Columns

  Although Chevrolet introduced the Corvette to great acclaim at the 1953 Motorama, few realized it would, in time, become America’s iconic sports car. The sporting transformation didn’t come until 1956, a year after Chief Engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov inserted a 265-ci V8 into the previously sluggish 6-cylinder-powered fiberglass two-seater. For 1956, Arkus-Duntov improved the car’s…

The 1963 Corvette was a dramatic, exciting breakthrough in American automobile design, engineering and specifications. Its four-wheel independent suspension was as good as any European exotic, and it should have ruled the road courses of the time—and would have, except for Carroll Shelby’s Cobra. But the Cobra was gone in five years, while the Corvette…

  The L88 Corvette burst onto the scene with victories at Daytona and Sebring in 1966 and continued at the Le Mans Trials in April 1967, where, in near-stock trim, an L88 clocked 171.5 mph on the Mulsanne Straight. That same car led the GT class in the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans for…

  The Corvette is an American icon. It is the only true American sports car that has lasted from the ’50s when the sports car market emigrated from Europe to this country, and numerous manufacturers on this side of the pond dabbled in making fun two-seaters. The styling of Corvettes had always been pleasing and…

Nineteen eighty-three was the model year without a Corvette. The C4, which debuted as a 1984 model, was the first all-new Corvette since 1963, and like the first-year C3 in 1968, there were problems aplenty. The digital dash was failure-prone, the ride was punishing, and the carried-over-from 1982 twin throttle-body “Cross-fire” injection was inferior to…