Tag: 1963 Sting Ray

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!” →

Corvettes Score 23% in Edmonds 100 Greatest Chevrolets List

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 9.27.11
Of the 23 Corvettes Edmonds picked, vote for your favorite at the end of this post!

Is the C6 ZR1 Corvette the "Best Vette Ever?" Cast your vote below!

Back on September 14, 2011 we shared with you the results of Chevrolet’s Centennial birthday celebration popularity contest to find the most popular Chevrolet of all-time. Like American Idol or Dancing With the Stars, the Greatest Chevy contest was a popularity contest. Certainly an argument could be made as to why the C6 ZR1 is the greatest Chevy of all-time because of its overall performance, the LS9 engine, top speed, etc. But that’s not what Chevrolet wanted to know. They wanted to know what was the most “favorite” Chevy of the last 100 years.

Well it seems that the people at Edmonds.com decided to draw up their own list of great Chevys. The 100 top Chevys list isn’t limited to production Chevrolet cars, but includes, race cars, prototypes, and show cars. Of the 100 cars in the list, 23 were Corvettes! Pretty impressive for a low-volumn, limited usage automobile. The list doesn’t appear to be in any specific order and there’s a slide show of all 100 cars too. Also, the story does not explain how this list was drawn up. Regardless, it’s interesting just the same. To review the Edmonds story, CLICK HERE.

Here are the 23 Corvettes:
1. 1953 Corvette – The First Corvette.
2. 1955 265 V8 Corvette – The first V8 Vette.
3. 1957 Fuel Injected Corvette – The First Fuelie Corvette
4. 1956 SR-2 Corvette Race Car
5. 1957 Corvette SS Race Car
6. 1959 Stingray Racer – Bill Mitchell’s race car playtoy Continue reading “Corvettes Score 23% in Edmonds 100 Greatest Chevrolets List” →

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT FROM CHEVROLET!!! The Results Are In, and the Most Popular Chevy of All-Time Is…

Published on by Scott

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.

Here are some of my favorite 1969 Camaros… Continue reading “MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT FROM CHEVROLET!!! The Results Are In, and the Most Popular Chevy of All-Time Is…” →

Chevrolet Asks, “What’s the best Chevy of All-Time? We’re asking the same question!

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 8.31.11
Sorry Corvettes fans. Even with three Corvettes in the running, we got SMOKED!

(Scroll to the bottom of this post to cast your vote in our own CorvetteReport.com poll!)

Chevrolet is in full swing with its 100th birthday celebration. The Centennial Edition option will be available on all 2012 Corvettes and with 6 models of Corvettes (base Corvette Coupe, base Corvette Roadster, Grand Sport Coupe, Grand Sport Roadster, Z06 Corvette, and ZR1 Corvette), plus all the trim and option variations, there’ll be lots of unique Centennial Corvettes.

Chevrolet has also been running a popularity contest, asking, “What’s the best Chevy of all time?” An excellent question for a 100th birthday celebration. Sixteen candidates from the 1912 Classic Six to the 2011 Chevy Volt were chosen for the competition. The contest is now down to the final two candidates and unfortunately for Corvette fans, a Vette is NOT in the final round.

Here are the 16 cars Chevy fans got to vote on.

1. 1912 Classic Six / 2. 1932 Deluxe Sport Roadster
3. 1936 Chevy Suburban / 4. 1948 Chevy Pickup
5. 1953 Chevrolet Corvette / 6. 1957 Chevy Belair
1962 Chevrolet Impala / 1963 Chevrolet Corvette
9. 1964 Chevrolet Malibu / 10. 1969 Chevy K Blazer
11. 1969 Chevy Camaro / 12. 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS
13. 1989 Chevy Pickup / 14. 2009 Chevrolet ZR1 Corvette
15. 2010 Chevrolet Camaro / 16. 2011 Chevy Volt

The contest is now in the final round and it’s come down to the 1969 Camaro and the 1970 Chevelle SS. Here’s how the three Corvettes fared in the contest:

   * The 1953 Corvette lost in the third round to the 1970 Chevelle SS.
   * The 1963 Corvette Sting Ray lost in the second round to the 1970 Chevelle SS.
   * The 2009 ZR1 Corvette lost in the second round to the 1957 Belair.

What surprised me was that the ‘57 Belair lost in the third round to the ‘69 Camaro. Strictly from a pop culture point, the ‘57 Chevy Belair is arguably the quintessential classic Chevy. Oh well. Continue reading “Chevrolet Asks, “What’s the best Chevy of All-Time? We’re asking the same question!” →

Corvette Timeline Tales: July 1962 – Production of the “Lightweight” aka Grand Sport Begins

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 7.27.11
This could have been the beginning of a grand adventure for Corvette racing!


This is how we tend to think of the ’63 Grand Sport Corvette, with its aggressive fender flares, scoops, vents, and fat racing wheels and tires. Initial production was supposed to be 100, but Duntov envisioned at least 1,000 Grand Sports!

For those of us who are fans of the early days of the Corvette, the name, “Zora Arkus-Duntov” casts a very long shadow. GM’s chief of styling, Bill Mitchell once referred to Zora as, “Just a lowly engineer on a low-volume production Chevy.” While that may well have been correct, thanks to friends in very high places inside Chevrolet, Duntov got away with some astonishing things. And the Grand Sport wasn’t the first or last bodacious stunt he pulled.


There wasn’t much under the thin fiberglass body. The car had magnesium Hallibrand knock-off wheels,  an aluminum bell housing, transmission case, and rear differential, plus a 36-gallon fuel tank. Note how the side pipes came off the stock cast iron exhaust manifolds. FIA rules mandated that the cars carry a spare tire. (GM photo from the book “Corvette Grand Sport” by Lowell C. Paddock)

For this adventure, Duntov’s GM “angel” was Simon “Bunkie” Knudsen. While Bunkie personally never raced cars, he did work on the GM assembly line as a college student in the ‘40s and was passionate about race cars. While general manager at Pontiac from 1956 to 1961, Knudsen was responsible for Continue reading “Corvette Timeline Tales: July 1962 – Production of the “Lightweight” aka Grand Sport Begins” →

Corvette Odd-Ball: A C2 Mid-year Sting Ray Lift-Back Coupe?

Published on by Scott

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?” →

1963 Split-Window Coupe Corvette – Minus the Split-Window?

Published on by Scott

Corvette “Urban Legend” or FACT? What do you think?

Called by some, “The Original American Idol.” The rear split-window was one of chief of GM styling, Bill Mitchell’s pet design elements. And NOT to be messed with by a lowly engineer!

I have been writing about Corvettes and illustrating them since the mid-’70s. During that time and before then, I have read dozens of books and hundreds of articles about Corvettes. Somewhere, way, way back (I really do not recall when or in what book or article) I remember the following story about the ‘63 Split-Window Coupe Corvette Sting Ray… Continue reading “1963 Split-Window Coupe Corvette – Minus the Split-Window?” →