Chevrolet Performance

’53 CORVETTE: BIRTH OF AN ICON

Chevrolet has been producing Corvettes for more than seven decades, since the ’53 CORVETTE: BIRTH OF AN ICON broke cover at the 1953 GM Motorama.

How do you chronicle a legend? How do you put on paper the story of an automobile that is so much more than the automobile itself? That the Corvette has been, is, and always will be something much more than the sum of its parts cannot be questioned. Perhaps a Campbell-Ewald advertising copywriter summed it up best when he wrote for a 1970 Corvette sales brochure, “When you buy a Corvette, you buy a lot more than a car.”

You buy an image, a car that looks all hood, wheels, and tires. A car that’s eager for the open road. A car with no compromises, like a back seat for the kids. A car that says, “I believe in engines, in gears and fat tires and feel of the road. It all started with the ’53 CORVETTE: BIRTH OF AN ICON.

And you buy a mystique. A Corvette mystique that continues since Corvette Godfather, Zora Arkus-Duntov, first enabled enthusiasts to road race a Corvette with the 1957 Corvette. It was the first to offer optional Rochester Fuel Injection, RPO 684 competition suspension, brakes, and steering, four-speed manual, and Positraction rear axle ratios. But it all started on January 17^th, 1953, when the Concept Corvette was revealed at GM’s Motorama Show at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City. The other historical Corvette date is June 30^th, 1953, when the first of 300 production 1953 Corvettes came down the line in Flint, MI.
Eric J. Savitz, editor-in-chief, GM News, celebrates the ’53 CORVETTE: BIRTH OF AN ICON @ https://news.gm.com/home.detail.html/Pages/topic/us/en/2025/oct/1017-Retro-Rides-1953-Chevrolet-Corvette.html

1967 CHEVY 396/427: BIGGER IS BETTER

Our friends at OVER-DRIVE Magazine have published everything you want to know about 1967 CHEVY 396/427: BIGGER IS BETTER full & mid-size models.

Chevrolet expanded its use of four-barrel big-block engines in 1967, offering 396/325 and 396/385 versions in full-size Biscayne, SS and Impala models and 396/350 and 396/375 engines in Camaros and Chevelles. GM divisions were prohibited from using tri-power induction on passenger car engines, barring the use of 427/400 and 435 horsepower Corvette engines at Chevrolet. In 1968, the 427/425 big-block, right, became available in full-size Chevys. Baldwin-Motion transplanted high-horsepower 427s in 1967 full & midsize models.

The full-size 1967 model was redesigned with enhanced Coke bottle styling that featured front and rear fender bulges, making the car appear larger than the previous year, though it was not. The L72 425-horsepower 427 CID V-8 engine was not available in 1967, with only the 427/385 big-block as the top high-performance option.

The mid-size 1967 Chevelle SS 396 Sport Coupe was the top-of-the-line Chevelle in performance and luxury. When equipped with the 375 horsepower 396 big-block V-8, it could kick ass!

For OVER-DRIVE Magazine Fact Sheets covering 1967 CHEVY 396/427: BIGGER IS BETTER full and mid-size models, please visit https://over-drive-magazine.com/2024/09/20/1967-chevrolet-full-size-cars-fact-sheet/

https://over-drive-magazine.com/2023/10/31/1967-chevrolet-mid-size-cars-fact-sheet/

BOWTIE BILL & HIS V-8 VEGA!

Mike Austin follows up Hemmings Muscle Machines weekly newsletter’s coverage of the late Bill Kolb, Jr’s impressive Ford-centric career. He reminds enthusiasts that he was also involved for a short period of time pushing the Bowtie brand at a Chevrolet dealership – BOWTIE BILL & HIS V-8 VEGA!

A week or so ago we posted a tribute to Bill Kolb, Jr., best known for his history with Ford Motor Company, drag racing Fords, building and marketing specialty vehicles, and as dealer-principal of two Ford dealerships. We would be remiss if we didn’t also recognize the short time he spent at Hory Chevrolet in Larchmont, NY and his specialty vehicle activities which included building and showing an outrageous Vega V-8 station wagon.

Continue reading Bowtie Bill & His V-8 Vega! @ https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2021/12/16/do-you-know-what-happened-to-the-hory-chevrolet-vega-wagon?refer=musweekly&utm_source=musweekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2021-12-16

CHEVY LS: MORE POWER, LESS WEIGHT; EASY TO SWAP!

When GM engineers took the LT-1 to the next stage in 1997 – LS1 – the venerable small-block was lighter, more powerful and showcased in the C-5 Corvette. It signaled the start of a growing portfolio – CHEVY LS: MORE POWER, LESS WEIGHT; EASY TO SWAP! Hemmings’ Daniel Strohl presents a definitive guide to LS-Series V-8s.

Just as the original Ed Cole-design Chevrolet small-block V-8 launched an era of American performance upon its introduction in the mid-Fifties, so did the LS-series third-generation small-block Chevrolet V-8 when it launched a quarter-century ago. And just as the original SBC spawned dozens of variants over its decades-long lifespan, so did the LS – enough to bewilder all but the most dedicated of engine-spotters without a comprehensive reference guide to the engine family’s various displacements, codes, and ratings. So, let’s dive into it.

Gary Savage’s aggressively-styled Datsun 280Z, above & left, is just one of many popular sports and GT cars that can be retro-fitted with an LS series V-8 engine. In this case, it’s a killer LS6. Weight savings was everything to Savage which explains the car’s ultra-lightweight Braille Lithium battery.

Every history of the LS calls it a clean-sheet design – that is, a design that carries nothing over from its predecessor, the Generation II LT-1. Indeed, engineers Tom Stephens and Ed Koerner retained only two parts from the LT-1 when designing the LS series: rod bearings and lifters. It’s a thoroughly modernized SB, with deep side skirts, cross-bolted six-bolt main bearing caps, no provision for a distributor, no coolant passages in the composite intake manifold, cathedral-port heads, and perhaps most important, all-aluminum construction.

The C-6 Corvette ushered in the upgraded, more powerful LS2 in 2005.

Yet, it’s no cutting-edge engine. Even at its introduction, critics derided its overhead-valve design – complete with the single camshaft located in the block, just two valves per cylinder, and pushrods and rocker arms in between – as antiquated. Overhead-camshaft and dual-overhead-camshaft designs had long become the standard for performance engines, after all.

Continue reading CHEVY LS: MORE POWER, LESS WEIGHT; EASY TO SWAP! @ https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2021/01/19/gm-built-a-blue-million-ls-series-v-8s-heres-your-guide-to-keeping-them-all-straight?refer=news&utm_source=edaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2021-06-04