Tag: joe pike

Vintage Digital Corvette News Available at GMHeritageCenter.com

Published on by Scott

Printable PDF files of 13 “Corvette News” Magazines from 1958-to-1962

Dateline: 10-22-18 – National Sales Promotion Manage, Joe Pike came up with a brilliant idea in 1957/1958. To build a Corvette community, Pike created “Corvette News”, a quarterly publication that was only available to owners of new Corvettes! Talk about an exclusive club! I am pretty sure that “Corvette News” was the first-ever regularly published magazine for a specific model automobile. Joe Pike was one of the first batch of six men that were inducted into the National Corvette Museum’s Hall of Fame in 1998.

I was recently perusing around the GM Heritage Center’s website. The “GM Historical Brochures” section of the “Archives” section, has 16 different subjects covering; Cadillac, Camaro, Chevrolet Engineering, Chevrolet History, Chevrolet Trucks, Consumer Information, GM History, GMC, Manufacturing Facilities, Events, Portfolio, Service and Training, Corvette Historical Brochures, and Corvette News.

The Corvette Historical Brochures section has 47 sales brochures and the Corvette News section has 13 issues of Corvette News from Vol 1, Number 4, (1958) to Vol 5, Number 2 (1962).

The earliest issue covers the Corvette Rally scene, Pebble Beach coverage, information about Corvette Gymkhana events, a story about falconry and the U.S. Air Force Academy, front-end alignment, and Tuning Your 1958 Corvette. Most interesting is the one-page “Corvette Club Directory” listing a total of 13 Corvette Clubs in America!

You can download PDF versions of all 13 of these vintage “Corvette News” magazines in two different file sizes. The small (4MB) version is for viewing on your computer. The larger (62MB) version is if you want to send the file to a printer to be printed.

If you would like to add paper version of the Corvette News magazines to your Corvette library, modern local printers can print the high-resolution files in full color, and saddle-stitch them for you are very reasonable prices.

Each issue is a time capsule, a visual look back at a simpler Corvette and a simpler time in America. It probably didn’t seem like “simpler times” back then, and the Corvette was considered an advanced Chevrolet sports car. Modern electronics and computers allow today’s Corvettes to do the unimaginable from back then. But there’s a special kind of joy these purely mechanical performance cars gives.

I sure do hope that the webmasters at www.GMHeritageCenter.com add more vintage “Corvette News” issues soon. We’ll just have to keep checking back! To access the 13 available issues, CLICK HERE. – Scott

PS – Here’s an anecdotal personal story I think you’ll find to be interesting.

I discovered Corvettes in 1965 when I accompanied my big brother Bob to the local Chevrolet dealer where he had just purchased a used 1957 Bel Air. He told me to wait in the showroom while he went back to the Service Department. On the showroom floor was a 1965 Sting Ray Coupe. I though it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen!

I must have looked bedazzled because a salesman came up to me and said, “You like that car, don’t ya, kid?” I said, “Yea!” Then he gave me a brochure and scribbled his name on the cover, right over the picture of the red Corvette! Maybe he thought my Dad would buy a Corvette. THAT wasn’t going to happen! I took the brochure home and must have read it a hundred times! That’s how it began for me.

About a year later one of my friends told me that his older brother once had a Corvette and that when he bought the car new, he got a free magazine. By that time I was buying every magazine I could find with anything about Corvettes, as well as building model car Corvettes. But when I saw a few of the issues of Corvette News, I copied the mailing address for Chevrolet. I knew who Zora Arkus-Duntov was by then (he kind of reminded my of my grandfather), so I decided to write him a letter asking for “specs” for Corvettes!

A few months later a package arrived from Chevrolet! Inside was a letter from Chevrolet Marketing (not Mr. Duntov, DRAT!), several Chevrolet General Specifications documents and a few issues of Corvette News. The letter thanked me for my interest and informed me that they were adding my name and address to the Corvette News mailing list!

Not only did I not have a Corvette (except for many 1/25th scale versions), I was about five years from getting my driver’s license! I kept getting Corvette News until around 1970 and still have many of them today in my Corvette library. Who knows, I might have been the only kid to be on the Corvette News mailing list! HA! – Scott

Another Chevrolet-built Custom Corvette – The Bob Wingate FS&O 1967 427 Corvette

Published on by Scott2 Comments

Dateline: 10.12.11

Possibly the ONLY factory-custom Corvette for a non-executive Chevrolet employee.

The last two days we’ve been telling you about the two factory-custom Corvettes built for Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen. As if the customized ‘64 Roadster for Semon wasn’t enough, Mrs. Knudsen may have asked, “Bunkie, where’s my Corvette?” This is total humorous speculation on my part, but one “could” imagine such a conversation. Regardless, they are stunningly beautiful cars and actually, there’s another Knudsen Corvette we’ll be sharing with you soon.

The special custom cars for GM’s top honchos has been for decades a low-key topic and were it not for several of these cars going to auction, we most likely wouldn’t know about them at all. But it seems that not all GM customs were for executives. Of course, we’ll never know for certain how many customs were built and for whom, but here’s one that went to the top Corvette salesman back in the mid-’60s. In the world of Chevrolet sales, Bob Wingate was known as “Mr Corvette” because he sold more Vettes than anyone else. This is an amazing story of achievement, reward, loss, recovery, and a beauty of a restoration. I covered this car in my VETTE Magazine Illustrated Corvette Series No. 158, back in Winter of 2010. Enjoy! – Scott

Here’s the story…
Illustrated Corvette Series No. 158 – 1967 FS&O 427 Corvette: “Bob Wingate’s V.I.P. Special”

Special thanks to VETTE Magazine and Wayne Ellwood. To read the feature story on VetteWeb, click the above image.

In the ‘50s and ’60s, GM had a system for taking care of its top people. Presidents, VPs, high-level managers, and other VIP types often got new cars that were specially made vehicles. These were generically called “SO” – for “Special Order” or “Shop Order” – cars. Another term was “F&SO,” for “Fleet & Special Order.” About 25 to 50 or so of these cars were made each year. However, it was unusual for a car salesman to get one. But Bob Wingate of Clippinger Chevrolet, in Covina, California wasn’t just a good car salesman. He was “Mr. Corvette.”

Wingate started at Clippinger Chevrolet in 1955 as a prep guy – the fellow who cleans the cars prior to delivery. His favorite cars to prep were Corvettes. After a few years, he worked his way into sales, and before long, he was selling more Corvettes than anyone else in California. What got Chevrolet sales managers’ attention was when Wingate ordered 100 ‘62 Corvettes for the dealership. Chevrolet had only sold 10,939 Corvettes in ’61, so they wondered, “Who is this guy?” Upper management was reluctant to send that many cars, but Chevy’s Joe Pike believed in Wingate and was not disappointed. Wingate became the highest volume Corvette salesman in ‘62 and by ’66 had sold more Corvettes than any other salesman. Chevrolet thanked Wingate by giving him the Legion of Leaders award. His reputation even got the attention of Ford’s Lee Iacocca, who offered him a job doing the same kind of work for Mustang and Cobra sales. He declined, and when Joe Pike found out, Wingate got a raise and an F&SO Corvette. He was told, “Pick what you want.” Continue reading “Another Chevrolet-built Custom Corvette – The Bob Wingate FS&O 1967 427 Corvette” →