What in the World? Corvettes

1. What in the World?Corvettes By Ayden Miller For PACE with Mrs. McCarthy January 2012

2. FACT #1 First Generation Solid Axel • 1953- 1962 • The total number of Solid Axle Corvettes produced was 69,015. •   The original front emblem and horn button on the "Autorama" show circuit Corvette featured crossed American and checkered flags. It was later discovered that using an American flag on a product trade mark was against the law and the emblem was changed shortly before the New York Motorama. •    On Tuesday, June 30, 1953 Corvette #1 Serial Number E53F001001 rolled of the assembly line, and Corvette production began. •    Want the rarest Corvette? In 1953 the first two Corvettes, VIN Numbers 1 and 2 were said to have been destroyed, but no records prove that fact and there are no witnesses to the destruction. Who knows? They still might be out there somewhere. •    The first Corvettes were literally "rolled" off the assembly line. The early production line was not prepared for grounding to a fiberglass body and thusly the first cars would not start.

3. FACT#2 Second Generation String Ray • 1963-1967 • The total number of Sting Ray Corvettes produced was 117,964. •    Luxury amenities such as power steering, air conditioning, and leather seats were first available in the 1963 Corvette. •    The earliest serial number air conditioned Sting Ray has a production build date in October, about 6 months before the rest of the A/C cars. It seems the owner was a GM executive who had the car returned to Chevrolet for refitting with A/C. •    The 1963 roof panel molds were built using wrong dimensions, such that all roof panels were too small. This left a gap seen in the door pillar above the door latch in all but a few cars. The ones where it is not found were cosmetically covered up with body filler.

4. FACT #3 Third Generation Mako Shark • 1968-1982 • The total number of Mako Shark Corvettes produced was 542,735. •  For 1968, a factory installed anti-theft alarm system was available as an option, but less than 400 cars were so equipped. •    Pontiac almost beat Chevrolet to the Coke bottle design body, with their 1965 Banshee, a two seater convertible sports car that would have been hefty competition for the Corvette. GM stopped it, and then Pontiac president John DeLorean later became president of Chevrolet. •    T-top does not refer to the shape of the roof, but rather it is short for Targa Top. The original design was a pure Targa but body flex demanded the center bar, discovered late in the design. •    Due to policy changes at Chevrolet, Corvette was treated like all other car lines for the first time, and quality dropped drastically. With bad publicity in most magazines, policy was re-thought and Chevrolet quickly restored independence and higher quality to Corvette production within a few months.

5. FACT #4 Fourth Generation – New Generation • 1983-1996  • The total number of New Generation Corvettes produced was 360,180. • While never offered to the public, a total of 43 - 1983 model Corvettes were built. There were so many quality problems with them it was decided to halt production until they could be corrected. By the time the problems were corrected, it was so late into the model year that the car was brought out as a 1984 model and was run for a year and a half. The only verifiable 1983 Corvette still known to exist is on display in the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. •    The 1984 Corvette had the steepest windshield rake angle of any previous American production automobile at 64 degrees. •    A single transverse plastic front and rear spring first made it's appearance on the 1984 Corvette. •    The L98 engine made its debut in 1985 offering a horsepower increase from 205 to 230 plus a gain in fuel economy due in part to new Bosch fuel injection with tuned runners. •    With the CB craze dwindling, the last year a CB radio was offered as a Corvette option was 1985. Only 16 Corvettes were so equipped.

6. FACT #5 Fifth Generation – World Class • 1997-2004 • The total number of World Class Corvettes produced was 238,715. •    The 1997 Corvette features several first-time high tech innovations, such as black lights for the instrument panel and a "plastic" (composite) intake manifold. •    The first 200 production C5 Corvettes were painted red, not the traditional white color for the first production run. •    The 1997 Corvette is the first one designed from the ground up as a Corvette, with very little borrowing of parts from other cars. One of the few "Off the Shelf" parts are the exterior door handles which are the same ones used on the Oldsmobile Aurora. •    The first use of a transaxle in a production Corvette occurred in the '97. However, the first plans for one were in the Q-Corvette in 1958, planned for the 1960 model. Transaxles showed up in Corvette prototypes in the mid '60s in running models. •    The first 4 speed in a Corvette was built by Borg Warner in 1957. The first transaxle in a production Corvette was also built by Borg Warner, forty years later in 1997. Both were introduced late in the model year.

7. FACT #6 Sixth Generation – Refined Performance • 2005 – The Present • The number of Refined Performance Corvettes produced so far was 176,414. •   2005 marks the introduction of the sixth generation Corvette... the C6. •    A major styling change for the C6 Corvette is non-pop up headlights... not seen on a Corvette since 1962. •    The base engine for the 2005 Corvette was the 400 HP LS2, only 5 HP less than the LS6 engine of the previous year's high performance Z06 model. •    2005 was the first year for keyless access and start. •    The Convertible model was a late introduction in 2005 with no Z06 available this year. •    2006 saw the re-introduction of high performance Z06 model, weighing only 3132 pounds with a 427 cubic inch dry sump engine producing 505 HP.

9. Math Problem #1- Easy • Based on the graph on the previous slide, how many total years have Corvette’s been in production?

10. Math Problem #2- Challenging • Using the average years of production for the 1st through 5th generations of Corvettes, how many years will the 6th generation be in production?

11. Math Problem #3- Super Hard • Over the life of corvette production, what is the average number of cars produced each year.

12. ANSWERS • Answer to Math Problem #1: Corvettes have been in production for 59 years. • Answer to Math Problem #2: The average would be exactly 9.4 years. • Answer to Math Problem #3: The average would be 25,508.864.

13. Thank you for watching my Power Point on the Production of CORVETTES!