Tag: john greenwood

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” →

COME ON! Take a Ride in a 1977 Greenwood Wide-Body Corvette at Daytona! – VIDEO

Published on by Scott

Ride along with Didier Andre in the Spirit of America 1977 Greenwood Corvette

This is as viscous as it gets Corvette fans!

Oh, the sound of a big-block Chevy engine with open headers working through the gears.

And here’s the view from the outside!

Turn it up LOUD, hear and feel the POWER! We love LOUD Corvettes!- Scott

PS – The digital speedometer is in kelometers-per-hour. The car gets up to around 180-mph.

CONGRATULATIONS Burt & John Greenwood, Tom Wallace, and Mike Yager on Your Induction Into the 2018 National Corvette Museum’s Hall of Fame – Videos

Published on by Scott

Tom Wallace, Burt & John Greenwood, and Mike Yager Inducted into the 2018 National Corvette Museum Hall of Fame!

Photo: www.CorvetteBlogger.com

Every year the National Corvette Museum inducts three members of the Corvette community into their Hall of Fame’s three categories; GM / Chevrolet, Corvette Racing, and Corvette Enthusiast.

In the GM / Chevrolet category, Tom Wallace, Corvette’s fourth Chief Engineer was inducted.

In the Corvette Racing category two men were inducted, Burt Greenwood & John Greenwood. Continue reading “CONGRATULATIONS Burt & John Greenwood, Tom Wallace, and Mike Yager on Your Induction Into the 2018 National Corvette Museum’s Hall of Fame – Videos” →

John Greenwood Tribute Event, November 12-15, 2015 Daytona International Speedway

Published on by Scott

Greenwood-2-1972-48

by Scott Teeters as originally published in Vette Vues

A tribute to John Greenwood’s groundbreaking C3 Corvette racecars

Dateline: 10.15.15: 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, November 12-15, 2015 Daytona International Speedway” →

John Greenwood Retrospective: A Corvette Legend Passes by K. Scott Teeters

Published on by Scott

john-greenwood-corvette-tribute

On July 7, 2015, the Corvette community lost another legend; John Greenwood passed.

Words and Art by K. Scott Teeters as written for Vette Magazine, republished from SuperChevy.com

Illustrated Corvette Series No. 223

On July 7, 2015, the Corvette community lost another legend; John Greenwood passed. He was 70 years old. John was a member of a very small club of legendary Corvette figures that only needed one name, such that when you said that one name, it spoke volumes. Just a few others are: Shinoda, Lingenfelter, Callaway, Yenko, Guldstrand, and of course, Duntov. Engage any serious Corvette person in some bench racing, drop the name Greenwood and instantaneously all manner of mental images come to mind: suspension packages, C4 body kits, BFGoodrich Stars and Stripes, 427 ZL1 racers, and the most outrageous Corvette racers ever, the C3 widebody “Batmobile” Greenwood IMSA cars. Continue reading “

John Greenwood Retrospective: A Corvette Legend Passes by K. Scott Teeters” →

John Greenwood’s 235-MPH Sebring ’75 Corvette Racer – NO SALE – VIDEO

Published on by Scott

The first wide-body Corvette race car went on the Mecom Monterey 2015  block!

Mecum greenwood

Timeline: 8-15-15- Car auctions have never been more fun ever since they went LIVE online. Below is the video of the auction! Bidding stalled out at $300,000 and was a NO SALE!

It was anticipated that the car would fetch between $550,000 and $700,000, so stalling out at a measly $300,000 is incredible! According to the Mecum description of the car, $250,000 was put into the car’s restoration.

What’s mind-boggling is that earlier in the evening a 1969 L88 Roadster sold for $750,000 – CLICK HERE for details. So, if you’re itching to own a major piece of Corvette racing history, the Greenwood Sebring ’75 Corvette will no doubt be back on the block.

Here are the car’s details from the Mecum info page. 

This is the worlds fastest racing  Corvette and set a Top Speed Record of 236 MPH at Daytona in 1975!

In the history of endurance racing, some entries have notably stood out in sheer importance, and the car being made available here will satisfy the most discerning criteria. We are proud to present to you the 1974 Greenwood Corvette chassis number 002, the ‘Spirit of Sebring ’75,’ the first and most famous of only six Greenwood wide-body race machines ever built. Continue reading “

John Greenwood’s 235-MPH Sebring ’75 Corvette Racer – NO SALE – VIDEO” →

John Greenwood Art Prints Special Offer!!!

Published on by Scott

SPECIAL OFFER For John Greenwood Fans

For a limited time, we are offering 12, 11-inches by 17-inches art prints of the late John Greenwood’s racecars, as seen in my “Illustrated Corvette Series,” Vette Magazine monthly column.

12-Greenwood-Prints-72Dateline: 7-19-15 The Illustrated Corvette series has been in every issue of Vette Magazine since the spring of 1997, with over 220 installments. In the 18 years the column has been running, I have written and illustrated stories about John and Burt Greenwood’s cars five times. We offer two print versions of each story: one with the story copy and one without. Then I created two single image layouts for a total of 12 prints. Continue reading “

John Greenwood Art Prints Special Offer!!!” →

Corvette Racing Legend, John Greenwood Passes

Published on by Scott

 

A Brief Tribute to Corvette Racing Legend, John Greenwood
Dateline: 7.13.15 (There are four videos at the end of this post)

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The Corvette community lost another legend last week. On July 7, 2015 John Greenwood died. During the 1970s John and his brother Burt arguably made more of an impact of Corvette racing than anyone in their time.

Their most stunning legacy was the development of the Corvette wide-body, also known as the “Batmobile.” The wide-body kit was the last of what was unofficially known as “Duntov’s Racer Kit” series of Chevrolet engineered parts for road racing Corvettes.

By 1974 racing tires had almost quadrupled in width from those of the early 60s and were beyond the L88 fender flares that had been out since 1968. Racers were also learning about and making better use of air downforce. Chevrolet designed the wide-body kit and Greenwood developed and marketed the parts into a huge aftermarket enterprise, along with building all-out racing Corvettes for customers. The Greenwood brothers engineered suspension parts and setups and made them available to customers.

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The wide-body look was so popular that complete street versions were offered by Greenwood and privateers could build their own street versions by purchasing the body kits. John and Burt also made body kits for C4 Corvettes, but the term “Greenwood body” will forever be linked to what it undeniably the wildest Corvette look ever

Below is a tribute to John Greenwood written by Registry of Corvette Race Cars and Vette Vues contributing writer/photographer, Wayne Ellwood that was published on July 13, 2015. Many thanks to Wayne Elwood for his brief overview of John Greenwood’s racing career. Condolences to the Greenwood family. – Scott

John Greenwood, Innovator and Influencer
Died on July 7, 2015 age 71
Greenwood held sway in Corvette racing for a decade

By Wayne Ellwood
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The son of a GM executive, John Greenwood began drag racing as a teenager on Detroit’s famed Woodward Ave strip. A few years later, he caught the road-racing bug after entering his new 1968 Corvette in a parking lot solo event. That was enough. When he took his big block Corvette to Waterford Hills it marked the start of a remarkable career in SCCA and IMSA, a full-blown race shop, a sponsorship program with the BF Goodrich Tire Company, a thriving cars and parts business, and three trips to the 24 hour race at Le Mans, France. Continue reading “

Corvette Racing Legend, John Greenwood Passes” →

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: Eckler Can-Am Custom Corvette Blast From The ’70’s Past

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 4.6.12

“Corvettes and Racing” A Wonderful Marriage!

“Corvettes and racing” have been perfect together since 1956. Without the influence of racing, I’m sure that the Corvette would have morphed into something else and been gone long ago. The other day CorvetteBlogger.com posted a story about a 2011 C6.R Le Mans Winning tribute Corvette that’s For Sale. The car looks as if it was just rolled out of the transport and is ready for a few hot laps, but this is a street machine sporting a brand new LS7 crate engine and a host of delicious racing goodies. The car has 52,000 miles on the odometer and the asking price is just $55,000. Almost begs the question, “So what’s wrong with the car???”

Seeing the car got me to thinking about earlier Corvette street machines with a powerful visual racing reference. Arguably the most over-the-top race track-influenced Corvettes were the ‘70s wide-body IMSA Corvettes. The wide body design was the last of Zora Arkus-Duntov’s “racer kit” Corvette parts program and first showed up on John Greenwood’s Corvettes around 1974-1975.

Previous Corvette racer body parts were limited to the functional L88 hood and fender flares. The fender flares were pretty big, but as tires got wider and wider, something else had to be done. Corvette stylists came up with a wild-looking and functionally aerodynamic full body kit that not only cover up the Can-Am-size racing tires, but improved the car’s aerodynamics. In full battle regalia, Greenwood’s IMSA Corvette looked like “the future” and was quickly nick named, “The Batmobile.” Continue reading “Vette Videos: Eckler Can-Am Custom Corvette Blast From The ’70’s Past” →

Vette Videos: Chevrolet Embraces Corvette Racing

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 2.13.12

It’s too bad Chevy didn’t do this 50 years ago!

To see the BIG version of this very cool Zr1 Corvette ad, just click the above image.

The very cool “Chevy Runs Deep” video featuring the C6.R Corvette racers is at the bottom of this post.
Wouldn’t it have been awesome if General Motors had told the AMA to “stuff it” back in 1957? Why should Ford and Chrysler get all the racing glory? Just before the GM enforced the 1957 AMA ban on racing, paperwork had been submitted to take Duntov’s Corvette SS race car to Le Mans. And what might have happened if Zora had been allowed to fully develop the ‘63 Grand Sport. Ah, the stuff of bench racing.

In the early years of the Corvette, Chevrolet and General Motors seemed to almost be shy about their involvement in Corvette racing. While the infamous 1957 AMA ban on corporate involvement in racing was for a very long time, their excuse for not being upfront about racing, there was PLENTY of back door parts and engineering “field testing” going on. Select individuals received special assistance that always kept things a little murky. Names such as Smokey Yunick, Roger Penske, Bill Jenkins, Jim Hall, John Greenwood, and others were often gifted with development parts (at no, or little charge) in exchange for feedback from the race track.

And for the regular customers, there were plenty of go-fast parts that were unofficially referred to as Duntov’s “racer kits.” Not that the parts came in a special box, like an AMT model kit, but they did give a wanna-be Corvette racer the benefit of solid Chevrolet engineered parts for their racing efforts.

Fortunately for every Corvette owner for the last several decades, many race developed parts slowly and subtly made their way into production Corvettes. The tide didn’t really turn in the corporate attitude towards racing until the mid-’80s when Chevrolet began to build specially prepared cars for the Corvette Challenge Series. Plus, there was a lot of help given to the C4 Corvette racers in the Showroom Stock Series. Then there was the GTP Lola/Corvettes and the Morrison Motorsports speed demon C4 ZR1 Corvette that shattered speed records. Continue reading “Vette Videos: Chevrolet Embraces Corvette Racing” →

CorvetteReport.com’s Top 10 Corvette Stories for 2011

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 12.30.11

A look back at a VERY BUSY year for the Corvette Community

The other day I was telling my wife, Karen, that the Corvette topic is virtually endless. With nearly 60 years of production, 21 special editions, race cars, tuner cars, experimentals, prototypes, events, auctions, car shows, history, plus the personalities associated with Corvettes, IT’S HUGE! An army of bloggers couldn’t cover it all, but I’ll do my best! As we ease into the last two days and the last weekend of 2011, I thought it would be fun to look back at what I think were the Top 10 Corvette Stories of 2011. So, in no particular order or importance, let’s take a cruise through the 2011 world of Corvettes.

1. Chevrolet’s 100th Birthday – The early days of the automobile industry were indeed wild. Companies were formed, bought out, merged, or went out of business – often very quickly! The truly wild part of the Chevrolet story has to do with the company’s namesake, Louis Chevrolet. It seemed that Louis and his partner Billy Durant didn’t see eye-to-eye and after a few short years, Louis cashed out and went on his merry way building race cars. But in what has to be the ultimate irony of the automotive world, after numerous businesses failed and the Great Depression caught up with Louis, the man “needed a job!” And where did he find employment? At Chevrolet, as an assembly line mechanic! For more of the story, CLICK HERE.

2. The 100 millionth Small-Block Chevy Engine – Last August GM announced that Chevrolet would be building its 100 millionth small-block Chevy engine later in the year and it would be installed into a ‘12 Corvette. Pretty damn cool, considering that the car’s survival was very iffy well into the ‘60s. Regardless, it’s great to see how Chevrolet has honored the small-block Chevy engine AND the Corvette by officially making what is currently the most powerful production engine ever built in Detroit, the ZR1’s 638-horsepower LS9 engine, the “100,000,000th Small-Block Chevy Engine.” BRAVO Chevrolet. Last November CorvetteBlogger.com did a very nice post covering this once-in-a-lifetime Corvette/Chevrolet event. To read the story, CLICK HERE.

 

3. Jalopnik’s MAJOR C7 Sneak Peek – Thanks to the internet and the blogosphere, there has NEVER before been this much anticipation for a new generation Corvette. When new scraps of C7 red meat hit the floor, us Corvette doggies go wild! Last November Jalopnik.com dropped a major slice on the Corvette community. At first they claimed they had photos. Then the next day they released three, very well done, computer-generated illustrations they claim are based on an unnamed insider that swears on a stack of Bibles piled up on his mother’s grave that this IS the new C7 Corvette! And not “just” the 2014 C7 Corvette, but the 2015 ZR1 Corvette. Of course, Chevrolet says Jalopnik got it all wrong, to which Jalopnik followed up with a post saying, “GM issues weak-ass denial of our 2014 Corvette exclusive.” Come on kids, PLAY NICE! You can catch out post HERE.

4. Another Le Mans Win For The Corvette Racing Team – It’s no secret that the Corvette Racing team didn’t have a spectacular year. Which goes to show us all that there’s no resting on your laurels. Just because the team won 100% of their races in 2004, 90% of their races in 2002 and 2005, and Le Mans six times before, doesn’t mean that a hundred things can’t go wrong out on a race track. Of the 10 races in the season, the team won two and came in 2nd place two times. Le Mans and Mosport were the team’s two first place victories and Long Beach and Mid-Ohio were the team’s second place wins. While a 20% win rate isn’t “spectacular” Le Mans IS the big prize. CorvetteBlogger.com did a very nice post on the Le Mans victory that you can read HERE. And you can keep up with the latest from the Corvette Racing Team at their official www.CorvetteRacing.com site. Continue reading “CorvetteReport.com’s Top 10 Corvette Stories for 2011” →