The C3 Corvette Stingray

For me, it has always been about the C3 Corvette Stingray. Ever since I was pubeless and had this remote controlled rally 'Cougar' Corvette that had its body smashed against every pot in the house, I had always wanted to be in one. Not because I wanted to crash into a pot (but smoking one? well that's another story), but beacuse of its muscular lines and the ferocity of its 350cui V8 heart. The itch has always been there, and it was about time I did myself justice by scratching it.

The Corvette Stingray was born in 1963 as the C2 through the talents of the legendary Ed Cole, Zora Arkus-Duntov and Bill Mitchell. It was hailed as “America’s only true sports car” and had been lauded as among the finest performance machines in the world. In 1968, the 3rd generation Corvette was born. The Stingray underwent a change in engineering and shape (stylized by Larry Shinoda) which resembled a “mako-shark”, and marked the beginning of the C3 marque and of Corvette’s legacy of muscle till today. The mako-shark Stingray continued production up to 1977, and production of the Corvette continued in this basic style until the production of the C4 post 1982.

Today the Corvette continues to be one of the world’s best sports cars having taken the class of honours many times in the annual 24-hour classic endurance Le Mans events. Le Mans is the Holy Grail of sports car racing and there is nothing like it in the world next to Formula 1. Every year there are more than 2,000 journalists covering the event, nearly 300,000 spectators at the track, and millions watching the worldwide television coverage. Four times in the last five years, Corvettes have finished first and second in the GT1 class beating the likes of other sporting marques in the GT1 class such as Aston Martin, Porsche, Ferrari, Panoz, Roush, and Saleen to name a few.

Aesthetics? Muscle? Heritage?

All of the above.