In the year 2013 debuts with the Corvette Stingray "C7" the seventh Corvette model generation also with the European Chevrolet dealers. The charismatic coupe is not only the longest continuously produced sports car, but also one of the best-selling in the world.
60 YEARS BEFORE, YEAR 1953: The launch of the Corvette at the "General Motors Motorama Show" in New York City marked the start of an extraordinary model history. Nevertheless, she was not born an icon, but developed this term over decades through ever new, trend-setting evolutionary steps and continuous fine-tuning in detail. Each generation boasted significant innovations and significant improvements in vehicle architecture, design and technology, and ensured that the Corvette could maintain its market position as the best-selling premium sports car in the US. With all the progress, however, the character-forming features have always been preserved:
- The Corvette was always designed as a two-seat sports car with front engine, rear-wheel drive and unmistakably powerful, stretched proportions.
- In all generations, body components made of innovative composite materials have become standard - from fiberglass on the first vehicles from 1953 to today's high-tech composite materials such as carbon.
- For 57 of a total of 60 years, the small block V8 acted as the standard engine.
- The Corvette has always been a test vehicle for new technologies that were later used in other GM production models.
The cult status of the Corvette is also reflected away from the road and the racetrack. She played numerous roles in culture - in the US TV series "Route 66" (1960-64), as a screen star in "Corvette Summer" (1978) and in a variety of other guest appearances. The Corvette inspired musicians, artists and developers of video games like the current version of "Gran Turismo", where the seventh-generation model appears in a disguised pre-production version. Even a Corvette cot is there - with functioning headlamps!
Generation 1 (C1): 1953-62
The Corvette's leadership in technology, design and performance started from the moment it took shape in the form of a concept study with a slim fiberglass body at the "General Motors Motorama" exhibition at the 17. January 1953 was presented at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. The production of the first fiberglass body mass production model began six months later. The composite material not only improved the power-to-weight ratio over a steel construction, it also gave designers more freedom in designing the curvy body.
Still in the first generation of the model, the styling of the Corvette developed significantly and created numerous design standards that would later become synonymous with the whole vehicle. These included the dash-to-axle roof structure, the round double-tail lights and the dual cockpit -
Among connoisseurs, the Corvette C1 is known as a "rigid axle model" because it was based on a modified car architecture with a rigid rear axle. As a source of power served in the first two years, a "Blue Flame" called Chevrolet inline six-cylinder; The now over 1 million times built Small Block V8 came in the third year of production for use.
Generation 2 (C2): 1963-67
The second Corvette generation, "Sting Ray" - named after a racing car study that significantly influenced their design - was virtually revolutionary in terms of design, technology and performance. While the first generation was still based on a modified passenger car platform, the second edition was a proprietary, all-new, low center-of-gravity architecture with sportier seating positions and a new frame structure with rear independent suspension, making the Corvette a sports car matured with world format.
The 1963-launched generation C2 also established a completely new coupé design element with the split rear window (split window) and is often referred to as one of the most beautiful vehicles in automotive history. This outstanding predicate refers above all to the spine-like contour of the roof and rear section, which runs in the middle of the body of the body and bisects the rear window. The retractable headlights were the Corvette C2 model-typical signature for the next 41 years.
With the introduction of the Corvette coupe doubled in the following years, the sales of this model, as now warmed buyers from cooler climates for the vehicle.
Generation 3 (C3) - 1968-82
The third generation was also the one with the longest model cycle and brought significant developmental steps against the background of serious changes in the automotive industry. The launch 1968 was under the name Stingray, which has now been written in one word. Insiders, however, were talking about the "Shark" models because of their styling, whose heavily arched fenders and rearwardly offset glass pulpit implied an aggressive forward motion. Other characteristic design features were again the retractable headlights and two-piece taillights.
In terms of performance, the C3 was a transitional generation. Were at the start of the series even Big Block engines with 435 PS popular, let the first "oil crises", the introduction of unleaded gasoline, stricter emission standards and a changed consumer behavior over the next few years, the engine power so that 1975's standard small block developed only 165 PS - almost 20 percent less than in the original (195-PS) version of 1955.
Notwithstanding the performance bottoming that the Corvette passed through, the engineers pushed ahead with their technical advancements. This included the use of advanced materials such as composites. Instead of conventional fiberglass material, they increasingly used fiber-reinforced plastics (sheet molding compound "SMC"), which had a higher surface quality and required less expensive paint preparation. From 1973 all Chevrolet Corvette had body components made from SMC materials, the composition of which had changed significantly in the course of development: Instead of fiberglass material were increasingly lightweight plastics with higher elasticity and lower sensitivity to crack for use.
Despite performance stagnation, the third generation of the Chevrolet Corvette was more popular than ever: With a total of 58.307 units, it marked 1979 a sales record that is still valid today.
Generation 4 (C4) - 1983-96
The fourth edition stood for the 1980er "high-tech decade" and brought significant progress in design, manufacturing technology, electronic power control and safety. The styling features included an electroluminescent instrument panel with digital displays, new addition was the one-piece glazed tailgate for easier accessibility of the hold. Characteristic design features have remained the same: their unmistakable proportions, the retractable headlights and the round double tail lights made the Corvette still unmistakable.
Technological progress was marked above all by a "backbone" frame structure and a streamlined body which, with an air resistance coefficient of 0,34 - an almost 25-percent improvement over the C3 generation - slid smoother than ever through the airstream. A "tuned port injection" system also ushered 1985 into the era of fuel injection and strengthened the image of the Corvette as a "high performer" with high fuel efficiency.
1983 no vehicles were offered for sale, but only 44 prototypes built. A single copy remained of it and can be seen today in the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green / Kentucky.
Generation 5 (C5) - 1997-2004
The generation C5 was one of the rare cases in which a new model brought less weight than its predecessor: The Corvette model year 1997 was larger than the outgoing C4, but also by about 45 kilograms lighter.
The weight reduction was the result of a package of measures using SMS composite material with even higher plastic content, newly developed chassis elements manufactured in the hydroforming process and sandwich-processed materials such as extremely light balsa wood in the floor area.
The third generation of the Small Block V8 engine also contributed to weight savings and balanced weight distribution with a crankcase and aluminum cylinder heads and an intake manifold made of composite material, only around 4,5 kilograms in weight.
On the production side, the Corvette C5 switched to a greener, water-based paint process: the proportion of solvents dropped from 60 to 10 percent. Water-based paint systems are today standard in the entire automotive industry.
Generation 6 (C6) - 2005-2013
The sixth Corvette generation raised their eyebrows, but not their headlights. In order to save weight, reduce complexity and reduce air resistance, the C6 - for the first time since 1962 - had re-installed headlights. Cockpit design and double tail lights remained unchanged.
Although the Corvette C6 shared its basic architecture with the predecessor generation C5 and additional safety systems were implemented, the curb weight could be kept practically on the level of the 1997er model by consistent lightweight construction measures.
The presentation of the decidedly sporty Corvette Z06 in the year 2006 stood for the focus on high-performance technologies and lightweight construction. The chassis construction was made of aluminum and weighed nearly one-third less than the steel version of the base Corvette, the engine mounts and various suspension points were made of magnesium, the front fenders and wheel arches and the rear fenders made of carbon. In addition, a unique process was used in the assembly, in which shielding gas and laser welding were combined with punched burrs. In sum, these measures resulted in a curb weight of less than 1.500 kilograms and a power to weight that even higher-priced exotics could not reach.
1's ZR2009 sporty Corvette top model features the Z06 aluminum structure, but with additional carbon fiber components including the roof's outer shell.
The light-weight materials and technologies of these vehicles set the course for the seventh model generation, in which the base model already has an aluminum frame structure with 60 percent higher rigidity than the Z06 and ZR1 versions. The C7 also pioneered the groundbreaking propulsion technologies that make the C7 the strongest and most efficient standard Corvette ever.
Text / Photo: Chevrolet Press 2013