Corvette History:10-4-73 – The 4-Rotor Experimental Corvette Debuts In Paris!
The 4-Rotor Experimental Corvette Makes It’s Grand Debut 41 Years Ago In Paris!
Oui! Oui! Thanks to Zora Arkus-Duntov, Corvette fans were treated to a series of mid-engine Corvette through the ‘60s and ‘70s. But XP-882 was no “ordinary” experimental mid-engine Corvette. Behind the driver was a honk’n 390 cubic-inch Wankel rotary engine. Ed Cole was President of General Motors at the time and was hot on the smooth-running rotary engine design. So what better a hallo car to present the then-exotic engine that under a stunning Corvette.
Although VP of Design Bill Mitchell was the official “designer” of the body shape, Chuck Jordan supervised the project. The car had wrap-around glass and hidden A-pillars. The doors weren’t just gull-wing, they were bi-fold gull wings. The look was fresh, edgy, exciting, and definitely CORVETTE.
The Wankel engine part didn’t turn out so good. While a simple design the Chevrolet engineers just couldn’t get the emissions right, so GM bailed out on the entire Wankel engine project. A few years later the XP-882 was retrofitted with a transverse-mounted 400 cubic-inch small-block Chevy engine and was renamed the Aerovette. For a brief time it was seriously considered as the C4 Corvette. But corporate politics ended that effort.
The Aerovette is part of The GM Heritage Center. – Scott
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