Category: Vette Videos

Vette Videos: Visit Bowling Green Corvette Assembly Plant… On Your Computer!

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 10.13.11
Check out the state-of-the-art Bowling Green Corvette factory on “Ultimate Factories.”

Back in the olden days, you know, pre-Bowling Green, if you wanted to buy a Corvette, you simply went to your friendly local Chevrolet dealer and bought your car. While some Corvette buyers may have been aware that their Corvette was built in St. Louis, most couldn’t have cared less, and were more focused on the experience of owning and driving their Corvette, rather than where it was assembled.

All Corvettes from 1953 to 1980 were built in the old St. Louis assembly plant. If you go back and read early road tests from the ‘60s and ‘70s you’ll see a consistent complaint – spotty to poor build quality. Some cars were built very well, most okay, and too many not good at all. It was a time when you didn’t want a “Monday car” for obvious reasons. Owners and magazine writers complained and GM listened. By ‘77 GM started looking for a new Corvette facility. Four location candidates were identified: Waco, Texas, Wichita, Kansas, Montgomery, Alabama, and Bowling Green, Kentucky. The little town of Bowling Green, Kentucky  won the contest after granting GM some serious tax breaks.

Once the deal was signed, GM had just 15 months to convert the old Chrysler AirTemp plant into a state-of-the-art assembly plant, ONLY for Corvettes. Floor space was enlarged to a million square feet – about 22 football fields. This move on GM’s part put to rest all concerns as to how serious GM was about building Corvettes. On June 1, 1981, Kentucky Governor John Brown drove the very first Bowling Green-built Corvette off the assembly line. (I wonder how much THIS car will go for at auction some day?) This was arguably one of THE most important developments in Corvette history. Continue reading “Vette Videos: Visit Bowling Green Corvette Assembly Plant… On Your Computer!” →

Vette Videos: Mrs Knudsen’s Ride – Arguably the World’s ONLY Hot Pink 1964 396 Corvette!

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 10.11.11
Chevrolet’s general manager Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen had some very cool perks. So did Mrs. Knudsen!

Special thanks to Jeffy Heasley for the photos. You can visit Jerry site at www.JerryHeasey.com/, or just click the above image.

Yesterday we told you about Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen’s factory custom ‘64 Blue Fire Mist Corvette Coupe. Well, what a NICE husband Semon must have been! Here’s the ‘64 Corvette Bunkie got for his misses. (I know, what’a guy!) What’s not known is if Mrs. Knudsen said, “Semon, so where’s MY Corvette?” or if he just surprised her one day. I’ll vote that he surprised her one day.

This is another example of what the GM Design Center was capable of creating. In retrospect GM “could” have spun off a little boutique business offering customized luxury V.I.P. versions of their top cars, but that’s just a bench racing fantasy of mine. Florence Knudsen’s Corvette Sting Ray was just dripping with special features and some interesting preproduction features.
This car was once part of former Chevrolet dealer, Bob McDorman’s very large Corvette collection. In November 2010, 150 of McDorman’s collection of Corvettes were auctioned off by Mecum Auctions for a total of $4,599,000. Bunkie Knudsen’s Blue Fire Mist ‘64 Corvette Convertible went for $400,000 and Mrs. Knudsen’s ‘64 Corvette Coupe went for 280,000. A slide show of Jerry Heasley photos and a video are below. Here’s a list of the production options that were on the car, custom features, and hand-made fabricated parts.

Special thanks to Jeffy Heasley for the photos. You can visit Jerry site at www.JerryHeasey.com/, or just click the above image.

Too often, cars such as this are bought and sold over and over to the point of becoming a derelict. This is what happened to the beautiful Bob Wingate FS&O 427 ‘67 Corvette. When the current owner bought the car, it was an abused hulk of what was once an awesome automobile. We’ll be covering the Wingate car tomorrow.

 

 

 

Here are the features of Florence Knudsen’s customized 1964 Corvette.

Factory Production Options:

* AM/FM radio with power antenna.
* Air conditioning.
* Telescope steering column and teak wood steering wheel. Continue reading “Vette Videos: Mrs Knudsen’s Ride – Arguably the World’s ONLY Hot Pink 1964 396 Corvette!” →

Vette Videos – Vette Polls: C6 ZR1 Corvette vs All-Wheel-Drive Lamborghini LP670-4 SV

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 10.6.11
Another look at AWD, does it really matter? 

To visit the official ZR1 website, click the above image.

(Cast your vote at the bottom of this post.)

The other day I was sharing with you the November 2011 Road & track cover story about the 2-second club – three world-class sports cars capable of 0-to-60 in LESS than 3-seconds. Club members include the Nissan GT-R Premium, the Porsche 911 Turbo S, and the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport. All three cars had AWD and except for the nuts-o 1,183-HP Bugatti, the other two members have LESS horsepower that the ZR1. Plus, the ZR1 Corvette weighs 225-pounds LESS than the Porsche. So, the Corvette with a 106-horsepower advantage isn’t in the club, what’s up with that? “All-wheel-drive” boys and girls.

 

Mamma mia! That's'a SPICY meatball! And she's nice too!

Well don’t despair Corvette fans, not all AWD supercars are in the 2-second club. The Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SV could only to the 0-to-60 scoot in 3.0-seconds, so no club membership card for the Lambo either. The June ‘09 Car & Driver Lambo test car was packing 661-HP, 487 LB/FT of torque, weighed 3,850-pounds, and has a top speed of 209 to 213-mph. All that for only $457,500 – enough to buy three ZR1s and a Z06! But we won’t beat them up over a few hundred grand.

Autocar Magazine created the below video comparison between the top gun Corvette and Lamborghini cars. The Lambo has the horsepower edge plus AWD and the ZR1 has the weight advantage. So who wins on a road course? (The video is on the next page –>>) Continue reading “Vette Videos – Vette Polls: C6 ZR1 Corvette vs All-Wheel-Drive Lamborghini LP670-4 SV” →

Vette Videos: Ron Fellows Flogs the C6 Grand Sport & Shows His New Driving School

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 9.28.11
Champion Corvette Driver Ron Fellows Tests the Chops of a C6 Grand Sport Corvette On the Race Track & Gives a Mini-Tour of His Driving School

Ron Fellows Day continues with two FUN videos. About the only criticism I’ve ever heard about the Grand Sport is that it doesn’t have any more grunt that the base Corvette. True, true, but look at what you do get.

The 430-horsepower Corvette scoots to 60-mph in just a tick under 4-seconds, 1G lateral on the skid pad, AND gets an EPA estimated 26-MPG. I’ve heard anecdotal stories of drivers feather footing a modern Corvette at 55-MPH and getting in the low 30-plus MPG. The GS is available with the Dual-Mode exhaust (okay, it’s only an extra 6-HP, but we’ll take it) the Magnetic Selective Ride Control option and a few other goodies.

So, what’s this kind of capability like when driven by a world-class champion race car driver? The first video is a walk through with Ron of the key features of the Grand Sport. Ron says, “Now it’s time to have some fun!”.

The second video was filmed at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch, the home of the Ron Fellows Performance Driving School. Continue reading “Vette Videos: Ron Fellows Flogs the C6 Grand Sport & Shows His New Driving School” →

Merrily We Roll Along – 1961 “Project XX” Documentary About The Early Days of the Automobile

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 9.26.11
Were it not for this, there’d have been no sports cars and no Corvettes!

The other night I had the extreme pleasure of watching another of the series of outstanding documentaries from Project XX. The “XX” doesn’t stand for 2/3s of a XXX rating, it refers to the Roman numerals “XX” for the number “20” as in 20th century. As a baby boomer that doesn’t remember a time when there was no television, I vividly remember a certain fascination with the “20th century.” It was a nice, round, even number. It seemed modern, advanced, exotic. After all, it was the beginning of the space age, and we had electricity, telephones, jet airplanes, submarines, indoor plumbing (what’a relief!), computers (the government had a few), and cars – LOTS of fast cars!

While I never saw any of the Project XX programs when they aired, it was probably a matter of I just didn’t happen to see them. In the ‘50s and ‘60s, TV programs tended to run only once. Towards the late ‘60s, “summer reruns” became the norm, so you had a second chance if you missed a show. But if you still missed a show, you were out of luck, as video recording didn’t arrive until the late ‘70s. But when video tape and later DVDs came along, there was a rush to get as much old TV programming back into the marketplace. And today, with the internet and online services, such as Netflix, most of the Project XX series is available to watch any time. Continue reading “Merrily We Roll Along – 1961 “Project XX” Documentary About The Early Days of the Automobile” →

Vette Videos: Jeremy Clarkson Gushes All Over the C6 Z06 at Willow Springs Raceway

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 9.20.11
But on the street, it’s grump, Grump, GRUMP!

Jeremy Clarkson from the TV program, “Top Gear” arguably has the best car-guy job on the planet! All he has to do is drive, burn rubber,  and critique. And his critiques are usually, ah, I’ll be a lot nicer that the comments people leave on YouTube, and describe them as “crabby.”

Clarkson starts off flogging the pants off the 505-horsepower C6 Z06 at Willow Springs Raceway and is just about besides himself! He loves what the car will do on the track and has WAY too much fun rear-wheel-drifting the “Zed-Oh-Six” as he calls the car. (He’s a Brit, so we’ll cut him a little slack!) Everything is sweetness, light, and adrenaline… COOL!

Then, it’s out on to real roads – that’s when the “Clarkson grumping” begins! It’s no surprise that the C6 Z06 is closer to a track car than a GT street machine. And with 505 “net” horsepower, the overall package is more like a Continue reading “Vette Videos: Jeremy Clarkson Gushes All Over the C6 Z06 at Willow Springs Raceway” →

Vette Videos: SUPER RARE, One-of-a-Kind 1972 Motion Moray Eel Corvette

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 9.15.11
 The last of Joel Rosen’s Shark Corvettes – The Moray Eel

As cool as the Mako Shark-styled production 1968 Corvette was, there were a few that were… disappointed. Why, you wonder? Because the ‘68 Corvette WASN’T the ‘65-’66 Mako Shark II show car. Making a show car is one thing, designing a car to be mass produced is another. While the Mako Shark II show car looked large on the stage, it was actually about 7/8s the size of the production Corvette. In other words, a VERY tight little package that could not directly translate into a production car.

But it was fiberglass man, John Silva that took it upon himself to make his own Mako Shark. “Kit cars” were all the rage in the mid-to-late ‘60s. Meanwhile, on Long Island, New York, Joel Rosen was building ground-pounding big-block Phase III Chevys and was looking for something really exotic to offer his Corvette customers. Rosen bought two complete Silva Maco cars and got permission from Silva to make molds off of the Silva parts to make his Motion Maco kits. The Maco kits were kind of a “love it, or hate it” thing. It wasn’t quite as svelte as the Mako Shark, but for many, it was close enough.

For creative types, such as Rosen, the mind never stops. In the early ‘70s Joel was on a roll with his “shark-thing.” His Motion Maco Shark burst on the street scene in ‘71, quickly followed by two interesting variations. The Manta Ray featured the front end of the Phase III GT with its distinctive tunneled headlights and Continue reading “Vette Videos: SUPER RARE, One-of-a-Kind 1972 Motion Moray Eel Corvette” →

My FAVORITE Corvette TV Commercial, Plus, One Right in Your Eye!

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 9.11.11
One for the heart and one with ATTITUDE!

We all have that “special Corvette moment.” You know, that moment that defined and marked our passion for Corvettes. The moment that before it happened, Corvettes were NOT a part of our awareness. And afterwards, everything was different. For me, it was tagging along with my big brother in 1966 to a local Chevy dealer where I saw a ‘66 Coupe sitting on the showroom floor and a salesman gave me a brochure. It’s different for each of us, but I’d venture to say that if you think back, there was a definite “moment.”

The “Jump’n Jack Flash” commercial for the then-new C6 Corvette does an excellent job of capturing “that moment” for a young lad. While I didn’t have such a vivid day dream and Suzy Holcomb didn’t “wink” at me in HER Corvette as we passed by one another flying through the air in our respective Vettes, the spirit of “the moment” is spot on and so is the closing line, “The all-new Corvette! The official car of your dreams!” This commercial ROCKS!

The second commercial positions the new Chevy Cobalt as the younger family sibling that doesn’t know when to leave its “older counterpart” alone. Like a big cat, the C6 Vette grumbles after a few taps then ROARS, BURNS RUBBER, DOES A 180, and Continue reading “My FAVORITE Corvette TV Commercial, Plus, One Right in Your Eye!” →

Vette Videos: Virtual LS7 Engine Build & High-Speed ZR1 Build

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 9.9.11
STEP RIGHT UP and see the AMAZING Z06 engine assemble itself in virtual reality!!! AND see the Monster-Motor LS9 built in just 2-minutes and 13-seconds!!!

To see the BIG version, click the above image.

If you’ve been following us here at CorvetteReport.com you will have noticed that WE LIKE ENGINES here. Being a muscle car, sports car, and drag racing historian, I’m well versed on the great engines of the past. It took a long time for aluminum to work its way into American performance engines. All the way back in 1957 Zora Arkus-Duntov was proposing an all-aluminum engine for the Corvette. It just seemed like an excruciatingly slow process. We got aluminum intake manifolds, water pumps, bell housings, and transmission cases by the early ‘60s, aluminum heads from ‘67 to ‘69, and one minimal attempt at an all-aluminum big-block in ‘69 with the 427 ZL-1. While the ZL-1 was available as a separate purchase for a long time, we had to wait until ‘97 for the arrival of the all-aluminum LS1. Since then, we have been treated to the LS6, LS2, LS7, LS3, and the 638-HP monster LS9.

Machined steel is cool, but there’s something unique about machined aluminum. The LS7 animation is quirky-cool. Not only does the engine float in a blue sky, the crankshaft and entire assembly is animated as the parts come together on their own, the entire engine horizontally rotates. It’s very cool.

The second video is a speeded up assembly of a real LS9 engine at the GM Performance Build Center, in Wixom, Michigan. The new Corvette Engine Build Experience option lets ZR1 and Z06 buyers watch and help build their own engine. How cool is that?! The video is kind of an “over the shoulder” view of the experience – but, REALLY FAST! Continue reading “Vette Videos: Virtual LS7 Engine Build & High-Speed ZR1 Build” →

Say, what’s the easiest way to keep up with what’s happening at CorvetteReport.com?

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 8.31.11
We’ve made it “easy as pie” for ya!

Ever since we dropped a ZR1 LS9 engine into our blog site, we’ve been posting at least once a day, sometimes more. At first, I thought, “How in the world am I going to find interesting Corvette material to post every day?” HA! Silly me! With nearly 60 years of Corvettes to talk about, I’ve concluded that I could do this for another 100 years and not run out of material to cover! The topic is so broad and deep, there’s ALWAYS something fun and interesting to talk and write about in the world of Corvettes!

Enter your email address:

So, to make it fall-off-a-log easy for you to keep up with us, we’ve created the above handy-dandy, sign up form. It’s not a “newsletter,” just a brief email announcement letting you know that there’s a new post at CorvetteReport.com. The email you will receive will look like this… Continue reading “Say, what’s the easiest way to keep up with what’s happening at CorvetteReport.com?” →

Vette Videos: Callaway Corvette vs RUF 911 Porsche vs Jeremy Clarkson

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 8.25.11
A snarkey look back at late ’80s – early ’90s supercars.
I must admit that before watching this I did NOT know who Jeremy Clarkson was. That’s because I really don’t watch very much TV. So, I may well be the last person in America to know who this bloke is. Clarkson is the “presenter” for the TV program, “Top Gear” and he’s quite a character.

The video starts with a piano being dropped on a 911, and other 911 being dropped from a crane. Then a helicopter gun ship fires on an early C4 Corvette. Clarkson savages the 911 first on a race track, but hoots a squeals when the turbos kick in on the 3.4-liter RUF 911. He goes straight after the obvious – at normal speeds, the 911 feels very, well, VW Beetle-like. (Are you allowed to saw such a thing? You can HERE!) “KRIKEY-MOSES!” is what he has to say when the tubros kick in. Back in 1990 the 911 RUF had a top speed of 211-MPH! In the end, he says, “What’a CAR!” The final shot of the 911 RUF is from behind and you get to see some flames popping out of the rear exhaust. Pretty cool!

To start the Callaway portion of the video, Clarkson gets the back end about 45-degrees on the first turn. After dissing the stock suspension and brakes Continue reading “Vette Videos: Callaway Corvette vs RUF 911 Porsche vs Jeremy Clarkson” →

Vette Videos: 1988 Callaway SLEDGEHAMMER!!!

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 8.24.11
A crash course on what it takes to build a 250-plus-MPH C4 Corvette

Yesterday we told you about the ASTONISHING 254.76-MPH twin-turbocharged Callaway Corvette. The below video is an excellent presentation of this impressive machine. Reeves Callaway and project manager Tim Good take you on a full tour of the Sledgehammer project. You’ll get to see the Sledgehammer blast the Transportation Research Center in Ohio and even the late John Lingenfelter has a few words to say. Watch this and you WILL be a fan!


The 250-MPH Club has very few members. The astonishing $1,705,769 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport that holds the Guinness average top speed record of 267-MPH, but is based on an architecture originally designed to be an all-out race car, not a platform designed in 1980 as a mass-produced sports car. Then there’s the $650,000, 1,287-HP Ultimate Aero built by Shelby Super Cars that’ll do 270-MPH. Granted, the Bugatti and Shelby do things Continue reading “Vette Videos: 1988 Callaway SLEDGEHAMMER!!!” →