The Chevrotlet Corvette is an icon when it comes to sports cars. The improvements through various technologies over the past 60 years have brought the Corvette into the future as a promising long-term staple in the world of sports cars. Larry Edsall uses his exclusive access to engineers, designers, and other Corvette team members, as well as GM’s photographic archives, to create the complete inside story of the newest model of these top-notch sports cars in his book, Corvette Stingray.
Much like the expression “we eat with our eyes first,” there’s nothing quite like seeing the Corvette Stingray for the first time. The following excerpt, pulled from Edsall’s new book examines the exterior design of this instant classic:
Typically, Bennion and his fellow designers, sculptors, engineers, and others who work within the GM design studios at the campus-style GM Tech Center facilities in Warren, Michigan, are busy with more than 60 programs in various stages of execution, from early concepts to face lifts of vehicles already in production. But with financial resources in increasingly short supply—indeed, with the company bleeding money and its sur-vival as a viable automaker in jeopardy—there came a point, Bennion said, whenthere were only four active design programs taking place.
To make the best use of the downtime and to keep spirits within the studios as elevated as possible, the designers let their minds wander, dreaming up a few what if? scenarios. One idea compelled them more than the rest: What if there really is a next-generation Corvette? What should it be? What could it be?
Not long out of design school, Bennion had been part of the team in themiddle and late 1980s that contributed early concepts for what was expected tobecome the next Chevrolet Corvette, the fifth generation (C5) version of America’ssports car. That new car’s production launch was anticipated in the early 1990s,but because of another cycle of economic woes, it wasn’t until 1997 that the fifth-generation Corvette actually rolled off the assembly line. By then, Bennion was busy designing trucks.
Nonetheless, Bennion knew that “it was a good time to get acquainted with the car and for a squeaky kid out of college to get the tribal knowledge” about such an automotive icon.
That early experience with the Corvette proved especially good when Bennion returned to the sports car studio—he served as lead exterior designer for the sixth-generation Corvette that made its debut as a 2005 model.
It was the successor to that car on which he and the others in the studio started work in 2007. Started, that is, but soon halted. The program, Bennion said,“ended up getting canceled.”
But if a seventh-generation Corvette was on hold, perhaps, the designers hoped, there still would be a C6.5, “a minor face lift with some architectural stuff,”as Bennion put it.
“But that ended up getting canceled, too,” he said. “The checkbook was dry.”
In fact, the checkbook was so dry that the federal government stepped in to save not just General Motors, but the entire American domestic auto industry,including its suppliers. To survive, GM had to cancel not just individual car pro-grams but entire automotive divisions. Pontiac is no more.
General Motors emerged from bankruptcy with just four automotive brands for North America—Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, and GMC. Chevrolet, the largest and mainstream brand, and Cadillac, the luxury marque, would expand their distribution to markets around the world. Buick already was hugely popular in China, which was becoming the world’s largest new-car marketplace. In North America, Buick would provide a stepping stone for customers whose income had them looking beyond Chevrolet dealerships but perhaps not quite all the way into Cadillac showrooms. GMC was an historic truck brand that would provide a way for Cadillac and Buick dealers to profit by selling modified versions of Chevrolet’s pickup trucks, sport, and crossover utility vehicles.
And, to the surprise of many people, part of this new GM product portfolio would be a new Corvette.
When representatives of the U.S. Treasury Department and the president’s automotive task force began examining General Motors and its finances, they dis-covered some surprising things about the Corvette. Despite its relatively low sales volumes, and in an era of flexible production—multiple models being built on the same assembly line—this car was constructed in a dedicated assembly plant.What’s more, the Corvette was a profitable vehicle for the company, and it didn’t hurt that at least some of the federal examiners were car enthusiasts who couldn’t bear the thought of putting an end to the sports car’s production.
So, very, very quietly, under orders of absolute secrecy, Ed Welburn (GM’s global vice president for design) invited not just the designers in Warren, but also those in every GM design studio around the globe, to submit sketches for what they thought the next-generation Chevrolet Corvette should be.
This “global sketch blitz” was a first for the design of a Corvette, for whichall styling had previously been done within the corporation’s U.S. studios. But by seeking input from around the GM world, Welburn not only exposed GM to new ideas, but also created a fresh enthusiasm within the GM Design community.
“It was a great perk for people to get to sketch on the car who otherwise never would get to,” said Bennion, whose job it was to collect those sketches and to begin their review. “We probably got over three hundred sketches,” he reported.
Not only was the volume encouraging, but so were the sketches themselves. Ryan Vaughan was the designer who would help lead the team doing the new Corvette’s interior, and as he explained it, even people who worked in overseas design studios and who had never seen a Corvette in person demonstrated with their sketches that they understood the car, its essence, and its mission. As Vaughan put it, everyone was “all orbiting around the same idea.”
Corvette Stingray: The Seventh Generation of America’s Sports Car
Author: Larry Edsall
For the Corvette enthusiast, there is no greater source of speculation, pent-up excitement, and anticipation than the pending introduction of a new-generation ‘Vette. Since unveiling the original American sports car in 1953, GM has upped the ante with each successive model and along the way, the Corvette has evolved from 6-cylinder boulevard cruiser to street racer to Le Mans winner to world-class sports car. Sixty years of constant refinement have ensured that the next-generation Corvette will give its global competitors a strong run for their money. For the making of Corvette Stingray: The Seventh Generation of America’s Sports Car, GM granted author Larry Edsall exclusive access to engineers, designers, and other Corvette team members, as well as its own photographic archives, to create the complete inside story of this top-notch sports car. The seventh-generation Corvette (C7) again raises the bar, not only for outright performance but also for performance-for-dollar. Capable of running with – and in many cases outclassing – the likes of Ferrari, Porsche, Audi, and other European legends, Chevy’s newest Corvette delivers the goods with a new look and even more performance technology. With more than 300 historical and behind-the-scenes photographs that take you as close to the car as you can get without sitting behind the wheel, Corvette Stingray is a must-own book for any serious gearhead–whether you’re a long-time ‘Vette junkie, a sports car devotee, or simply an admirer of beautiful machines.
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