Features Corvette hot rods - picture thread

A non-envelope body, mainly American-made car modified by an individual to increase performance and unique appearance. The individual person might use the services of small shops and aftermarket products. Envelope body cars might be "hot rodded", but they are not hot rods.

 

You will get an abundance of arguments with your definition. That is your take on what is more of an abstract term than some may want to admit.

When the Packard engineers modified a Twin Six p***enger car in 1915 in their experimental department with pop up pistons and "improved" camshaft, taller gearing, wire wheels and fabricated boat tail body to help test their new 12 cylinder engine (Twin Six) on the road and test tracks (their own and Sheepshead Bay) I consider that a Hot rod. The engineers took turns driving it and drove it on the street as well. It is one of many "hot rods" IMO. You are en***led to your opinion of course but I do not believe it is easy to define the term to an exact definition to the exclusion of other's valued opinions. Just my two cents.

 

Not worth the effort Jim!

 

You guys are right; "hot rod" is a difficult term go nail down. But a car built as a prototype for a manufacturer, even by an individual, cannot be a true hot rod. Engineers have advanced knowledge of Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, computer programming, metallurgy and production techniques far beyond the average person. How much of the population understand Fluid Dynamics or Partial Differential Equations the way an engineer must? How can something created by one or more of these people be grouped with lone guy building a Deuce in his garage?

 

Critical M***, I understand your concept, but to me it's much bigger. No matter who builds it it's all about at***ude. There are many production cars that are fast and unique but are not hotrods. But change the at***ude by adding lightening holes, raising or lower the height, engine to weight ratio, many other things and to me it screams hotrod. Not sure I would call a 427 Cobra a hotrod but talk about a Cobra coupe and yea, that's a hotrod. Guess I can't really explain it too well. And I do NOT mean this as an argument, just a discussion.

 

Cobras were more of a hot rod than the Grand Sport. Carrol Shelby was a racing driver and self promoter. Race driver Ken Miles and Pete Brock were "engineers" trained by the school of hard knocks. I don't think any of the creation team had a college degree. The cars were created to race and beat Ferraris and the Grand Sports (which they did) - the street cars were just to pay the bills. The cars were modified 1953 AC Aces with the Bristol straight six removed, a small block Ford installed, and the bodywork modified to increase cooling. An engine swap into a 10 year old car is more of a hot rodding at***ude than a bunch of college grads designing an all-new car with a specially-cast all aluminum engine and putting on the body of their latest product in order to make for better marketing iden***y.

 

Pardon me for over simplifying things. Damn dumb of me to short shrift Chevrolet engineers and Belgian born Zora Arkus Duntov.

 

Great Lakes Dragaway, Union Grove, Wi. 1993. Excuse the bad pics, I've got a lousy scanner.

 

BAD ***!

 

What a great looking launch! Wheelie bars dug in, side pipes parallel to the tarmac. Perfect!

 

Here’s A Familiar Scene From An Upsetting 1956 Season That Saw The Corvette, Prepared By Petersen Publishing Company Staffers Racer Brown And Bob D’Olivo, Dominate West Coast Compe***ion. Dr. **** Thompson Drove This Car And Its Sister Ship To The First National Series Championship For A Corvette.

This car started life after Duntov had an east coast car and wanted another on the west coast these HOT ROD staff stepped up and Duntov had a new Corvette shipped to them but only a week before the racing began so it was a mad scramble to get it ready.





West Coast Headquarters For Chevrolet Engineering’s 1956 Road Racing Effort Was Bob And Ruth D’Olivo’s Two Car Garage In North Hollywood. D’Olivo’s Little Sister Used His Camera To Shoot The Venetian Red Beauty On The Very Day It Was Delivered, Exactly As Pictured. Officially A Privateer Entry, The Corvette Was Licensed, Insured, Registered (to Someone Named **** Jess, A GM Employee In Distant Oakland, California), And Street Legal.





With No L.A. Area Road Course Available For Testing Modifications, The HRM Staffers Took To The Street, Taking Turns Behind The Wheel. D’Olivo’s Personal Test Track Was A San Fernando Valley Quarry’s Perimeter Road. “The Gate Was Always Open For Trucks, But There Was Nobody Around Evenings Or Weekends,” D’Olivo’explains. “It Had Three Right Angle Turns. One Was A Real Nice Curve.”






Conservatively Rated At 240 Hp, Corvette’s New Eight Barrel V8 Option Brought Carter Carbs, A Cast Aluminum Intake, And A Dual Point Distributor For Just $172.20 Beyond The Base, 210hp V8. Additionally Available From Chevy Dealers Was A “high Lift” Duntov Cam And Kit That Upped Output To Approximately 270 Ponies—at A Steep Price ($188.30) Evidently Designed To Discourage All But Serious Enthusiasts. He is pointing at a simple sleeve installed to make the quads open all at the same time not progressive.



Production Cl*** Rules Strictly Limited Modifications To Tuning And Basic Blueprinting. “We Had Full Access To Chevrolet Engineering,” Says D’Olivo, “and Racer Spent Lots Of Time On The Phone With Those Guys.”




**** Thompson, Aka “The Flying Dentist,” Drove This Car In SCCA’s Western Region And A Detroit Based Sister Ship, Maintained By Factory Engineers Back East. His Ac***ulated Points Earned The 1956 C Production Championship, A First For Any Corvette. A Midseason Rules Change Allowed The Tiny Windscreen, Which Chevrolet Supplied. Also Shown Is HRM Technical Editor Racer Brown. Of The Three Championship Winning Teammates, Only Bob D’Olivo Survives.




Following Their Production Cl*** Race, HOT ROD’s Hot Rodders Were Known To Reappear In The Main Event, Challenging State Of The Art European Exoticars. “America’s Sports Car” Is Surrounded By A Trio Of Mercedes Benz Gull Wing Coupes. Having Tested One At Motor Trend, D’Olivo Described The 300 SL As “practically A Race Car, Right Off The Showroom Floor.”


For 1956, Corvette Introduced Roll Up Windows, An Adjustable P***enger Seat, Transistorized Radio, Removable Hardtop, And Optional Seatbelts (installed By Dealers From A Kit). These Racing Lap Belts Were No. 106’s Only Interior Modification Until Midseason, When SCCA Allowed A Superlight, Factory Issued Windscreen. The Only Manual ****** Offered Was Still The Standard Three Speed With Non Synchronized Low.

 

Simply cannot agree with your reasoning here. These men and women had to have knowledge and automotive interests prior to joining the big three and even the aerospace industry. Perhaps they were further trained by corporations but that does not take away from their initial interest. There have been many do***ented cases of those folks who you call the "lone" guy working in his/her garage who did not have the opportunity to have a mechanical degree. And yet they contributed incredible things to the world as well as the world of hot rodding.

Seem to me that you are unfairly diminishing the efforts of many because of who employed them. For example were the Ramchargers hot rodders? By your definition the answer is no.

 

Tomato, tomato!

Pat

 

Although I do not want to delve too deeply into the whole hot rod definition I get the feeling that you may not be as appreciative of Corvettes as many of the usual participants of the thread may be. Arguing such matters is useless and counterproductive. Some people like certain makes some don’t. The term hot rod has been used and misused so many millions of times (literally) that the definition has become so clouded that I would not want to be given the task of giving Merriam Webster the “real” definition. I am not sure I could ever call a car built on an ***embly line a hot rod anymore than I could agree with John Force calling his funny car a hot rod. I also would not agree that putting a Navarro head on a flat head in a 32 makes it a hot rod. Is a crate motor 350/350 combination in a 32 a hot rod? Some will say yes and others will argue otherwise. The words hot rod have almost become a term of art that is almost impossible to define in one sentence to the exclusion of all others. The engine should be modified from stock to have more serious acceleration but it could go on and on with qualifiers and superlatives. It may be easier to argue religion.

As to the whole Cobra-Corvette debate I appreciate both. I own a collector Ford as well as collector Vettes. The Cobra was a great concept and if it had not soundly beat the Corvette with a 1000lb advantage then it Shelby should have been ashamed. I was always a fan of Shelby and told him so when I met him at an auto show gala. We were all dressed up at this black tie event and he was standing all alone so my wife went up to him and started talking and they were laughing together like they knew each other for years-it served as a great ice breaker for me to go up and talk to him as well. Great guy on so many fronts. I have never been a pom pom waving road race Vette nut although I do appreciate the effort. Back in the 80s, after I sold my house I saw one of the Grand Sports for sale in Hemmings. It was owned by Richard Buxbaum. I called him and asked what he wanted for it. He would not say although he told me he would entertain offers north of $100,000. I was trying to save my pennies for a move to Southern Cal so I had to use some common sense. I had $65,000 (some was profit from my house burning a hole in my pocket) but could not come up with the balance (pretty stupid in retrospect). I regrettably p***ed as that very car has sold well into the millions in recent times. My p***ion for Corvettes though is in their drag racing form where they did pretty well. I am though aware of the Grand Sport history to an extent.

The whole saga of Chevrolet during the era of the Grand Sport is a pitiful chapter in their history with the penny pinching fool, GM Chairman Frederic Donner (a**** other equally foolish idiots) who made sure that GM was the only one of the big 3 to ignore performance in deference to granny sedans. Accountants were more important than engineers-an unmitigated disaster for the performance era of GM. Don’t get me started on that whole deal. It is true that the Grand Sports never really set the world on fire but then again the only venue where one could claim that they were in even close to the trim as built by GM (admittedly Me*** prepped-N***au TT – early 1963 and the N***au trophy late summer 1963). They did not win but as I seem to remember the results were somewhat favorable as they finished ahead of the Cobras for the most part. Cobras admittedly humbled the Corvettes overall as they should have but the Grand Sports were more in line with the true bones of the Cobra and they were not humbled by any means. Were either hot rods? Who cares they were cool race cars. Guys on this thread for the most part like modified Vettes-overall we don’t give a damn about hair-splitting as much as we like a concept.

 

GREAT HISTORY

 

Firstly, I'm sorry if I offended anyone, but I was just stating my opinion. I love cars of all types and was bringing up Fords to be a Devil's Advocate. My dad was a big Ford guy, so I guess I have a bit of prejudice, too...

I just don't think that a car built by one of the world's largest manufacturers should be grouped with cars modified by a person or small group of people. I don't care if it is a factory dream car, Grand Sport, or Ford GT. Chevrolet stopped GS production with only 5 produced. Zora and the boys wanted to homologate it for the FIA world championship, which required a larger run- that's why Ferrari built so many 250 GTOs. The GS cars had frames, front suspensions, engine blocks and differential housings that were not available to anyone outside of Chevrolet Engineering. If you read the book Grand Sport (I have) you will learn that the bodies were specially molded to a thinner specification in order to reduce weight.

Does a run of 25 or so Chevrolet Engineering cars deserve to be considered the same as a guy buying a used Corvette and modifying it with his buddies? Can he and his pals produce 24 additional identical cars within a year? One is "hot rodding" and the other is limited production.

Isn't a big part of "hot rodding" the modification of a production car - not the manufacturing of it?

 

How about this thread getting back to corvette hot rods?

 

Thank you Dreamweaver and Moriarity.

 

Not to continue the train wreck but can you imagine what these cars would have looked like if the "suits" at GM ran the skunkworks instead of the hotrodders within!