preview

How Did Chevy Build Corvettes

Decent Essays

Ten years later, in 1963, Chevrolet moved on to design the second generation Corvette
(C2). The designers envisioned a smaller, more powerful sports car. The 1963 C2 Corvette Sting
Ray was a complete design overhaul to the car inside and out. It included very unusual visual designs for a car of that time period. It included the very symbolic reshaped and divided rear window. But that was not all that the engineers redesigned. The four headlights were kept but hidden rather than the normal looking bubble headlights on the C1. The headlights rotated inward when they were turned off giving the Sting Ray a very clean look. When they were turned off, the outside of the light assembly continued the sharp pointed front end with “the eyes closed.” The quad taillights were kept basically the same as the previous years and would be that way for many years to come. Another unusual feature the C2 introduced in 1963 was the door shape. The doors were cut into the roof supposedly for an easier entry and exit with minimal space on such a low vehicle(Burdick). The exterior …show more content…

The C2 base model cost $4,252. Later in 1963, Chevrolet made 199 special C2 Corvettes called the RPO Z-06. The Z-06 was a special performance package originally meant specifically for racing and competition minded buyers. It cost an additional $1,818. Because racing required a specific set of rules for the car, it was greatly improved. It featured a very large 36.5-gallon gas tank versus the standard 20-gallon tank. That was not all that was changed though. An experimental larger engine was installed and many things were taken out to reduce the weight down to 2,800 pounds, cutting about 400 pounds from the standard model. There was also a spare fuel tank hidden away behind the driver’s seat. Lead Corvette engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov, known as the grandfather of

Get Access