Tag: Corvette Sting Ray

Larry Taylor’s Grand Sport Corvette #004 Replica – Videos!

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When it Comes to Grand Sport Replicas, Attention to Details Pays Off!

Dateline: 2-1-22 This story was first published in the February 2019 issue of Vette Vues Magazine – Larry Taylor’s passion for Corvettes might be genetic. The Clinton, Utah resident’s grandfather was into Corvettes in the 1950s. Grand Pop passed down his Corvette passion to Larry’s Dad who owned a 1966 Sting Ray that he drag raced a little and also used to trailer his boat. When it came time for Larry to enter the world of automobiles, his first Corvette was a 1959 model that he bought in 1984.

Larry has an affinity for details. Anyone who has ever gone after an NCRS Top Flight award knows it’s all about “details, details, details”. It wasn’t long before Larry’s 1959 Corvette scored a Top Flight award. Classic Corvettes are wonderful, but as the 1990s went on the C4 Corvettes were looking better and better. So in 1995 Larry decided to get a “modern” Corvette and bought a 1990 Corvette. The C4 was really nice, but he found himself pulled back to the classics. Larry sold his 1990 Corvette, but not before acquiring another NCRS Top Flight award. If your passion is classic Corvettes, you can’t get much more “classic” than a 1963 Split-Window Coupe, which, you guessed it, Larry got another NCRS Top Flight award.

While all this was going on, Larry did some open-wheel racing and always liked Corvettes with racer-style. So if you are into “racer-style” and you own a 1963 Split-Window Coupe, it is no stretch that you would be drawn to the 1963 Grand Sport Corvette; the greatest “could have been…” Corvette of all time. If you are new to the Corvette hobby you might be wondering, “What’s so special about a Grand Sport Corvette? It’s a nice model Vette, but what’s the big deal?” Well, we’re not talking about the 1996 Grand Sport, or the C6 and C7 Grand Sports. No, we’re referring to the 1963 Grand Sport Corvette all-out racecar; arguably THE most storied car in Corvette history. Here’s the short version of why the Grand Sport is still being talked about, longed for, and honored with the production and replica Grand Sports.

In early 1962, after the major engineering work was completed on the new, upcoming 1963 Sting Ray, Zora Arkus-Duntov and his team got to work on RPO Z06. Duntov’s C1 racer kit program was hugely successful, such that by the end of the 1950s and into 1962, Corvettes were a force to be dealt with in SCCA racing. The Z06 was to carry on with Duntov’s program. That is until Carroll Shelby’s 2,000-pound Cobra arrived.

Duntov was an experienced racer and he knew that his 3,000-pound Z06 Sting Ray would be no match against the 2,000 Cobra. To Duntov, it was obvious; he needed to build a lightweight Corvette and to do this if would have to have a tube frame, an exotic engine, and a lightweight replica body. But what he really needed was official permission. Fortunately for Duntov, he had a friend at the top of Chevrolet; Semon “Bunky” Knudsen.

Knudsen was a serious “car guy” corporate officer who worked his way up through the ranks at GM. As general manager at Pontiac, he turned the brand’s stodgy image around with his Wide Track, Tri-Power performance cars, and factory support in NASCAR racing. His reward for doing a great job at Pontiac was the general manager position at GM’s flagship division, Chevrolet in 1961.

Knowing he had Knudsen’s ear, Duntov outlined his plan to get around GM’s adherence to the 1957 AMA Racing Ban. Duntov’s idea was to build limited production lightweight Corvettes that would sell for around $16,000-to-$20,000 and let the customers do the racing. Knudsen green-lighted Duntov plan and five, special cars, called, “The Lightweights” were built.

By November 1962 cars were completed and were renamed “Grand Sport”. They looked almost exactly like the production Corvette, but with minor differences and no split rear window. Initial testing at Sebring in December 1962 was very promising. But when word of Duntov and Knudsen’s covert activities reached GM President Frederick Donner, the Grand Sport came to a screeching halt! Documents at The GM Heritage Center indicate that the five Grand Sports and the spare parts were ordered to be warehoused, but that didn’t last long.

Duntov gradually loaned out Grand Sports #003, #004, and #005 to privateer racers. But without a proper development program, the cars were not successful and their performance was inconsistent. By the end of the racing season, Duntov called in the three Grand Sports for a few “improvements”. Duntov wanted to give his Grand Sports a fighting chance against Shelby’s Cobras at the upcoming 1963 Nassau Speed Weeks race at the end of November and the beginning of December.

When Grand Sports #003, #004, and #005 arrived in Nassau under the banner of the “Mecom Racing Team”, they were loaded for bear. This is the now-classic Grand Sport look; fat racing tires on wide knockoff wheels, aggressive vented hood, and big wheel flares. And under the hoods were Duntov’s latest engine jewels, the all-aluminum 377 small-block Chevy with 58mm side-draft Weber carbs. It was a romp for the grand Sports, as the Cobras were thrashed.

Three months later, the 1964 class win at the 12 Hours of Sebring with Roger Penske at the wheel of Grand Sport #005 would be the high-water park for the Grand Sports. This time period saw extraordinary advancement in racecar technology, such that by the end of 1965, the three-year-old cars were outdated.

When the Grand Sports received their upgrades in preparation for the 1963 Nassau race, Grand Sports #001 and #002 were made into roadsters and held back, but were eventually sold and raced, as were the coupes. Fortunately, all of the cars survived, are in excellent condition and are each worth millions of dollars. Over the years, Grand Sport Corvettes have thrilled thousands of fans, many have lusted to own one of the five cars, and around two dozen have actually owned Grand Sports.

Enter the world of kit cars. In early 1990 a company called D&D started making Grand Sport kit cars, but the quality was not good. Mongoose Motorsports offers high-quality 1963 Grand Sport and 1980s era GTP Corvette kits and turnkey cars. Then there are the Duntov Motors Grand Sport Continuance Racecars and the Superformance custom built-to-order Grand Sport cars.

When Larry decided to merge his interest in classic Corvettes, racing, and his attention to detail skills, he decided to go for a Grand Sport replicar. The Superformance Grand Sports are fantastic but on the expensive side, so Larry decided to get a Mongoose Grand Sport roller and finish it himself.

When you buy a Grand Sport roller from Mongoose you get the bare fiberglass body and interior, and a 4-inch tube chassis and basic suspension from a 1988 Corvette. The rest is up to you and your skill level. Larry bought the rolling chassis in April 2016. Many Grand Sport replica cars are finished as street machines with modern paint, wheels, tires, and amenities. A few are street versions of the real Grand Sport replicars. If you are going the racecar replicar route, you have to research which livery you want to replicate. Since the three Grand Sport coupes were raced by numerous owners; in different configurations; and liveries; one has to do their homework; and pay attention to details. Fortunately for Larry, he’s very good at that. After careful research, Larry chose the Sebring ’64, Delmo Johnson, and Dave Morgan livery. Today the actual car is part of The Reve Institute in Naples, Florida.

An all-aluminum 377-cubic-inch Donovan small-block Chevy engine with four Weber 48-mm side-draft carbs powers Larry’s Grand Sport. The real small-block Grand Sports used 58-mm Webers, but they are insanely expensive. The side exhausts are hand fabricated. The radiator, oil cooler, and power brake booster are 1963-style. The transmission is an M22 4-speed “Rock Crusher” and the shifter is an original 1963 shifter.

The front suspension is from a 1988 Corvette and has rack & pinion steering. The rear suspension is somewhat unusual. It is a modern coil-over suspension that uses the C4 differential and “batwing” rear cover and carrier. For an authentic look, Larry added a set of C2/C3 leaf springs and painted the batwing differential carrier black.

The wheels are 15×8 Halibrand aluminum replicas that have been powder-coated gold. The real Halibrand cast magnesium wheels had gold Dow 7 Magnesium Coating. When the real Grand Sports were racing they used then state-of-the-art Firestone racing tires. Larry’s Grand Sport replica uses 15×8 period-size correct Goodyear racing tires. As mandated back in the day when the Grand Sports were racing, there’s a spare tire in the “trunk” area.

“font-size: large;”>As delivered, Larry’s Grand Sport interior was bare fiberglass. Larry added some extra bolsters to the fiberglass seats, period-correct seat belts, a fire extinguisher, and a period-correct CB radio and antenna. The speedometer has been fitted with a 200-mph speedometer face and the factory fuel gauge has been replaced with an oil temp gauge. The toggle switches control the main fuel pump, differential cooler, and reserve fuel.

With a ton of photographic references for the Grand Sport #004 that currently resides at the Collier Museum, Larry applied his attention to detail skills to his Grand Sport replicar. As seen in these photos, the car was just completed in November 2018. Larry’s plans for 2019 are to show the car at Corvette shows and maybe at the National Corvette Museum. Then, he will bring the car back into his shop, remove the body, add all of the required modern safety equipment, and then take the car to the track.

The Donavan 377 small-block Chevy engine pulls around 550-horsepower, so weighing in around 2,250-pounds, that’s a power-to-weight ratio that will be a lot of fun on the track. Larry says, “I just want to have the experience of being on a race track with my Grand Sport and other vintage cars, just to be there; not to race and win anything, but just to get a sense of what it must have been like back in 1964.”

That’s something I believe we have all fanaticized about Larry. Go for it! – Scott

Duntov Files, Pt. 6 – Zora Looks Back at the 1963 Grand Sport Adventure

Published on by Scott

The Godfather of HOT Corvettes had some SHOCKING things to say about the beloved Grand Sport Corvette!

You can download the PDF e-Booklet HERE.

The Spring 1990 issue of “Corvette Quarterly” was a banner issue for 1963 Corvette Grand Sport fans. Late in 1989 arrangements were made for a very special meeting at Sebring International Raceway, in Sebring, Florida. Two Corvette race cars, separated by twenty-five years gathered for some comparison testing between the Grand Sport #002, known as the “Wintersteen 427 L88” Grand Sport #002 Roadster and the 1989-90 Morrison Engineering and Development Trans-Am Corvette.

On hand to witness and advise was then-retired, former Corvette Chief of Engineering, Zora Arkus-Duntov. In the 1970s GM’s corporate retirement age of 65 mandate was in place, and Duntov was put out to pasture, way too soon in December 1974 when he turned 65. GM president Ed Cole and Sr. VP of Styling, Bill Mitchell faced similar fates at GM. You can read the amazing track comparison of the Grand Sport and the Trans-Am Corvette in Pt. 4 of The Duntov Files.

This story, “Zora Looks Back” offers some interesting insights into Duntov’s tenure at GM, as well as the “Lightweight Grand Sport Corvette” experience. For instance, Duntov said, “It was a quick and dirty sledgehammer project that we put together in a couple of months. There were so many compromises and constraints that we made something of which I am not particularly proud.” Interesting. Well, we sure love them!

Duntov was there, this was his baby, and he would know the real skinny on the Grand Sport. For Grand Sport race car fans, this article by Bill Oursler is a real treat! – Scott

PS – You can access the entire collection of Corvette E-Booklets and the Duntov Files HERE.

Founding Fathers Pt 3 of 6: Bill Mitchell, Creator of the Corvette Look

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When Harley Earl’s XP-122 “Corvette” debuted at the 1953 GM Motorama, the clean design was way ahead of cars of the day. The look reflected Earl’s style; long hood, low, and rounded – a simple yet beautiful design. Earl was five years away from retirement and had already handpicked his replacement, William L. Mitchell. Bill learned the corporate ropes from Earl, and while a faithful lieutenant, had his own unique style that completely changed the look of the Corvette.

This is Mitchell and the 1959 Stingray Racer. Note the red paint and clear hood scoop. This is what the car looked like when it was in the Elvis Presley movie, “Clambake”. See the photos of The King and the 1959 Stingray Racer at the bottom of this post.

One of Mitchell’s famous quotes is, “I got gasoline in my veins!” Mitchell’s father owned a Buick dealership, so Bill grew up surrounded by cars. Born on July 2, 1912 in Greenville, Pennsylvania, as a kid Bill was always drawing cars. His father sent him to Carnegie Tech to learn to draw something besides cars, but it didn’t work. After college Bill got a job at Collier Advertising as an office boy, went to night school for art, and quickly worked his way into the art department. Still “drawing cars”, Bill befriended Sam, Miles, and Barron Jr. Collier with the common interest in, you guessed it, cars.

On the weekends Bill would hang out with the Colliers at their Tarrytown, New York estate, between the Rockefeller and Stillman estates. The guys had a blast roaring around the grounds in MG sports cars. The Collier brothers were so into racing, they started the Sports Car Club of America, and their pal Bill was their official illustrator. Walter Carey, an industrialist and friend of Harley Earl, saw some of Bill’s illustrations and asked him if he ever considered designing cars. Bill answered, “No.” Carey suggests Bill send him some illustrations to forward to Earl. This was the summer of 1935 and by December, Harley Earl hired Bill Mitchell to work as a designer at General Motors. Bill would work for GM until he was 65 years old.

Bill was a natural and a quick learner. A year later, he was in charge of the Cadillac studio! Through the 1930s to the mid-1950s Mitchell created the 1938 Cadillac Sixty Special, the 1949 Cadillac Coupe DeVille, the 1955-1957 Bel Airs, and many other now-classic cars. Mitchell got along very well with Earl and was never on the receiving end of an Earl’s volcanic dress-downs; Bill knew how to “go-along to get-along.” Mitchell liked Earl’s Corvette and since he knew that Earl’s design kingdom would soon be his, had his own vision for a future Corvette.

On May 1, 1954 Mitchell was promoted to GM Director of Design, but still under Harley Earl. To save the struggling Corvette, Earl was directing the next Corvette based on his Olds “Golden Rocket” Motorama show car. The new designs were classic Earl: very rounded, with a bulbous top, a split rear window, and fins. But GM decided to drop Earl’s new concept to reevaluate the Corvette.

Here’s Bill Mitchell with his two favorite fish – the 1959 Stingray Racer and the 1961 Mako Shark-I. Snappy coat, Bill!

Meanwhile, Mitchell’s group was working on what would later be called the “Q-Corvette”. Upon his arrival back from the 1957 Turin Auto Show, Mitchell gave design studio manager, Bob Veryzer’s team photos from the show, with instructions that he liked the bulging fenders and sharp beltline of the Abarth 750 and the Abarth Alfa 1000 streamliner. Mitchell was looking for something new and different. He told the group of designers, “I want this form to be a complete breakaway from what we’ve seen around here in the past.”

Peter Brock was part of the team and was the youngest designer ever hired by GM. Brock described Mitchell as, “… garrulous, rather extroverted and often profane when he wanted to emphasize a point. Mitchell made sure everyone knew he was the boss, but still loved being “one of the guys.” Mitchell closed out his informal meeting saying, “I’ll be back in a few days kids; show me what you’ve got.” The young designers created dozens of sketches with Mitchell keying in on a Peter Brock sketch. The design process went around and around, yet each time Mitchell came back to Brock’s drawing, which eventually became XP-87, the Q-Corvette, which eventually became Mitchell’s 1959 Stingray Racer, but as a roadster.

Mitchell’s Stingray Racer was another chapter in his feisty career. After his promotion to VP of Design and despite GM’s racing ban, he indulged himself by “buying” the mule chassis of the 1957 Corvette SS, and had his guys adapt the Q-Corvette body to the chassis so that he could go racing. In a large meeting, GM president John F. Gordon said, “I thought everyone knew we were out of racing.” Later Mitchell asked Gordon, “Were you talking about me?” Gordon replied, “Damn right I was!” Mitchell asked. “Do I have to quit?” Gordon snorted, “You’ve got to quite right now!” Bill wrote Gordon a letter explaining that he got his job from racing, because that’s what he did – like a doctor going to conventions. Later Mitchell asked Gordon if he’d read the letter and Gordon replied, “I sure as hell did. You’re a good salesman. You can go ahead. Keep it off the property and spend your own money.” Yes, Bill dodged a bullet! Mitchell raced the car for two years and won a championship with no external marking besides, “Stingray”. The fan response was so intense; the next Corvette had be the Stingray.

1963 was a banner year for Bill Mitchell’s cars, as the Sting Ray and his “personal luxury car” the Buick Riviera both arrived. Like the Sting Ray, Mitchell didn’t lay down a single line himself, he knew what he wanted and gave direction until he saw what he was thinking. His instructions for the Riviera were that he wanted to combine a Rolls Royce with a Ferrari. That interesting mix turned into another Mitchell classic.

As soon as the 1963 Sting Ray released, Mitchell got started on the next new Corvette. When he brought in his team of advanced designers, lead by Larry Shinoda, he told them he wanted, “…a “narrow, slim, selfish” center section and coupe body, a prominently tapered tail, an “all of one piece” blending of the upper and lower portions of the body, and prominent wheels with protective fenders that were separate from the main body yet grafted organically to it.” While that sounds obtuse, it does describe the Mako Shark-II. When the Mako Shark-II was shown to management in April 1965, it was unanimous, the next Vette had to be the shark. Outrageously, they wanted it as a 1967 model.

Bill Mitchell’s personality was as intense as his designs. Mitchell didn’t hold division general managers in high esteem, and he hated engineers trying to be designers. He once told a general manager, “I don’t tell you how to make your car or run your plant. Keep your damn nose out of design.” Bill didn’t like smaller cars and once said, “It’s hard to tailor a dwarf.” Mitchell detested focus groups and committees and said, “You can’t design by committee. You have to say, “This is what I want to do.” On the same topic, he said, “Frank Lloyd Wright did not go around ringing doorbells asking people what kind of houses they wanted.”

Many that worked with Mitchell admired him greatly. Designer Roy Lonberger described bill as, “The most authentic man I ever met. His focus never changed, his design vision was laser clear. He changed designs with complete responsibility to design a car. He delegated responsibility, but never abdicated his own. You always knew where you stood with Mitchell because he told you.” Larry Shinoda got along wonderfully with Bill, but Duntov, now so well. They had a famous blowout when Zora came into Bill’s studio complaining about the Sting Ray’s split window. Incensed that a lowly engineer would demand he change his design, a shouting match ensued. Mitchell called Duntov “Zorro” and Duntov called Mitchell a “red-faced baboon”! Duntov was persona-non-grata in Mitchell’s studio for a long time. Designer Robert Cumberford said, “I liked him because he was enthusiastic about things, but he could be crude and vulgar.” Chuck Jordan, eventual VP of Design said, “He certainly loved women. Bill once told me, “If God made anything better than a woman, he kept it for himself.”

When Mitchell retired in December 1977, GM’s upper management decided that never again would they allow a VP of Design with so much power. Mitchell’s successor, Irv Rybicki was totally unlike Bill – some called him a “Yes Man” claiming that’s why 1980s GM’s cars were so boring. A few years before his death in 1988, Mitchell has this to say about the C4 Corvette, “That square box is pretty near plastic… the instrument panel – Dracula’s dressing room… it rides like a truck… it isn’t a style car, it’s an machine car… engineers are running it. Earl would never let that – I would never let that happen, and I condemn the guys for it!” He also said, “My time is over.” Fast forward to the Tom Peters C6 and C6 design era and I believe Bill Mitchell would approve. – Scott

Corvette’s Founding Fathers, Pt. 1 – Harley Earl, CLICK HERE.

Corvette’s Founding Fathers, Pt. 2 – Ed Cole, CLICK HERE.

Here’s Elvis Presley and the 1959 Stingray Racer from the 1967 movie “Clambake”.

Hanspeter Boehi’s REBORN 1965 Mako Shark-II Corvette – VIDEO

Published on by Scott

Hanspeter Boehi from Muenchenstein, Switzerland builds a spot-on replica of the most important concept Corvette ever!

Dateline 2-4-18, Photos by Hans Peter Bohi and GM Archives – This article first appeared in the April 2018 issue of Vette Magazine.

The 1965/1966 Mako Shark-II set down the basic look and proportion for all Corvettes going forward. To understand the Mako Shark-II, we have to get into the mind of GM VP of Design, Bill Mitchell. His task was to see the future and then pull it into reality through his designers and stylists. Mitchell didn’t “draw” a single line of either the Sting Ray or Mako Shark-II, but he knew what he wanted.

The 1982 Collector Edition Corvette finned aluminum wheels are a dead-ringer for the wheels used on the Mako Shark-II and are shod with period-correct Firestone racing tires.

Here’s how Bill commanded his troops; he wanted, “…a narrow, slim, center section and coupe body, a tapered tail, an all-of-a-piece blending of the upper and lower portions of the body through the center (avoiding the look of a roof added to a body), and prominent wheels with their protective fenders distinctly separate from the main body, yet grafted organically to it.”

Mitchell was almost there with the 1962 Monza GT. After the design was nailed down, a full-size, non-running version was built and shown to management in March 1965. It was unanimous; the Mako Shark-II HAD TO BE the next Corvette.

While many of Mitchell’s designed cars had a heavy Italian accent, the Mako Shark-II was a one-of-a-kind original and after 50-plus years is still as head-turner, as Hanspeter’s replica proves!

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Hanspeter Boehi’s REBORN 1965 Mako Shark-II Corvette – VIDEO” →

Corvette Timeline Tales: 9.13.01 – TV Show Route 66 Inducted into Cruisin’ Hall of Fame at Route 66 Rendezvous 4-Day-Event in San Bernardino, CA – Vids

Published on by Scott

Actor and star of “Route 66” Martin Milner accepted the award.
 5-Sept-Timeline-RT-66-TNDateline 9.13.15 (videos at the end of this post) – What a cool concept for a weekly TV drama. Two dudes, tooling around America, working odd jobs, looking for adventure, flirting with pretty girls, and generally being good-guys on white horses. Only instead of horses, the dudes, “Todd Stiles” (played by Martin Milner) and “Buz Murdock” (played by George Maharis) got around in a brand new Corvette. The Corvette wasn’t a “star car” like “The General Lee” from The “Dukes of Hazard,” but it was always “there” and confidently got the boys from adventure to adventure.
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Corvette Timeline Tales: 9.13.01 – TV Show Route 66 Inducted into Cruisin’ Hall of Fame at Route 66 Rendezvous 4-Day-Event in San Bernardino, CA – Vids” →

Vette Videos: Hail to the 1967 L71 427/435 Big-Block Corvette!!!

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 9.3.12

A video romp salute to one of the sweetest-sounding bad-boy Corvettes ever!

When you play the video, turn the sound WAY UP!

Okay, lets get this part out of the way first. True, true – a modern C6 Z06 or ZR1 Corvette can easily walk away from anything from the big-block days – HANDS DOWN! But as our pal Mike Beal once told us, the difference between modern Corvettes and the big-block Corvettes from the olden days is that the newer cars deliver “controlled horsepower.” The old big-block Corvettes delivered “EXPLOSIVE horsepower.” Not only that, but there was a guttural rumble that let even the uninitiated know that this was one bad-ass machine.

I intuitively understood this the very first time I ever encountered a 427/435 big-block. It was the summer of 1968, I was just 14 years old and a serious model car builder. In the town next to where I lived in Collingswood, New Jersey, there was (and still is) a small hobby shop called, Sattlers Trains & Hobbies. While their main business was HO gauge electric trains, they had a big selection of model car kits. Continue reading “Vette Videos: Hail to the 1967 L71 427/435 Big-Block Corvette!!!” →

1963 Corvette – The First Production Sting Ray

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 5.16.12

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” →

A Look Back At Race Cars & Corvairs Designed by Larry Shinoda

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 3.30.12

A brief overview of six racing cars and three experimental Corvairs Larry Shinoda designed.

Check out our awesome slide show tribute to Larry Shinoda’s designs at the bottom of this post.

Larry Shinoda’s designs were so strong that when his name comes up, it’s almost always first associated with Corvettes. But Larry’s talent for designing fast-looking cars wasn’t limited to Corvettes. I suppose that when you are the go-to-stylist for a legend the likes of Bill Mitchell, you get a few peach projects. In retrospect, what helped make Shinoda’s design work so edgy was his passion for racing. In a sense, Larry’s NHRA Nationals win in ‘55 put him in the same category as 1954 Le Mans racer Zora Arkus-Duntov. As Bill Mitchell used to say, both men had, “gasoline in their veins.”

Shinoda’s race car design credits include: Pat Flaherty’s 1956 Indy 500-winning John Zink Special, Bill Mitchell’s 1959 Stingray Racer, Zora Arkus-Duntov’s CERV I and CERV II, the GS-II (Grand Sport II), Jim Hall’s Chaparral-2, and Peter Weismann’s 1963 rear-engine Indy car.

Although the Corvair never really caught on as a performance car or a sports car, designers such as Shinoda had some jaw-dropping ideas for Chevy’s rear-engine car. The 1962 Monza GT Coupe was in direct competition with Ford’s mid-engine 4-banger Mustang I concept car. What an interesting Chevy vs Ford battle that would have been! When you work in an R&D department often many “variations on a theme” are explored.

The Monza SS was an open cockpit-type design with a racer-like cut-down windshield. Another version was explored with a more traditional type of windshield. And in the same way that other GM divisions glommed on to Harley Earl’s Corvette concept in ‘53 and came up with their own “Corvette” concept cars for the ‘54 GM Motorama (the ‘54 Pontiac Bonneville, Buick Wildcat, and Olds F88). We have an example of a Monza variation that looks a lot like a roadster version of the 1964 XP-833 Pontiac Banshee. It was very common back then for designs to get tossed about within GMs divisions.

One Shinoda design that was not shared by any of GM’s other divisions was the 1967 Astro I. Corvair production peeked in ‘65 for approximately 235,000 Corvairs built. By ‘67 the number went to just over 27,000! The Corvair-based Astro I concept/show car arrived in 1967 and was probably started around ‘65 – ‘66, before the car started to tank. Unlike the Monza GT that eventually became the ‘67 Opel GT, the Astro I was so over the top, none of its design elements were used in any serious fashion. Instead, Chevrolet used the “Astro” name on one of their full-size vans and there was nothing “Astro” about it. Continue reading “A Look Back At Race Cars & Corvairs Designed by Larry Shinoda” →

A Look Back At Corvettes Designed by Larry Shinoda

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 3.30.12

Hot rodder Shinoda teams up with Bill Mitchell and defined the “Corvette look.”

Perhaps it was “in the stars” that Larry Shinoda was in the right place at the right time. If you strictly look at Shinoda’s resume in 1956, you might ask, “How did this guy get in the front door?” As a young man, the only thing Larry ever graduated from was high school, Army boot camp, and the School of Hard Knocks. Twelve-year-old Larry had his life turned inside out when along with thousands of Japanese-Americans, he and his family were sent to interment camps for the duration of WW II. The experience had a profound effect on his personality. A self-professed “malcontent” Shinoda could be a little difficult to work with.

After his Army tour of duty in Korea, Shinoda attended Art Center School of Design in Los Angeles, but truly hated being there. He could see no purpose in taking the classes in design and the various art mediums, such as watercolor painting. He was a car guy/hot rodder and he wanted to draw and design cars! So he left Art Center without graduating and based strictly on his car illustrations, landed a job at Ford, then Studebaker/Packard. Just a year after starting his career, he landed a job as a designer at General Motors.

The rest is the stuff of legend. Street racing and blowing the doors off of Bill Mitchell’s souped up Buick and quickly being taken under Mitchell’s wing. Things like that happens, but rarely. There was obviously some chemistry between the two men, perhaps it was because both men could be brash and had strong opinions.

Shinoda got his first big break when Mitchell tapped the 28-year-old to translate the body design of the ‘57 Q-Corvette on to the mule chassis from Duntov’s aborted Corvette SS project. The finished car became Mitchell’s 1959 Stingray Racer, which formed the styling theme for the ‘63 Corvette. From there, Shinoda got one peach project after another. It’s worth noting that the design of the Stingray Racer is held in such high esteem that current Corvette chief designer, Tom Peters (C6 Corvette and late model Camaro designer) is on record stating that his ‘09 Corvette Stingray Concept (aka Transformers Corvette) was influenced by the ‘59 Stingray. Continue reading “A Look Back At Corvettes Designed by Larry Shinoda” →

Larry Shinoda Interview From December 1997 VETTE Magazine

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 3.28.12

Tom Benford’s Summer 1997 candid dinner interview with car design legend, Larry Shinoda.

Our celebration of the life and career of car design legend Larry Shinoda continues with this delightful interview that was originally published in the December 1997 issue of VETTE Magazine. Tom Benford and his wife Liz connected with Shinoda in August of ‘97 at the Corvettes At Carlisle Show, in Carlisle, Pa. This may well have been Larry’s last interview, as he died just 2-1/2 months later. Larry’s kidney disease had progressed to the point where he was on the list waiting for a donor kidney.

According to the Pasadena City College Celebrated Alumni Larry Shinoda page , “In poor health, Larry Shinoda remained active to the end. Larry passed away at his home in Michigan of heart failure on November 13, 1997, while working at his design desk with a phone in his hand. Larry had just passed the final tissue-match test for his kidney transplant the day before he died. Though Larry is gone, his legacy lives on.” Continue reading “Larry Shinoda Interview From December 1997 VETTE Magazine” →

Corvette Timeline Tales: Happy 82nd Birthday Larry Shinoda

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 3.26.12

The next time you see a mid-year Sting Ray or Shark Corvette, think of Larry Shinoda.

He was born “Lawrence Kiyoshi Shinoda” but the automotive and Corvette world knew him as Larry Shinoda – Corvette designer and all-around carguy! Growing up in Southern California, Larry was steeped in the car culture and like many SoCal young men, was into the burgeoning sport of drag racing. In addition to his Corvette accomplishments, Larry also participated in an won his class at the very first NHRA national event in Great Bend, Kansas in 1955.

Larry was only 25-years old when after not completing his studies at Art Center School of Design in Los Angeles, he landed his first job with Ford in 1955. A year later, he briefly went to work at Studebaker/Packard, then went to General Motors late in 1956. Larry not only had an impressive portfolio, he had an intuitive sense of styling. If didn’t take long before his talent caught the keen eye of GM’s Bill Mitchell. But it wasn’t just Larry’s skill at wielding a pen and airbrush that helped acquaint him with Mitchell – it was drag racing.

The story goes that one day Shinoda and Mitchell had a chance encounter at a traffic light. Since both men had what Mitchell called, “gasoline in their veins,” neither man needed much goading to initiate a little stoplight grand prix. The light turned green and Larry put a whoop’n Bill, which may have been one of his best career moves. Mitchell drafted Shinoda into his special forces of car design, headquartered deep inside GM’s guarded facilities in a place called, “Studio X.” (sounds like a ‘50s sci-fi b-grade movie, doesn’t it”?) Continue reading “Corvette Timeline Tales: Happy 82nd Birthday Larry Shinoda” →

Vette Videos: Driving The Night – A Corvette Celebration of Light & Shape

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 3.21.12

Feast your eyes on the lines and shapes of this classic Bill Mitchell Shark Corvette

For shark Corvette fans, this is a MUST-SEE Corvette video. The video looks to have been shot inside a long, lighted roadway tunnel because the light reflections is what creates this artistic, dreamy video.

As you are watching, keep in mind that the shape of the car was worked out almost 50 years ago! And it still is dripping with sexitude. Continue reading “Vette Videos: Driving The Night – A Corvette Celebration of Light & Shape” →