1963-67 Corvette StingrayBy David Bellm Ten years after its 1953 introduction, Chevrolet's plastic-bodied Corvette sports car had been through it all. It was hurried into production from a popular autoshow "dream car," then it received a decidedly lukewarm reception among buyers. At the same time it was largely knocked by serious auto enthusiasts, who considered it far from the true performance car Chevrolet claimed it was. Not surprisingly, in its first half-dozen years, the Corvette had been nearly cancelled by Chevrolet's parent corporation, General Motors. But despite low sales at first, the Corvette was allowed to stay in production. By the late 1950's Chevrolet managers began to consider plans for a successor to the original Corvette design. Throughout the 1950's, style ruled over substance throughout the automotive industry, and that balance was evident in the rivalry between the two outspoken, headstrong men who were in charge of Corvette development. General Motors' director of styling Bill Mitchell was a flamboyant designer who wasn't especially interested in engineering details of the cars he shaped -- especially if such pragmatic realities interfered with the visual details of the cars he styled. Directly opposing Mitchell was Corvette's chief engineer, Zora Arkus-Duntov. Foreign born and a gifted mechanic, he had spent years among the great racing sports cars that populated Europe in the postwar era. Accordingly, his philosophy was the exact opposite of Mitchell's -- function before form. Thus far, Mitchell had won most of the battles. But that was to change with the Corvette's first major redesign, which was set to debut for 1963. Over the first half-decade of working on the Corvette, Duntov had earned clout within the corporation, and would apply this power to making the new Corvette every bit the credible performance car he knew it could be. This new Corvette would be built around the parameters of Mitchell's stunningly attractive, sharp-edged "Stingray" shape, which first began as a private extracurricular effort by Mitchell's staff in 1959. Mitchell had supposedly financed the car largely with his own money, and had used it as his personal racing machine. After that, it was re-employed as an attention-getter at auto shows, until Chevrolet finally decided it was time to redesign the aging first-generation Corvette design. At that point they began to look more seriously at a production version of Mitchell's Stingray. For the first decade, the Corvette was offered as a convertible only. But this time around, the convertible version would be joined by an attractive fixed-roof coupe version, which featured a fastback roofline that tapered to a dramatic point at the very rear of the car. The design was undeniably beautiful. But it nonetheless ignited one of the more heated battles between Mitchell and Duntov. Mitchell had designed the car's arching back window to be split down the middle by a slender but visibility-blocking bodyline. Duntov protested vehemently against the split rear window, citing the poor rearward vision it caused. Mitchell dug in and claimed that the whole design was ruined without it. In the end, a compromise was ordered: The split would stay for the '63 model year, but thereafter the rear window would span the width of the roof uninterrupted. Duntov also won another key battle with GM management, thereby almost singlehandedly elevating the '63 Corvette into the realm of truly credible sporting machines. By this time, the best sports cars had independent rear suspension, which allowed each rear wheel to traverse bumps without disturbing the other wheel. It makes a car more composed over rough surfaces, therefore enabling faster driving over less-than-ideal roads. The only trouble was that an independent rear suspension system was much more complicated, and thus more expensive to build. But Duntov persisted, coming up with an ingeniously simplified design that was both effective and reasonably inexpensive to build. Part of the way in which Duntov justified the expense of the more sophisticated rear suspension was by leaving much of the drivetrain alone to carry over largely the same from the '62 'Vette. This meant 327-cubic-inch V8 engines, in power ratings ranging from 250 horsepower with a single four-barrel carburetor, to 365 horsepower with fuel injection. The new car was a resounding success, winning the hearts of the car buyers as well as the perpetually hard-to-please legions of serious automotive enthusiasts -- even the fussy European sort. By the time the '63 model year had ended, Corvette sales had leaped to over 20,000, from around 14,000 the previous year. Over the next four years, the Stingray got a steady succession of improvements, foremost among them the 1965 introduction of Chevrolet's larger, more powerful "big-block" V8 engine for 1965. Beginning with a displacement of 396 cubic inches and making a brutal 425 horsepower, the engine would over the next several years gain a 427-cubic-inch iteration, offered in versions ranging from 390 to 435 horsepower. For 1968, the trim, tasteful Corvette Stingray design was replaced by a wilder, arguably less stylish version -- Mitchell's idea, of course. That design would remarkably stay in production all the way until 1982, of course with numerous evolutionary changes along the way. Although somewhat unloved by collectors for many years, these later Corvettes have begun to gain their own following. But it's unlikely the 1968-82 Corvette will ever inspire the passionate desire that their svelte, dramatic predecessor has ignited in collectors. With terrific looks that have aged well, and great performance to back that up, the 1963-67 Corvette will always be one of the best of America's Great Sports Car. |
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