The Z06 designator began with the 1963 Corvette, where the option consisted of “Special Performance Equipment.” This included the L84 327-ci, 360-hp, fuel-injected engine, a bigger front anti-roll bar, vacuum brake booster, dual master cylinder, bigger brakes, and, initially, a 36.5-gallon fuel tank. The package added $1,818.45 to the […]

What’s the best investment and most usable Corvette you can buy for $100,000? Think you know the answer? Check out what Todd Fitzerman, Edward Foss, Jerry Heasley, Kevin Mackay, Dana Mecum, and Roy Sinor (nationally known restorers, collectors, dealers, auctioneers and Corvette judges) told CM. Jerry Heasley Automotive writer and […]

Inspiration for the introduction of the 1953 Chevrolet Corvette was attributable to a flood of young Americans arriving home after World War II who craved nimble, athletic sports cars. A team of General Motors engineers, under the leadership of Harley Earl, set about creating a car bodied in fiberglass, with […]

The one and only 1963 Chevrolet Corvette “Rondine” coupe was built for the Paris Auto Show by renowned design house Pininfarina for Chevrolet. The car features a 327-ci, 360-hp fuel-injected V8 with 4-speed and power brakes. This historically significant prototype has been stored and preserved at the Pininfarina Museum since […]

The C3 arrived in 1968, sporting the Corvette’s first major restyling since ’63. Obviously based on the Mako Shark II show car, the new ’Vette had an aero front end with hidden headlights and disappearing wipers. Except for fender air vents and chrome on the rocker panels, the undulating body […]

Nineteen eighty-three marked the introduction of Chevrolet’s fourth-generation Corvette, which until the mid-1990s would be improved and modified by a variety of in-house and aftermarket specialists. Of the various aftermarket tuners, one of the most impressive was Guldstrand Specialty Automobiles (GSA) out of California. Company founder Dick Guldstrand had developed […]

  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 […]

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 […]