Unrestored Corvettes

Aztec-gold ’56. (Photo by Richard Lentinello.)

Here I am trumpeting Classic Car magazine again, in this case their May 2011 issue, #80.
I can’t help it. They always seem to dredge up really great classic cars.
They seem to have a soft-spot for unrestored original examples, that is, as delivered by the factory, not gussied up beyond reality by the restoration process.
In this case it’s Corvettes.
Corvettes are a special breed.
The so-called American sportscar.
They handle fairly well, are only two seats, and are made to go like stink.
The first Corvettes were rather moribund, especially as first marketed.
A glitzy body on an antediluvian chassis.
One is pictured above, a ’56.
In 1955 the fabulous Small-Block Chevy V8 was introduced, an engine almost European in character.
It would rev to the moon, and responded extremely well to hot-rodding.
The Small-Block was fitted to the Corvette, making it a desirable car.
Gone was the old Stovebolt-Six.

Zora Arkus-Duntov.

The appearance of early ‘Vettes attracted Zora Arkus-Duntov, who had developed a hemi-head for the Ford Flat-head.
Perhaps he could make the Corvette a really great sportscar.
Duntov developed various means of hot-rodding the Small-Block V8.
I remember his Duntov cam, a camshaft that transformed the Small-Block.
With a Duntov cam, the Small-Block would breathe, and thereby generate much more horsepower.

Photo by Richard Lentinello.

Dual quads.

The ’56 pictured has a souped factory version of the Small-Block; two four-barrel carburetors (see photo at left).
But the early Corvette was not right.
Duntov still had a lot of work to do.
The chassis was essentially that of a ’53 Chevy, solid rear-axle on leaf rear springs, the infamous Model-T tractor-layout.
The Small-Block transformed it, but only in a straight line.
Throw a corner at it, and it was over its head.
Ask it to stop, and you were in trouble.
Duntov wasn’t able to bring Corvette out of its humble beginnings until the 1963 model-year, the early Sting-Rays, the so-called “C2s,” the second engineering of the Corvette.
To me this is the finest Corvette; Duntov at his best.
At that time everyone was trying to do independent-rear-suspension (“IRS”), antithesis of the Model-T tractor-layout.
The center differential was solidly mounted to the car, and independently-suspended half-shafts came out each side.
No longer was the heavy center differential part of the rear-axle; no longer could its momentum impede suspension action.
And by disconnecting the left wheel from the right wheel, no longer was the opposite wheel effected by bumps to the other wheel.
IRS was a siren-song; still is, more-or-less.
But its main advantage compared to the Model-T tractor layout was taking out the momentum of the center differential.
Even the Model-T tractor layout can be made to handle extremely well.
The current Mustang is Model-T tractor layout, but would benefit from independent-rear-suspension.
The current Corvette is independent-rear-suspension, as were Duntov’s Sting-Rays of 1963.
But Duntov’s earliest IRS was rudimentary.
It used universal-joints at each end of stubby half-shafts — IRS for the masses.
To me, Duntov’s mid-‘60s Corvettes are the most desirable, 1963 to 1967.
I’ve pictured one below, a ’65.


Original ’65 fuelly. (Photo by Jeff Koch.)


My hairdresser’s ‘Vette, before he bought it.

My hairdresser had one, a red ’67 convertible, also pictured.
But his wasn’t unrestored original; the ’65 is.
Nevertheless, when my hairdresser retired, and remarried after his wife died, I considered buying his Corvette.
A red ’67 convertible four-speed is extremely desirable, but I had no place to put it, and it would have cost a fortune.
Beyond that, it was another internal-combustion engine to maintain.
I had enough already.
Next was the so-called C3, Zora’s falling for the Manta-Ray concept-Corvettes.
1968 through 1983.
Still the same chassis as Zora’s Sting-Rays, but an all-new body.
But Corvette was losing its way.
To make it competitive, Duntov was levering in the Chevy Big-Block, a massive power-generator, but heavy.
It threw off the Corvette’s balance. The lighter Small-Block was not as powerful, but in the Corvette offered better balance.
But even then the Corvette was becoming less a sportscar, and more a boulevardier.
Many Corvettes were sold with air-conditioning and automatic-transmission, hardly raw sportscars.


’71 Big-Block. (Photo by Richard Lentinello.)

I’ve pictured a ’71 Big-Block.
At least it’s a floor-shifted four-speed tranny.
But I can imagine tossing it into a corner.
That front-end will plow under all that heavy motor weight.
The Manta-Ray Corvettes are desirable, but not as desirable as Duntov’s C2 Sting-Rays.

25th Anniversary edition. (Not my neighbor’s car.)

My neighbor up-the-street has a C3, a ’78 Silver-Anniversary edition with the two-tone silver and gray paint.
I haven’t actually photographed it yet. He has it stored in his garage under a fabric cover.
It’s one of the boulevardier Corvettes with auto-tranny, but I’m glad he bought it.
He’s 71 years old, and recently had heart-bypass surgery.
It makes me wonder if I shoulda bought my hairdresser’s Corvette.
At least his Silver-Anniversary edition is the L48 350 cubic-inch Small-Block.
185 horsepower — not intimidating, but not wimpy.
He used to have a Trans-Am Pontiac, and regrets he sold it.
I guess his Silver-Anniversary ‘Vette is recompense.
It’s depressing to think his ’78 was already a 10-year-old design.
That design lasted clear until 1983.
Duntov retired in 1975, relinquishing command of Corvette to Dave McLellan.
The C4 debuted under McLellan in March of 1983, a 1984 model.
I call it the disco-‘Vette.
Later came the C5, which a friend says looks like a shampoo-bottle.
It’s big.
Now we have the C6, and still the same chassis as the C4, although fiddled some.
Duntov died in 1996, still a fervent supporter of the Corvette. People say he is the Corvette’s father.
His employ with General Motors came after loving the styling of early ‘Vettes, but abhorring their sickly underpinnings. —And writing them about it.

• The Chevrolet “Small-Block” V8 was introduced at 265 cubic-inches displacement in the 1955 model-year. It continued production for years, first to 283 cubic inches, then 327, then 350. Other displacements were also manufactured. The Chevrolet “Big-Block” V8 was introduced in the 1965 model-year at 396 cubic-inches, and was unrelated to the Small-Block. It was made in various larger displacements: 402, 427 and 454 cubic inches. It’s still made as a truck-motor, but not installed in cars any more; although you can get it as a crate-motor, for self-installation. The “Big-Block” could be immensely powerful, and the “Small-Block” was revolutionary in its time. —At first the V8 introduced by Chevrolet in the 1955 model-year was not called the “Small-Block.” That came after the “Big-Block” was introduced.
• The Chevrolet overhead-valve inline “Stovebolt-six” was introduced in the 1929 model-year at 194+ cubic inches. It continued production for years, upgraded to four main bearings (from three) for the 1937 model-year. In 1950 the Stovebolt was upsized to 235.5 cubic inches (from 216), and later upgrades included full-pressure lubrication and hydraulic (as opposed to mechanical) valve-tappets. The Stovebolt was produced clear through the 1963 model-year, but replaced with a new seven-main bearing (as opposed to less — like four) inline-six engine in the 1964 model-year. The Stovebolt was also known as “the cast-iron wonder;” called the “Stovebolt” because various bolts could be replaced by stuff from the corner hardware.
• The “camshaft” is what actuates the cylinder-valves; in the Chevy Small-Block 16 cams are on the camshaft — it rotates — to open the cylinder-valves; eight intake and eight exhaust. (Springs close them.) —Re-contouring the cams can make the valves stay open longer, or open more abruptly.
• “Tranny” = transmission; “auto-tranny“ = automatic transmission.