Tag: 1962 Corvette

The National Corvette Museum Makes Lemonade – Skydome Re-Opens September 3, 2015

Published on by Scott

Bowling Green, Kentucky- 568 days after the ground opened and swallowed eight Corvettes.

1-LifeHandsLemonsDateline: 8-25-15 – The National Corvette Museum made a major announcement today. On September 3, 2015 the museum will have their Grand Re-Opening of the Skydome at 8:45am CT. If you can’t be there, worry not because the event will be shown via the museum’s webcams and will be on YouTube! But here’s the cool part, not only will the 1992 “One Millionth” Corvette be unveiled, but all eight car will be positioned exactly where they were when the ground opened up on February 12, 2014. The One Millionth Corvette, the 2009 ZR1 Blue Devil and black 1962 Corvette will be fully restored and the remaining five cars will be displayed, as they were when recovered. Continue reading “

The National Corvette Museum Makes Lemonade – Skydome Re-Opens September 3, 2015″ →

Was 1962 the “Best” of the C1 Corvettes?

Published on by Scott

The straight-axle Fuelie was tough enough to win it’s class at Le Mans in ‘61. Was the last of the C1 the “best”? Let’s have a look-see!

Click the images to see much larger images of these classic Corvette ads.

No matter how well received a performance car is, the day will come when the decision is made, “Let’s build a new version!” For the first generation Corvette, that day arrived in late 1959. Two years before, Ed Cole was driving his Q-Chevrolet project that would have put a transaxle in every Chevrolet car, including the Corvette, by 1960. Chief of GM styling, Bill Mitchell attended the Turin Motor Show in ‘57 and especially liked the humps over the wheels and the unique tapered roof of the Pininfarina and Boano cars. So he instructed his designers to come up with something based on those ideas. Penned mostly by Bob Veryzer and Pete Brock, the new shape is unmistakably the genesis of the Sting Ray.

While the Q-project was quickly shelved, Mitchell couldn’t let go of the Q-Corvette shape. Early in ‘59, Bill made a deal to buy the mule chassis from the Corvette SS racing project for $1. Designer Larry Shinoda was charged with designing a roadster version of the Q-Corvette for the Corvette SS chassis. On his own, Mitchell successfully raced his Sting Ray for two reasons. First, he wanted to go racing, and second, to test the public’s response to the new design. It didn’t take long before it was obvious Continue reading “Was 1962 the “Best” of the C1 Corvettes?” →