Tag: corvette race cars

Bench Racing with John Greenwood, Free PDF Booklet & Video

Published on by Scott

Inside the Mind of John Greenwood

Dateline: 10.8.21  To download the free PDF, CLICK HERE. NOTE: When your PDF Reader opens, change the “View” setting to 100% to more easily read the article pages. 

John Greenwood is a legend in the world of Corvettes. Through the ’70s, while production Corvettes struggled to maintain as much performance as possible, John and his brother Burt built a series of stunning C3 Corvette race cars. Arguably, the most famous of the Greenwood Brothers Corvettes was their famous “Batmobile” very wide-body Corvette that was more aerodynamic and produced lots of down-force on the car’s huge racing slicks. Greenwood needed as much traction as he could get to better work his ZL-1 427 engines, rumored to be making upwards of 700-hp, perhaps more. Continue reading “Bench Racing with John Greenwood, Free PDF Booklet & Video” →

Car and Driver’s C7 ZR1 BOMB! Real Deal or Slick Art?

Published on by Scott

Car and Driver dishes the C7 ZR1 with “25 Cars Worth Waiting For” cover story!

Dateline: 3-9-17 – I just love paper car magazines! Subscriptions are dirt cheap and once a month your letter carrier delivers a bundle of paper for you to feast your eyes upon and consume delightful automotive stories. For Corvette lovers, its a thrill when one of Chevrolet’s “Plastic Fantastic” Corvettes adorns the cover. The April 2017 issue of Car and Driver arrived yesterday in my mailbox and it was a WOW!

The cover story is, “25 Cars Worth Waiting For” and in front of the Kia Stinger and Alfa Romeo Stelvio is the 2018 ZR1 Corvette. I’ve seen magazines do this before, about a month before the official debut, a publication will show images that are about 98-percent spot on. The image on the April 2017 Car and Driver cover and in the feature story, look Photoshop-enhanced, but not cobbled together.

As an illustrator and stylist, when I look at something “new” I go with my very first, gut reaction. When I saw the Car and Driver cover I said out loud, “WOW! The long article leads with a front/top view of the ZR1. The “25 Cars Worth Waiting For” runs from number 25, backwards to number 1, which is the ZR1 Corvette. Continue reading “

Car and Driver’s C7 ZR1 BOMB! Real Deal or Slick Art?” →

John Greenwood Tribute Event in Daytona, FL. Nov 12-15

Published on by Scott

A Tribute to John Greenwood’s Groundbreaking C3 Corvette Race Cars

Greenwood-Tribute-Event-Flier-600

Poster design by Scott Teeters, main photo by Bill Oursler


To celebrate John Greenwood’s racing and street Corvette achievements, Jan Hyde of Registry of Corvette Race Cars has organized a special “John Greenwood Tribute Event” for November 12-to-15, 2015 at Daytona International Speedway.

In the entertainment industry, there are a handful of one-name legends that include; “Elvis,” “Cher,” “Ringo,” “Liberace” and a few others. In the Corvette community we have; “Duntov,” “Shinoda,” “Callaway,” “Yenko” and a few more. The name, “Greenwood” is definitely in that short list. Just say, “Greenwood suspension,” or “Greenwood body-kit,” or “Greenwood racecar” and a huge bundle of understanding comes to mind. Continue reading “

John Greenwood Tribute Event in Daytona, FL. Nov 12-15″ →

On the Auction Block! 1968 Owens-Corning L88 Corvette

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 7-11.12

Subtitle: A Piece of Corvette racing history could be yours! How deep are YOUR pockets?

To check out the RM Auctions Monterey event, CLICK THE ABOVE IMAGE.

Sometimes you get a little “I wonder” thought. Yesterday I realized that the RM Auctions Monterey event would be coming up soon and wondered if there might be any interesting Corvettes going on the block. Last year there were five interesting Corvettes that were up for auction – four race cars and one one street Corvette. But the big splash was the auction of the John Greenwood Stars and Strips BF Goodrich  427 ZL-1-powered Corvette racer that went for $580,000. What’a show!

Usually, the cars are carefully pushed on the revolving stage, but for the Greenwood Corvette, the big ZL-1 was fired up off stage, sounding like an approaching thunder storm, and driven on stage. “Seven hundred horsepower, ladies and gentlemen!” said the auctioneer. And the crowd went wild! Yea, it was FUN.

So I checked in with the RM Auctions Monterey website to see if any Vettes were going on the block. But alas, I only found one (as of this date), but what’a beauty. Here’s your chance to buy one of the all-time great Corvette race cars, the ‘68 Owens-Corning Fiberglass L88 A/Production Corvette. This car won 22 consecutive races, qualified on the pole in most of its races, and scooped up the A/Production Championship two times!

The car is currently owned by John Thompson (no relation to race car driver, Jerry Thompson). In ‘07 Thompson sent the car to Corvette Repair for a restoration back to its Daytona ‘71 configuration. Kevin Mackay and his expert team completed the work in ‘08. In ‘09 the car won the NCRS American Heritage Award and was later one of the Chip’s Choice cars on display at the Corvettes at Carlisle Show. Continue reading “On the Auction Block! 1968 Owens-Corning L88 Corvette” →

Book Review: Corvette Sixty Years – by Randy Leffingwell

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 7.5.12

A Most Excellent Addition To Your Corvette Library

I’ve been collecting car magazines and car books since the mid-’60s. My library has gotten larger than I ever imagined. There’s one book that I accidentally bought three times. I have four different versions of essentially the same book authored by Randy Leffingwell and published by Motorbooks. All four versions are very nice books, loaded with excellent images and well written prose by Leffingwell. But each time I bought the book online, I thought I was getting a different book because the covers and sizes are all different.

So, when I saw that Motorbooks was publishing “Corvette Sixty Years,” I was holding out in hopes of a totally new book and not a shuffled around version of the previous “Corvette Fifty Years” with some updated C5 and C6 material. I was NOT disappointed! Leffingwell and MBI have delivered the goods! The book is, for me, a visual delight. You see, when you have as many books and magazines as I have, you’ve probably seem nearly all of the old vintage photos showing the design and development work on the Corvette. At least, that’s what I thought!

Continue reading “Book Review: Corvette Sixty Years – by Randy Leffingwell” →

Corvette Widebodys – Past and Present

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 5.31.12

When it comes to widebody Corvettes, it’s all about BIG tires.

Check out the wide body Corvette prints at the bottom of this post.

Special thanks to Corvette Racing for the very cool images. For tons of Corvette Racing fun, be sure to visit, www.corvetteracing.com/.

On March 16,2012 GMAuthority.com announced that for the 2012 racing season, the C6.R ZR1 Corvette would be wearing a new suit. We’re not talking about the livery, it’s still Competition Yellow with black graphics that seems to change every few races.

No, we’re talking about actual body parts. It was only six years ago that the production widebody C6 Z06 gave the new C6 that big, broad shoulders look that we love so much. It wasn’t long before lots of regular Corvettes were wearing Z06 outfits, and why not? It looks great, almost as if that’s the way the C6 should have looked in ‘05. But things evolve and we go from there. It wasn’t just a fad either. Chevrolet certainly noticed and and in ‘10 dished up the Grand Sport model, wearing Z06 cloths and a new set of front fender vents. The new look struck a chord, because in ‘10 the Grand Sport Corvette made up 49.5% of total sales and in ‘11 Grand Sports accounted for 58.7% of sales! That’s very impressive and the Corvette planners deserve credit for picking up on the widebody trend.

Special thanks to Corvette Racing for the very cool images. For tons of Corvette Racing fun, be sure to visit, www.corvetteracing.com/.

But when ‘12 Corvette Racing season began, the ZR1-based race cars were wearing an even wider, wider body. And just like the original ‘70s widebody Corvettes popularized by John and Burt Greenwood, it was all about tires. Race car tires are a whole other interesting topic. If you go all the way back to the earliest Corvette racers, you can’t miss those painfully skinny tires. These were stock tires that were sometimes shaved a little. When you got into the late ‘60s tire sizes began to grow and L-60 series tires were considered enormous. Continue reading “Corvette Widebodys – Past and Present” →

Vette Videos: Corvette Daytona Prototype Scores First Win!

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 4.4.12

The second time was the charm as the Corvette Daytona prototype STOMPS the competition in Hotlanta!

Congrats, Kudos, and Three Cheers to the Corvette Daytona prototype team’s first win! When the flag came down it was the electric blue Spirit of Daytona Corvette prototype to took the checkered flag at the Porsche 250 race at the Barber Motorsports Park, in Birmingham, Alabama. Richard  Westbrook and Antonio Garcia drove the car 103 laps with a best time of 1:22.245.

The next race will be the Grand Am Rolex Series Grand Prix in Miami on April 27-29. For more info about the team’s first big win, CLICK HERE.

And for AutoWeek’s coverage of the race, CLICK HERE.

NOW Feast your eyes on this beauty!

Continue reading “Vette Videos: Corvette Daytona Prototype Scores First Win!” →

The John & Burt Greenwood BF Goodrich Trifecta at Corvette Repair

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 12.19.11

Mega Horsepower! Racing on Street Tires! And Blazing Stars & Stripes!

(Check out the slide show at the bottom of this post.)

Here’s a sweet little bench racing, Corvette day dream for ya! Imagine if you have a Corvette restoration shop and you had ALL THREE Greenwood  BF Goodrich Corvette race cars in for restoration work. Yes, I know – open headered, old-school, hard-ass Corvette racing machines. Could you stand it? Well, Kevin Mackay and the Corvette Repair team could and it was no bench racing fantasy.

Mackay’s Valley Stream, New York shop has been doing top level C1, C2, and C3 Corvette restoration work on production Corvettes for over 25 years and has developed a nitch for Corvette race car restoration work. Kevin and his team of craftsmen have brought back to life some of the most famous early model Corvette race cars and Chevrolet Engineering experimentals to ever wear a set of Corvette cross flags. It’s not uncommon for race cars to be thoroughly beat when a team decides to unload a machine. Once gone, most teams rarely if ever keep track of the car’s new owners. So, part of what makes Corvette Repair’s work so interesting is the car’s back story of what happened after a high-profile team sold the old war horse off. Some are well maintained and enjoyed on the track. Some are even converted BACK to street cars, such as the Cunningham Le Mans class-winning 1960 Corvette. And others aren’t so fortunate and are pretty much are one hoof away from the glue factory. Continue reading “The John & Burt Greenwood BF Goodrich Trifecta at Corvette Repair” →

Corvette Race Car Files: C4 1989 GTP Corvette Racer

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 12.2.11 zzz

A Look Back at the Last Time Chevy Went Prototype Racing With a Corvette

It’s been well over 20 years since Chevrolet got into prototype racing, but it’s good to see them back. The Daytona Prototype Corvette is nicely dressed in exotic material with some very stylish styling points that are very “C6.” I’m surprised they didn’t name the car “Grand Sport,” after all, the front fenders ARE wearing C6 Grand Sport fender vents. But, let’s not pick. The Corvette community wishes them the best and we’ll all enjoy watching the latest round of Corvette racing history in the making.

So, I thought it would be fun to look back at the last time Chevrolet went prototype racing with a Corvette. I covered the 1989 GTP Corvette back in October ‘03 in The Illustrated Corvette Series. The short article and illustrations are below. I see some feature “comparison” stories coming up. It’ll be fun to examine 20-plus years of prototype development. Below is the story, “GTP Corvette Racer – Unrealized Potential.” Continue reading “Corvette Race Car Files: C4 1989 GTP Corvette Racer” →

Illustrated Corvette Series No. 175 – Greenwood Stars & Strips Goes On The Block!

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 10.30.11
Here’s the latest installment from the Illustrated Corvette Series VETTE Magazine Column

(Check out the Greenwood video at the bottom of this post!)

It was early last July that Kevin Mackay of Corvette Repair sent me a link to the RM Auctions online version of their Monterey Auction Catalog. Kevin and I have had many conversations about early Corvette race cars, so he knows that I’m a big fan. Any time a Greenwood Corvette goes on the block it’s big news, so I posted a story about the auction right away. For the next 6 weeks or so, the car magazine and Corvette blogs were on fire in anticipation of the auction. RM Auctions broadcasts their auctions online, so I stayed up and watched the coverage and sale of the Greenwood ZL-1. I have to admit, it was a lot of fun. Here’s the post of the auction coverage.

Since the car has so much historical importance, I decided to cover the car in my VETTE Magazine monthly column, “The Illustrated Corvette Series.” The January 2012 issue of VETTE just came out, so I’m sharing the story and art with you below. Enjoy! – Scott

Illustrated Corvette Series No. 175: #49 Greenwood ‘69 427 ZL-1 Racer
“Stars and Stripes On The Block!”

Expectations were high when it was announced that the No. 49 Greenwood BF Goodrich “Stars and Stripes” Corvette was going on the block at the 2011 RM Auction Monterey event. Some estimated that the car would sell for $750,000 to $950,000. In ‘09 the Gulf One ‘63 Z06 Corvette racer went for an astonishing $1.113 Million! So there was quite a buzz in the Corvette community.

John and Burt Greenwood knew all about Duntov’s “racer kits” and like many others, took maximum advantage of the special hardware. The Greenwood boys had another advantage. Sr. Greenwood had been a WW II fighter pilot and worked at the GM Tech Center. Their Dad would sometimes take young John and Burt to work on Saturdays, to let the lads see the experimentals and prototypes. It was better than an invitation to Elvis’ house! Continue reading “Illustrated Corvette Series No. 175 – Greenwood Stars & Strips Goes On The Block!” →

Kevin Mackay’s Drivable, See-Thru, ’69 L-88 Corvette

Published on by Scott

Drivable Corvette Art

I consider Kevin Mackay to be a “Corvette artist.” Some of us use paint, markers, pen & ink, etc. You know, “artsey” stuff. Some artists work in other mediums – such as metal and fiberglass. Kevin Mackay’s “Corvette Repair” doesn’t just perform world-class restoration work on classic C1, C2, and C3 Corvette race cars and regular Corvettes, Kevin is also a mechanical, educational artist.

It’s always a pleasure to see Kevin at the shows. Last weekend we were vendors at the Strictly Corvettes and American Muscle Cars Show in Atlantic City. When you love Vettes, what’s there to not like about a Corvette show? We saw lots of smiles and had many interesting conversations. Kevin Mackay was on hand for the third year in a row with a delightful stable of customer cars, as well as several of his beauties. Continue reading “Kevin Mackay’s Drivable, See-Thru, ’69 L-88 Corvette” →