1958 Corvette, Chevrolets 56 T bird That Hauled Ass.

By Miguel Caparros

Before you send me a nasty note please read this. I was never much of a TBird fan. I was much more of a Corvette kind of guy.. I bought a basket case 58 Corvette, much like the one in this video. I hot rodded it with factory parts, Duntov cam and lifters ported fuelly heads,M22 tans etc. I replaced every bushing and bearing, Put in big sway bars front and rear, New hand rubbed paint polished all the stainless steel parts and rechromed all the rest of the shiny bits. All new proper interior. Those of you that know the cars I build understand it was with out compromise to quality. The interior was the last thing done and when the car came back from the upholstery shop  I reached in to push the seat back and found that was as far as it went. I wormed my way in and I was miserable.The steering was to close even with it all the way forward the back of the seats was bolt upright and my size 12 EE's were not happy either.  I could drive it but I could not live with it.  Fast forward to 7 years ago when my friend Rick asked me to help him with a 1956 T Bird survivor with 54,000 original miles. We spent 2 years doing a preservation to keep as much of the original car but still make it so it could serve as a standard and win shows.

The first time I got in to drive it I flashed back to the 58 Corvette, another car I do not fit in. When I stopped and thought about it, the things that it had in common were the styling touches even thought they are completely different, The 58 Corvette had more chrome and polished stainless that any Corvette before or after. The 56 Tbird was the same it had more than the 55 or the 57. Hopefully this will give you some insight into my twisted mind. If you want to see the video of the 56 Tbird here is the link. The 1956 T bird

A Mako Shark Meets A Real Mako Shark In Atlanta

By Miguel Caparros 

Click Here For The Shark

Oceans & Autos Classic Car Show. Maintaining the aquarium is a very expensive proposition, specially the largest aquarium that is located 200 miles from the ocean. The 2nd annual fund raiser was slightly smaller than the first but more than made up with quality. Rick Fairbanks organizer of the event was successful in getting Chevrolet to send one of their most famous show cars out of their collection, The Corvette Mako Shark. There is much bad information on the net about who designed the 1963 Sting Ray. Let us put it to rest here! Peter Brock was the designer of the 1957 Sting Ray, that is right, 1957.  He was the youngest designer at GM at the time. Bill Mitchell, Vice President of GM styling and Larry Shinoda mentored the youngster, but it was Peter who designed the iconic shape of the Corvette.  Installed on the chassis of the SS XP64 Corvette Endurance racer of 1956, Yes Matilda that is correct, Chevrolet wanted to race directly against the Europeans at Sebring. The car was never sorted out and it broke after 23 laps of the 1957 Running of the 12 hours of Sebring. Right at about the same time GM management thought it would be a good thing to ban the Corporation from racing. So Bill Mitchel who was an accomplished amateur racer snag the SS Chassis, and in secret put the young Peter Brock to create and build a revolutionary body for the finest GM technology hidden under what would become the shape of the 1963 Sting Ray. Now I will get off my Peter Brock Pulpit (your welcomed Peter). Yes Larry Shinoda gets credit for the Mako Shark show car. Based on a 1961 Corvette it definitely created a stir about what the next Corvette would look like.  By the time the time the Mako Shark hit the show circuit the production designs for the Sting Ray were already done. Where the Sting Ray race car was just that, the Mako Shark was actually something people could touch and feel and it had an actual interior. The original incarnation of the Mako Shark was all silver and had a clear twin bubble top, one of Bill Mitchell's favorite elements that he considered the future. Bill Mitchell wanted to freshen up the Mako Shark for 1967 and as the story goes, He ordered the paint department to paint the car to match the Marlin hanging on his office door. The rejuvenated Mako Shark and the Mako II gave hints of the upcoming release of the 1968 Corvette.

 Click Here For The Speedster Video.

One of the rare cars that made its appearance at the Aquarium is one that is near to my heart as my father had the identical car new in 1955. Studebaker emerged from WWII and was not able to get up and running and share in the post war boom. Although ahead of GM, Ford and Chrysler in producing modern trend setting designs and beating every one of its competitors to produce the first Modern over head valve V8, Studebaker faced a price war between GM and Ford with the highest cost in the industry. The Studebaker brand goes all the way back to 1852 and was originally a producer of wagons for farmers, miners, the military and the famous Conestoga wagon that settled the west. They first produced electric cars in 1902 and then gas powered in 1904. By the time 1955 came about Studebaker was in financial trouble, The Raymond Lowey designed cars of 1953 were low aerodynamic and looked way into the future of the automobile. But they faced a price disadvantage due to the fore mentioned price war. The President line was Studebaker's top of the line and the Speedsters was the trend leader that created a personal luxury American sports coupe. With unique trim and sports car like turned metal dash, the Speedster came fully equip with almost every "option" installed. It looked like a factory built custom car that sat lower and looked wider than its competitors offerring.

Although by 1955 Buick, Olds and Ford had V8's of over 300 cubic inches the Studebaker 232 V8combined with lighter weight and superior aerodynamics could more than keep up on the street and run away and hide in the open road. The Speedster was a one year only model and only 2,215 cars were built. Yet what this car did was set the sporty direction that Studebaker would take, first with the Hawk series and then with the Avanti and the Lark Daytona all who were derivatives of the speedster.

My connection with the speedster goes back to 1955 when my father was replacing his 1951 Fordyllac which had become a bit long in the tooth and was no competition for the factory supported teams from Buick and Mercury in the over the road races such as the Carrera Panamericana. Even giving away 100 cubic inches of engine displacement to its rivals, my father and Studebaker figured that the lighter weight, lower center of gravity and the ability to push less air at speed would be enough to make the Speedster competitive. Almost! Even with factory support it is difficult to beat the odds of superior numbers. Where there was one Studebaker there were 5 factory Buick's and an equal number of Mercury's. Dads Speedster led in many stages and was always a contender but the nature of road racing over secondary and dirt roads means things do break and tires do go flat. The Carrera was cancelled in 1955 but the races went on in other parts of Central America and the Caribbean and specifically in Cuba. in an era where the top speed of most fast cars barely went 120 miles per hour, in one stage the Speedster was clocked at 163 MPH. In today's recreation of the Carrera the stock car of choice is the Studebaker Coupe of 1953-1955, real Speedsters are too rare and expensive.

Chevrolet Re-Inventing The Corvette With The C-7 To Lure Younger Buyers

By Miguel Caparros GM file Photos

In a bold move Chevrolet is opening up a Pandora's box by announcing a new power plant package to debut with the upcoming C-7.  Not wanting to shun the Corvette faithful, Initially the current engine line up will be continued. With the General looking at the future, a reality has set in. The younger well heeled customers are buying tons of Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Infinity, Ferrari and Corvette's.

The big difference in this group is the age of the Corvette buyer. An on line survey that has been running on the Corvette Action Center Forum, polled C-6 owners. According to the Survey 22% of the participants are over 60 years old. In a more telling number the 50 to 59 age group represents a whopping 40%. To put it in perspective, 62% of the respondents to this survey qualify to carry an AARP card. 

The new V8 engine is rumored to be a 3.2 liter 4 cam Turbo Charged 10,000 rpm motor with 125 horsepower per liter. My math tells me that is 400 hp. That is a long ways off the ground ripping C-6 7 liter 505 HP and another galaxy removed from the 6.2 liter 638 hp ZR1. So is the Corvette group going to get any cross over from Porsche 911 buyers who are a little younger with an average age of 50 or from BMW M3 owners who's average drivers age is a lot younger at 38. Not with 400 horsepower, if you want to play in this league, it is a power to weight ratio game. Unless the Corvette engineers are dropping 350 pounds of weight from the C6, the new car is going to need 500 hp to compete with the 911.

There are many photos of concepts for the C7 including the split window retro mix from the 63 Sting Ray and the Coke shape of the Maco Shark concept of the 60's. Can Corvette make inroads into the younger import market with a low-cal version of Americas Super Car? They are apparently selling a lot of V6 Camaro's so maybe there is a market for it. But personally I think such a move would weaken the status of the brand. The current car is one that can take on any of the worlds super car and if not beat them all on absolute performance it definitely beats them all in usability and daily comfort. 

Sometimes, we need to go outside and look at what the end users are doing and take some clues from what they are building.

The GM LS family of engines are extremely successful in the after-market, They are transplanted into every kind of car. One of the more popular conversions is into the Pontiac Solstice Saturn Twins. Except for a few crude homebuilt the quality of most that I have seen are outstanding. These enthusiast are not doing this with old crashed cars but very nice used cars that are holding their value, then they drop another $7,000 to $10,000 for the V8 conversion. The end result is an investment of $20,000 to $30,000 for a very good performing sports car

I think GM threw out the baby with the bath water when they retired the Solstice concept. With some parts bin engineering, the new 400 hp V8, I would name it the Chevrolet Corsa, equip it to a $50,000 price tag and evolve the Corvette with more sophistication and keep it the world car it is. Corvette fans and owners don't care about gas millage or 4 cam motors They just want a mean looking car that will go 200 mph.