Dateline: 8.14.11
GM’s top Car Guy, Ed Welburn, introduces the Tom Peters-designed Corvette Stingray Concept car to the world at the 2009 Chicago Auto Show!
Every debutante has her day, that special day when she’s the bell of the ball. Corvette styling chief and lead designer of the C6 Corvette and the Corvette Stingray Concept car, Tom Peters was a proud papa on February 11,2009 when GM’s Ed Welburn debuted the Corvette Stingray Concept car at the Chicago Auto Show. Before we get into the rest of the event, let me get this out of the way in the beginning. In Spring ‘11 I had the opportunity to talk at length with Tom Peters for my Illustrated Corvette Series No. 170 2-page color special edition covering the latest and arguably the swoopiest Corvette concept car to ever wear the Corvette moniker. Tom was emphatic, “This is NOT the C7 Corvette.”
I already knew that before we spoke and perhaps it was my clarification before we talked that I was not trying to fish for details about the C7 design we all know Tom and his team have been working very hard upon. Our conversation was strictly focused on the actual Corvette Stingray Concept car. While there are tons of photos with copious amounts of regurgitated generic speculation about what the latest concept Vette represents, there were actually very few details about the actual car. You can read the compete article as it appeared in the August 2011 issue of VETTE Magazine, HERE.
But for this post, lets get back to the debut video. Corvettes have never been far from Hollywood. Millions of Americans weekly enjoyed the adventures of Todd Styles (Martin Milner) and Buzz Murdock (George Maharis) in the early ‘60s TV show, “Route 66.” Corvettes have had bit parts in everything from the Elvis Presley movie, “Clambake,” the film, “Corvette Summer,” the 80s TV show “Stingray,” and now the latest in the Transformers franchise, as the car/transforming robot machine, “Sideswipe” in the Michael Bay film, “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.” Unlike the Presley film, “Clambake” which used a red version of the ‘59 Stingray Racer, Continue reading “Vette Videos: 2009 Press Conference Debut of the Corvette Stingray Concept Car”
