’s Play Corvette Odd-Ball! Quirky Vette Factoids” In the October 2008 newsletter I posed the question, “What’s the highest mileage Corvette on record?” With a little help from former assistant editor, John Nelson, I reported on a VERY high-mileage Vette, owned by Bill Pierceall.
Today’s C7 Corvette Concept Cars – Revving You Up, or Stalling You Out? I want to address the issue as a Corvette enthusiast and an artist with a car designer’s heart, of some of the C7 Corvette concept cars we’ve seen so far. I’m going to give my critique of just the shapes. I’ll tell you what I like and why, what I don’t like, and why. I think the recent magazine articles for these cars are just a lot of PR speculation – some red meat for the fans. But I’m most interested in what YOU think of the styling of these cars. So let’s read what I think and then you send me your opinion at the end in the comments section, Okay?
Did Chevy ever build a drag racing Corvette?Answer: Not for actual drag racing competition. (now THAT would have been interesting) But they did build a dragster Vette, just to show off a little. At the ’70 press introduction in the Summer of ’69, Chevrolet had a specially prepared ’69 Corvette engineering design study set up for drag racing. Actually, it was the same car used the previous year to show off the ’69 ZL-1 engine. Duntov and his crew wanted to show off the awesome power potential of an even bigger ZL-1.Chevrolet’s Hib Hufstader and Tom Langdon built the flaming orange, drag race prepared Corvette with a 454 cubic-inch version of the all-aluminum ZL-1 with a modified Turbo Hydra-Matic automatic, open 180-degree headers, and racing slicks for the press to “play with.”The menacing-looking Monaco Orange ZL1 was a press darling. Duntov enjoyed keeping the automotive press happy.
Driveable Chassis ’67 Big-Block Corvette. The car is a fully functional ’67 big-block Corvette… with no body – just the fully running chassis. It must be a BLAST to drive!
A Naked Corvette…The Driveable Chassis ’67 big-block Corvette is the work of Corvette Repair in Valley Stream, New York. Owner Kevin Mackay and his crew specialize in body-off Corvette restorations
Corvette was chosen because it was the only car they could find that would accommodate the long turbine engine. The engine, by the way, was the same unit that Granatelli used in the ’67 Indy turbine car. The front end of the car is essentially a shell to cover the engine. Talk about a lowly start, the Pratt & Whitney turbine engine was originally designed to be a power generator for oil drilling rigs. (Kind of like the trash compactor character in the film, “Wall-E”)
Holden’s new Commodore HSV W427? – Bing! Zoom! To the MOON! Get it Outta Here! So it has a Corvette engine and is rumored to inspire a 4-Door Corvette. Oh No! GM’s tired old car guy, Bob Lutz has spoken! But I can’t believe what I’m reading. Lutz says that a Holden-based four-door Corvette is a possibility. They’re getting all warm over the Corvette-powered Holden Commodore HSV W427. Obviously, with a Z06’s 427 LS7 engine the car will be bloody fast.
So when the Corvette team decided to one-up the Viper with two extra cylinders, they decided on one of
Ryan Falconer’s stunning, all aluminum V12 racing engines. Since the Corvette would have to be stretched, this was the perfect time for a “chassis study.”
Since the Falconer V12 packed a 680-horsepower kick, the obvious place to begin was with a production ZR-1. The biggest challenge was the fact that the all-aluminum V12 engine was 8.8-inches longer than the production Corvette engine
Let’s Play, “Corvette Oddball!” Quirky Vette Factoids Question: Did GM’s Chevrolet ever seriously consider a “rear-engine” Corvette? By K. Scott Teeters, creator of Illustrated Corvette...
