Chevrolet Corvette C2 Sting Ray: Fast As Hell

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Chevrolet Corvette C2 Sting Ray: Fast As Hell
Chevrolet Corvette C2 Sting Ray: Fast As Hell

Video: Chevrolet Corvette C2 Sting Ray: Fast As Hell

Video: Chevrolet Corvette C2 Sting Ray: Fast As Hell
Video: The Original Sting Ray - /BIG MUSCLE 2024, March
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When you think of sports cars, you don't immediately think of US automakers. But as early as the 1960s GM showed with the Corvette C2 Sting Ray that they definitely have something to counter the European competition.

Huge road cruisers with eye-catching tail fins were the domain of US automakers in the 1950s. Sports cars, on the other hand, were not one of the core virtues of General Motors and Co. It was only in 1962 that Jaguar E-Type and Co. could be countered with something: the Corvette C2, known as the Sting Ray.

The Chevrolet Corvette, introduced in the mid-1950s, was initially little more than a mild boulevard cruiser, despite its large V8 engines. The plastic flounder mutated into a real athlete only through the enthroned GM design boss Bill Mitchell in 1958. He gave the previously harmless Corvette the name and look of a dreaded sea creature: the Sting Ray was born. Exactly 50 years ago it made its debut as a coupé and convertible.

Customers stormed the showrooms

For the first time, sports car drivers stormed the showrooms of the Chevrolet dealers, because under the sign of the stingray, the second Corvette generation even showed European superstars their poisonous rear end in drag races. The performance of the Sting Ray, which was sold in over 21,000 units in the first year, was almost spectacular. Officially, the up to 7.0-liter V8 released a maximum of 331 kW / 450 PS, but unofficially, up to 441 kW / 600 PS should have been possible.

The new Corvette Sting Ray presented itself visually as the fastest athlete of the 1963 model year. Coupé and convertible featured exciting rotating headlights that were later a trademark of the Corvette for decades. Even more important were the muscular, slightly curved lines, which heralded great aggressiveness and, on the Coupé, an almost endlessly long back with a so-called “split window”. A modern ladder frame with five massive cross members replaced the softer X-frame of the Corvette C1 and a rear independent wheel suspension replaced the antiquated rigid axle. The Americans only continued to save on the braking system, in line with the questionable motto “whoever brakes loses”. Instead of the disc brakes that have long been common in Europe, Bill Mitchell continued to use cheap drum brakes,Brakes with sintered metal coatings that were somewhat more stable were only available at an additional cost

Fast as hell

Mitchell's cars had to be “hellishly quick to stand still”, but the Sting Ray was supposed to have functionless air intakes on the bonnet and the back with split windows. Playful design details that Mitchell implemented against the will of his chief engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov. When the optical gimmicks became a victim of the model upgrade measures carried out in 1964 and 1965, the performance fetishist Arkus-Duntov donated additional muscles to the Corvette. Up until then, 276 kW / 375 hp small-block V8s marked the top performance, it was now 313 kW / 425 hp from a 6.5-liter big-block V8, and finally even 316 kW / 430 hp to 412 kW / 560 HP from a displacement of 7.0 liters.

While Corvette customers in the USA initially had to accept long delivery times, only a few buyers in Europe could afford the Sting Ray. The dollar was too strong in exchange rates, and the Corvette export program focused too much on the strongest and most expensive versions. The Corvette Sting Ray cost up to 35,000 marks in Germany, almost a quarter more than a Jaguar E-Type and almost twice as much as a Porsche 911 T. What made the Corvette as rare back then as the Sting-Ray that is sought after today. First vintage coupes. (SP-X)

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