Dateline: 4-5-22 (this story was first published in the April 2018 issue of Vette Vues Magazine) –The term “GT” is arguably one of the most misused automotive designations. The term dates back to the 1930s in Europe and is an abbreviation for the words “grand touring,” or as they say in Italian, “Grand Turismo.” In the classic sense, a GT car was a road-going, lightweight, semi-luxurious coupe, built on a high-performance chassis. In the 1960s, American carmakers started to apply the GT term to many of their new pony and intermediate-size cars.Continue reading “Mike & Linda Waal’s Grand Touring (GT) 1980 Corvette”→
Mike Waal from Maryland builds a Super Sano 1980 Corvette so that he and his wife Linda can “See the USA in their Chevrolet, CORVETTE!”
Dateline: 2-4-18, Photos by Mike Waal – Mike Waal took a sensible approach to building a safe, dependable, reliable 1980 Corvette with the sole purpose of long distance travel. The car fits the “classic” definition of a GT “Grand Touring” car; a road going, lightweight, semi-luxurious coupe, built on a high performance chassis. By 1980 Corvettes had standard creature comforts never imagined in the early days of Grand Touring automobiles. Mike’s addition of the motorcycle trailer completes the package for a “grand tour”.
Mike and Linda have driven their GT Corvette to Portland, Oregon, Florida, New England, the deep south, and many times to one of their favorite places, Watkins Glen. Mike has even parked his GT Corvette in the very spot that Harley Earl parked his Le Sabre concept car and Continue reading “
WINNER of our January 2018 “Vette of the Month Photo Contest” – Mike Waal’s 1980 GT Corvette” →
K. Scott Teeters Corvette art prints are available in our Amazon store!
Wednesday, the third day of the week is our day to honor the third generation Corvettes. Vettes from 1968 to 1982 are also referred to as “Shark” Corvettes because they were styled after the awesome 1965-1966 Mako Shark II show car.
If you are looking for an entry level Corvette, the newer C3 Corvettes can be purchased at very reasonable prices for several reasons.First, Chevrolet sold STACKS of them. Sales of the 1976 to 1981 Corvettes were astonishing with each year selling OVER 40,000 cars per year! The only ever year to experience similar sales was the first year of the C4 Corvette, 1984. Continue reading “
C3 Corvette Wednesday, Check Out 1968 to 1982 Corvettes – Reasonably Priced!” →
Dateline: 10.5.11 The Mako Shark II show car styling forever defined the “Corvette look.” What’s your favorite? Take our poll at the end of this post!
The Mako Shark-II show car was about 7/8s the size of the production '68 Corvette. Or at least, it looked that way.
The 1965-1966 Mako Shark-II show car was so over the top, it just had to be the next Corvette! Chevrolet management was so jazzed they wanted it a year! The first Mako Shark-II was a non-running car and was shown to Chevrolet management in Spring of 1965. I guess because the chassis and running gear would be a carry over from the then current Sting Ray, management thought a totally new body and interior could be designed and developed in time for Fall ‘66 delivery to showrooms as a ‘67 model – 18 months? No way!
So the schedule was pushed back a year to Fall ‘67 as a ‘68 model – and even that was pushing it! The end result was that ‘68 models were, shall we say, challenging. Even through everyone’s socks were going up and down over the look of the car, customers were shocked at how rough their premium car was. The new Shark Corvette should have been introduced as a ‘69 model, but hindsight is 20/20. The ‘69 model was a big improvement and things went from there.
Special thanks to Tom Henry Racing for photo. To visit their site, click the above image.
Of course, we all tend to think that things will always improve, right? So when the ‘70 Corvettes came out with their LT-1 small-blocks, and enlarged, 454 big-blocks, we all assumed things were going to get even better. But a one-two punch landed squarely on the jaw of performance cars with a right jab from the insurance companies and a left hook from the oil companies and new environmental concerns. While getting the lead out of gasoline was a good thing, it took a long time for performance to recover. 1970 turned out to be the high watermark for performance and it was downhill for almost 15 years.
