Duntov’s New 1963 Z06 Corvette Sting Ray Battles Shelby’s New 289 Cobra and WINS!
Dateline: 6-3-22 This story originally appeared in the February 2008 issue of Vette Magazine
Introduction: The C8 Z06 has just about taken all the air out of the room when it comes to talking about Corvettes. The April 28, 2022, Michelin Corvette Bash at the National Corvette Museum was astonishing. Engineers from Michelin and the Corvette team were on hand presenting seminars loaded with technical information about the new C8 Z06. A week or so later, Team Corvette teased fans with a 30-second teaser of the 2023 Hybrid All-Wheel-Drive Corvette that will supposedly be released in 2023. Continue reading “Z06 Corvette Review, Pt 2 – The ORIGINAL Z06 – the 1963 Z06 Corvette”→
DATELINE: 3-19-22, this story first appeared in the January 2017 issue of Vette Vues Magazine – The C8 mid-engine Corvette is arguably the biggest news in the world of Corvettes since the very beginning in 1953. Many of us thought Chevrolet would never offer such a Corvette, but here we are. And thanks to an established pattern of performance track-model Corvettes that started in 2001 when Chevrolet decided to brand the car, “Z06” after the one-year-only 1963 Corvette, subsequent new model Corvettes have offered a Z06 model. Within minutes after the C6, C7, and now C8 Corvettes were debuted, fans’ second question (after “how much is the new Vette?”) is, “Where’s the Z06?” Yes, we expect it and Chevrolet has not let us down since.
As of this writing, Chevrolet has their Traveling Road Show in full-swing at select Chevrolet dealers to show the loyal faithful exactly what the new C8 Z06 is all about. On March 25, 2022, Stingray Chevrolet, in Plant City, Florida will be hosting their C8 Z06 presentation. No doubt, owner Steve Hurley will put on a fantastic presentation.
So, with that in mind, the next dozen or so posts here on Corvette Report will present stories I have written for Vette Vues Magazine over the last ten years about the Z06. The C8 Z06 did not arrive from nowhere, there’s been a progression of Z06 Corvettes that go back nearly 70 years to 1963 when “RPO-Z06” was an obscure, one-year-only “racer kit” option that Zora Arkus-Duntov seeded into the 1963 Corvette option list that was essentially a “suspension and brakes” option on top of the L84 Fuelie. There were no external badges or special body enhancement and the car looked like any other Fuelie Corvette. And truthfully, unless a customer wanted to go road racing with their new Corvette, the Z06’s performance suspension and brakes were of little value on the street. There was no fanfare and after 1963, no one but Zora and his hardcore racer friends missed the Z06, so the Z06 faded into Corvette history; that it until the release of the 2001 model year. Ever since then, the Z06 was THE track weapon for Corvette racers.
So, let’s have a look at how we got to where we are with the C8 Z06. It is arguably the most exciting story in Corvette history. – Scott
When I was a wee lad and would see the term, “For Off-Road Use Only” I used to think, “Well who drives these cars in the dirt and grass?” What I didn’t understand was that the term is code for “RACING”! Beginning in 1957, Chevrolet’s new general manager, Ed Cole, made the command decision that he would let “customers” carry the Corvette racing mantle by offering Chevrolet-engineered parts, specifically designed for racing, available through the Chevrolet Parts Department. Continue reading “Z06 Corvette Review, Pt 1 – The 1963 Z06 Racer Kit”→
Retired Corvette R&D engineer Bill Tower shares some of his insights into the background of the 1963 Grand Sport Program
Keith Cornett, owner and editor of www.CorvetteBlogger.com has posted a real treat for Corvette race car fans on his YouTube channel.Keith and a group of Corvette friends spent some time at the Plant City, Florida home and personal car museum of retired Corvette engineer, Bill Tower. The star of the day was Bill’s 1963 Grand Sport #005 Corvette Coupe.
Bill is a living encyclopedia of Chevrolet and Corvette R&D experience and can keep an audience enthralled with insider stories about the early days of secret performance Corvette design and development. After attending General Motors Institute (GMI) in the early 1960s, Bill was hired by Chevrolet and landed a peach of a job (abet a LOT of work!) as a Development Engineer in the Corvette Design Group.
Tower worked with, and, or knew all of the key people within the world of Corvette R&D. Needless to say, Bill has stacks of stories, insights, and understandings Continue reading “
Rollie Walriven, the single-owner of a Daytona Blue 1963 Split-Window Coupe
All of the photos in this post are by K. Scott Teeters
Dateline: 7.5.17 (This story was first published in the December 2015 issue of Vette Vues Magazine).We’ve all heard and perhaps have lived this story: Young man buys a Corvette, has a blast with the car, falls in love, marries, it’s time for a house, and the Vette is out’a here! “Life” often gets in the way of Corvettes. This is not one of those stories – no, just the opposite.
When Rollie Walriven took delivery of his brand new, Daytona Blue 1963 Corvette Coupe in November 1962, he was already a serious car guy. He had owned a daily driver 1959 4-speed Corvette with a mildly worked engine. He also had a basket case ’57 Corvette that he eventually built into a B/Production racecar that he started racing in 1964.Rollie was a typical post WW II car crazy kid. Of course his uncle’s dirt track racing in the Ohio region helped stoke Rollie’s interest in cars and racing. Rollie got his first car in high school, a 1939 Ford. Then he got a Model A Coupe that had been made into a hot rod. Continue reading “
Rollie Walriven’s Daytona Blue 1963 Split-Window Coupe” →
Performance Bookends of the Shortest Generation Corvette, the C2 Mid-Year Dateline: 6.23.17 – The difference between a 1962 and 1963 Corvette is staggering. In 1963, the new Sting Ray looks like the sports car from another planet! The only carryover components used for the new Corvette were the base and optional engines. Everything else (body, interior, suspension, and frame) was all-new. The C1’s basic structure was created in 1952, and over the years was given slight tweaks, such that by the late 1950s, the Corvette was holding on against the European cars. But the new Sting Ray was a game-changer. We’re going to look back at the first and last “performance” Corvettes – the 1963 Fuelie and the 1967 L71 427/435. The Sting Ray had an all-new parameter frame that would ultimately serve as the foundation of the Corvette up to 1982! The new C2 frame allowed the passenger seats to be located “down and inside” the frame rails, unlike the C1’s frame that located the seats “on top” of the frame, thus allowing the overall design to be lower and more slender. Although the shape looked “aerodynamic, it suffered from severe “lift” at high speeds. The lift issue was a combination of the body shape, and the rear suspension “squat” upon hard acceleration – and was never really solved, just dealt with.The independent rear suspension and updated front suspension made the 1963 Corvette the only American car with four-wheel, independent suspension. This was a very BIG deal then. The new interior was just beautiful. The dash had double-arches with a perfectly laid out array of the proper sports car gauges. From 1953 to 1962, the Corvette was a convertible with an optional bolt-on hardtop. The new Sting Ray was a production of Bill Mitchell’s 1959 Stingray Racer – a beautiful car with big aerodynamic problems. Instead of a convertible-only version, there was a coupe version with the now classic “stinger” design. The hidden headlights were show-car-like, and rotated horizontally along the front leading edge when the lights were turned on.
The rear glass had a split down the middle so that the crease that started at the front edge of the roof could run uninterrupted back to the end of the car. This was the infamous “split-window” that was a love-it, or hate-it detail and was Bill Mitchell’s pet design element. The split-window was gone after 1963 – making the 1963 coupes a rarity. 1963 convertibles outsold coupes, 10,919 to 10,594. Some coupe owners replaced their split-window with a 1964-1967-style rear glass! Continue reading “
Dateline: 6-15-17 – Ken Hazelton’s 1963 Split-Window Coupe Corvette Sting Ray is a unique car. Ken’s Corvette has never been a streetcar. Although born to be a street sports car, this Sting Ray has never been anything but a racecar. Zora Arkus-Duntov was the driving force behind making sure that production Corvettes could be easily turned into competitive racecars. He was famous for saying, “I want my customers to enjoy their Corvette.” Even though he was in the engineering department and not sales and marketing, he thought like a salesman. Duntov’s insistence that Corvette customers had access to Chevrolet engineered parts for racing, created the Corvette’s halo of racing.
Photo Credit: K. Scott Teeters
Unlike any other American automobile, the Corvette was born to be a racer. In 1951 when Harley Earl went to his first sportscar race at Watkins Glen, he saw the raw enthusiasm for the new breed of small cars from Europe – sports cars. Earl was an automotive genius and pioneer, who often saw possibilities where most did not. For the most part, Americans preferred big cars. But Earl reasoned, “Why should the Europeans have all the fun and racing glory? There should be an America sportscar.” The rest, of course, is history. Because “racing” was built into the Corvette’s DNA, the car attracted others that saw potential for greatness. Without men such as Ed Cole, Zora Arkus-Duntov, Mauri Rose, Bill Mitchell, and many others, Continue reading “
Ken Hazelton’s 1963 Split-Window Coupe Corvette Racecar” →
Dateline: 8.30.15 – The original Z06 was Duntov’s “racer kit” for the then-new 1963 Sting Ray. Unlike modern Z06s, there was no flash to the first Z06, it was strictly hardware designed for the racetrack – no badges, special body panels, or designations at all! But considering the official “we don’t race” policy of GM, 199 1963 Fuel Injected Corvettes with heavy-duty brakes and suspension, wasn’t anything in GM’s big picture. But, if you wanted to race your Corvette in ’63, it was everything, and Duntov made sure you got what you needed. Thanks to the SCCA rules that allowed the 2000-pound Cobra to race against the 3100-pound Corvette, even with the Z06 racer kit, the Vette was at a serious disadvantage. Continue reading “
First-Ever 1963 Z06 Corvette Stingray – Dave MacDonald Picks Up, Then Races Z06 #684 At Riverside” →
The Illustrated Corvette Series “First” continues with a look back at the FIRST production Sting Ray.
A few years ago, someone created a series of Chevrolet billboards using classic, iconic images of some of the most popular Chevrolet cars. Naturally, there were several layouts featuring Corvettes. While this is a totally biased opinion, I think the above “The Original American Idol” is the best. Four words sum it up perfectly and the back end of the one and only, split-window coupe says a thousand words.
Our friend and VETTE Magazine founding editor, Marty Schorr, recently posted a review of the new 911 Porsche Carrera S at his CarGuyChronicles.com blog site. Writer, Howard Walker expounds on the fact that while the latest version of the classic 911 shares no hardware what-so-ever with the original and first ‘63 911, the spirit of the original 911 is still in tact. It’s an amazing combination of the rear-engine layout and the fact that the car still “looks” like a 911, only bigger and much better. I have often wondered what today’s Corvette would look like had Bill Mitchell never designed the game changing Mako Shark II. As I have written here in stories about Mitchell’s Mako Corvettes, the Mako Shark II was so astonishing, it simply HAD TO BE the next Corvette. End of conversation! And, we’ve moved on from there.
So, buckle up and lets take a blast back to 1963 for a look-see at the first production Sting Ray! – Scott
I call the Corvette the “The American Automotive Horatio Alger Story.” It’s the ultimate automotive rags-to-riches story. You could also call it an automotive Cinderella story. While the C6 has taken more flack than it deserves, it’s good to look back to the very beginning to get a really clear picture of how far the Corvette has come in 60 years. Today, new designs are market researched, but in the ‘50s, it was a seat-of-the-pants approach, driven by men with strong personalities. “Father” of the Corvette, Harley Earl, was the director of GM’s “Art and Color Section.” from 1927 to 1958. His successor, William L. Mitchell picked up the mantle and drove the Corvette where Earl never imagined.
The Sting Ray design began in ‘57 as the Q-Corvette concept and morphed into Mitchell’s weekend warrior Stingray Racer. Mitchell wanted to go racing, and do some informal market research. By ‘59, the Corvette was due for a change and Mitchell had the design already worked out. Late in ‘59, Mitchell assigned stylist Larry Shinoda to make a full-size, clay coupe version the Stingray Racer. By April ‘60 Continue reading “1963 Corvette – The First Production Sting Ray”→
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!”→
Dateline: 9.14.11 By Popular Demand! The 1969 Chevrolet Camaro is the Most Popular Chevy in the Last 100 Years!
Chevrolet is making the most of their 100th birthday. For the Corvette community there’s the 2012 Centennial Edition option that is available on every model Corvette. It’s a beautiful aesthetics package and I’m sure that when combined with the other customer options will make for some very interesting combinations.
Several months ago, Chevrolet launched a popularity contest asking,“What’s the Best Chevy Ever?” On August 31, 2011 we covered the story because it had come down to the last two finalists – the 1969 SS Camaro and the 1970 SS Chevelle. Like we said, this is strictly a popularity contest, because if performance and technological achievement was the objective, the clear winner would have been the C6 ZR1. But, that was not the case.
Yesterday, Chevrolet announced the winner. So, as voted on by Chevy fans around the world, the most popular Chevy of all time is… The 1969 SS Camaro!!! Chevrolet points out that not only was 1969 the last year of the original Camaro design, it had the following accomplishments.;
* The ‘69 Camaro paced the Indy 500 for the second time. * The ‘69 Camaro was the first and only year for the Corvette all-aluminum ZL-1 427 engine. * The ‘69 Camaro’s Z-28 and SS/RS packages qualified the car to compete in the Trans-Am Series. * The ‘69 Camaro sold 243,095 units.
Dateline: 8.5.11 Corvette Odd-Ball: A Juicy Story, Indeed, But Some Documentation Would Sure Help!
Special thanks to Dave Friedman for the basic photo of the above art. if you love Grand Sport Corvettes, you should get a copy of "Corvette Grand Sport" by Lowell C. Paddock, with photos by Dave Friedman.
Loading ...
The Corvette hobby has grown so wide and deep you could spend all day, day-after-day, and probably not be able to keep up with everything. So I didn’t beat myself up for not discovering this sooner. While poking about for some background on another project, I stumbled upon a post talking about a story from Autoweek writer, William Jeanes that addressed the notion that there was a SIXTH Grand Sport Corvette. If you’ve been into the Corvette hobby for a while, you’re familiar with the GS Corvette story: Five lightweight Grand Sport Corvette race cars were secretly built by Zora Arkus-Duntov as a counter punch against the Shelby Cobras. The cars showed potential, but GM’s president, Frederick Donner, order that Chevrolet MUST comply with the official GM policy that “we DO NOT race cars.”
Duntov and Chevrolet’s general manager, Simon “Bunkie” Knudsen, were ordered to stop what they were doing. The cars were not ordered to be destroyed, so Duntov loaned the cars out and eventually, they were sold. From there, the GS Corvettes were raced, hammered on, became outdated, sold, resold, and at one point in the early ‘70s were nearly lost. Eventually, all five cars were found and have been lovingly restored. Today, they are very valuable pieces of Corvette history.
While the prospect of a 6th GS is an intriguing story, it’s got “modern urban legend” smell all over it. Unfortunately, it’s all based on anecdotal stories. Here are the key points:
1.Texas oil man John Mecom claims that he bought 6 GS Corvettes.
2.Road & Track artist and Mecom pal, Bill Neale claims that his friend, John Mecom, had a photo in his trophy room showing 6 GS Corvettes in his shop.
3.Retired GM employee, Jim Champlin worked at the GM Milford proving Grounds claims that he was personally charged with destroying the 6th GS in late ‘64 or early ‘65. He says that after the car was returned from the Bahamas, he was told to “make it disappear.” So, he put two tires in the car, doused it with gasoline and BURNED IT. Champlin also says that his supervisor, Bob Cameron witnessed the destruction. Continue reading “Vette Polls: Was There a 6th 1963 Grand Sport Corvette? Cast Your Vote!”→
Dateline: 7.12.11 Step Into My Sting Ray Spaceship
Click the image for a MUCH larger image.
Over the weekend I was looking a photos online of ‘63 Split-Window Coupe Corvettes. I especially like the GM studio shots. Not only are they uniquely lit and posed, sometimes little clues are there if you look closely. Any way, they’re a lot of fun to look at.
The above picture caught my eye because the father of the production ‘63 Sting Ray, Bill Mitchell’s Stingray Racer, is in the background lit with blue light on its silver paint.
The red roadster and coupe have no fender vents, but substantial scoops that go into the doors with two horizontal spears. The roadster has side rocker panels that almost look like the side-pipe covers that would arrive in ‘65. And it appears that the gas filler cap is located on the driver’s side rear fender.
The silver split-window coupe has little shark gill decorations going on that awkwardly cut behind the bumpers. This looks like one of Bill Mitchell’s frills he liked adding on the show cars. “Elements of Discovery” was the idea. But with an overall outstanding design shape, do-dads aren’t needed. Continue reading “Corvette Odd-Ball: A C2 Mid-year Sting Ray Lift-Back Coupe?”→
Loading ...
