Steve Magnante's 1001 Corvette Facts. Steve Magnante
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16,155 Thunderbirds in 1955, General Motors decided to keep fighting and gave Corvette a reprieve. It wasn’t so much a case of profiteering, but rather a matter of corporate pride.
128 Although certain elements of the chassis and suspension were carried over from 1955, the 1956 Corvette received an all-new body and interior. Naturally, the launch was a big event, so what better place to hold it than the Waldorf Astoria Hotel Grand Ball-room, the same place the first Corvette debuted in 1953?
129 It was common practice for GM Motorama show-car stylists to share certain styling features among their dream-car renderings. Although the 1956 Corvette marked the first (and only) appearance of crescent-shaped side coves on a mass-produced GM offering, numerous Motorama show cars also carried the theme. Among them were the 1953 LeSabre, 1954 LaSalle II, the 1954 Olds F-88, and 1955 Chevrolet Biscayne. The Biscayne’s use of the coves was most unusual; they were reversed to give the impression of giant missiles set into the flanks of the body.
A Corvette institution, the side coves were considered for use on other GM makes and models. This 1958 model marked the first year for the added shielding adjacent to the wheel opening.
130 Corvette’s side-cove theme was taken to the extreme on certain other Motorama dream cars. On the Oldsmobile 88 Delta and Cutlass and the Buick Wildcat II, all from 1955, the coves were deeply set under the body, exposing the trailing ends of the front tires and eliminating the rocker panels ahead of the door openings. The effect recalled the long, sweeping front fenders of 1930s Duesenbergs. Although a daring exercise, the layout left minimal protection to the vertical body sides from road debris and spray flung up by the front tires. These cars highlighted the designer’s never-ending struggle to balance exciting looks with daily practicality.
131 Corvettes and movies went hand in hand from the beginning. The 1967 feature film Hot Rods to Hell was memorable for its inclusion of a modified 1958 Corvette. In the 92-minute drive-in movie classic, a conservative family in a pea-soup-green 1961 Plymouth Belvedere is terrorized by a gang of hooligans driving an assortment of hopped-up machines. Leading the pack is a bright-red Corvette with flamed side coves, yellow racing stripes, Radir mag wheels, a tall roll bar, and deleted front bumper and grille. The Corvette eventually was wrecked in a game of chicken.
132 Alternate titles for the film Hot Rods to Hell were 52 Miles to Midnight and 52 Miles to Terror. Because it was a decidedly low-budget production, it is likely that only one 1958 Corvette was used/destroyed in the making of the film. This assumption is supported by close inspection of the film; the unique flamed graphics and 1958-only ribbed hood and chrome trunk strakes appear identical in every scene. Most action movies involving cars are guilty of continuity lapses (1959–1961 Corvettes doubling for the 1958 hero car, non-exact placement of flame and stripe graphics from one stunt car to the next, etc.), but not this gem.
133 One glance at the 1954 Mercedes-Benz 300SL revealed its heavy influence on Corvette designers. In particular, the GM stylist in charge of the Corvette’s body redesign, Bob Cadaret (supervised by Bill Mitchell), clearly mimicked the German supercar’s ovoid grille opening, arched front bumper ends, and high-set headlamps, not to mention the blatantly copied twin hood blisters. It is not known how the 300SL’s designer, Paul Braiq, felt about the U.S. automotive giant pilfering his design.
Today, the Corvette cannot be mistaken for anything else. In 1956, however, this view had Mercedes-Benz 300SL owners crying foul.
134 At the rear of the body, Cadaret and his team took more cues from the 300SL. Although not as obvious, the rounded, humplike mound created by the deck lid positioned between the fender peaks was adapted from the Mercedes-Benz design. The major difference between the two was Corvette’s glass-fiber construction versus the Mercedes-Benz’s steel shell (with aluminum doors, deck lid, hood, and rocker panels). Photos exist of the Oldsmobile Golden Rocket Motorama dream car posed next to a Mercedes-Benz 300SL gullwing coupe within the GM styling center. A little benchmarking clearly went a long way.
135 Although Arkus-Duntov’s influence began to emerge with the 1956 Corvette, his impact on the 1953–1955 models was minimal. Born in Belgium to Russian parents, the automotive genius began GM employment on May 1, 1953. The Corvette’s path for the next two years was already established, and there was little room for his influence.
136 Arkus-Duntov’s first assignment as a member of Chevrolet’s research and development department in 1953 was to explore varied chassis designs for rear-engine passenger cars. General Motors had been exploring rear-engine test cars for more than a decade, the 1960 Corvair being the eventual manifestation of the program. An early contribution to the solution of tail-heavy vehicle platforms was Arkus-Duntov’s discovery that oversteer and understeer habits could be tuned using tire pressure alone. The Corvair’s unconventional biased factory tire-pressure specification (22 psi front, 26 psi rear) was Arkus-Duntov’s doing.
137 Ed Cole, a man whose motto was “kick the hell out of the status quo,” hired Arkus-Duntov. Cole’s decision to hire the then-43-year-old with the thick Russian accent was highly controversial; Senator Joe McCarthy’s notorious anti-Communist “witch hunts” were in full swing. Many of GM’s more conservative staffers blatantly disliked Arkus-Duntov and his outspoken demeanor. British-born chassis engineer Maurice Olley was particularly critical of Arkus-Duntov’s appointment. However, they eventually developed mutual respect for each other, and both men contributed great things to the Corvette program.
138 Arkus-Duntov’s entrance into the Corvette development program wasn’t the straight shot most enthusiasts assume it was. For many months he toiled on decidedly non-performance projects, ranging from working on the aforementioned rear-engine family-car project to solving vibration problems on two-piece school-bus drive-shafts. The change came in mid-1954 when Ed Cole chose him to help develop mechanical fuel injection for the upcoming V-8 engine program. Yes, that fuel injection, the immortal “fuelie” of 1957.
139 In hindsight, we mostly view Rochester Products Division’s mechanical fuel injection as a high-performance development meant just for the Corvette. However, quite the opposite is true. Although fuel injection generally offers advantages over carburetors in high-performance applications, General Motors also saw fuel injection as a modern technology and marketing bonus worthy of inclusion on family cars. Thus, engineers from Cadillac and Oldsmobile joined Duntov on the fuel-injection program. In the end, Pontiac was the only non-Chevrolet GM division to offer Rochester mechanical fuel injection, available on 447 of its 1957 Bonneville personal luxury models, plus 511 more in 1958 (available on all full-sized models).
140 Although Arkus-Duntov was only 46 years old when he joined the Rochester fuel-injection program in 1955, his prematurely gray hair earned him the nickname “Papa” among his fellow engineers. By then, he had come to terms with his genetic fate. A mere three years earlier, and just days before the 1952 Le Mans race, Arkus-Duntov attempted to force nature’s hand with a hair dye of dubious quality. After turning yellow, much of his hair fell out, which prompted French press agents to nickname him “Le Jeune Blonde,” the young blonde. At the time, he was driving an Allard J2X with a Cadillac powerplant. Arkus-Duntov also drove many European road races for Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and Talbot.
141 The Rochester mechanical-fuel-injection program bore fruit, but Arkus-Duntov’s desire to be in charge of Corvette development didn’t come to fruition until December 1, 1968! That’s when he became Corvette’s first chief engineer, a position he held until 1975. Before his 1968 appointment, the Corvette didn’t have a chief engineer, and Arkus-Duntov’s title was director of high performance, putting him in charge of projects as varied as the SEDCO 1957 Black Widow circle-track cars and police packages powered by the Super Turbo-Thrust 348, Chevy’s first big-block V-8.
142 Speaking of big-block Chevrolet engines, was the W-series 348 or “so-fine” 409 ever considered for the Corvette option sheet? Yes. Only 2-3/4 inches wider and