Really Cool History of the C3 Corvette (You've Probably Never Heard!)

the Abomination Corvette is still a wreck but I thought we might be able to take a timeout for what I hope is going to be a really interesting video ever since I bought this car and started working on it I've also been researching C3 Corvettes which by the way is the longest running generation of Corvettes in history from 68 until 82. but along the way I found some really cool stories everything from how the C3 was very nearly Chevrolet's first mid-engine Corvette to how t-tops were actually sort of an accident or a fix and such like that and some really other cool things now some of you Corvette aficionados probably have heard some of these stories but I'm betting most of you haven't heard them all and if you've heard something really cool about C3 vets that I haven't mentioned here please leave me a note in the comments I'd love to be able to read about it anyhow with no further Ado let's get started first up the C3 was very nearly Corvette's first mid-engine car foreign [Music] of performance cars already knows that the current generation Corvette the C8 is the first mid-engine Corvette ever to be produced General Motors made a big deal of that and the C8 definitely is a great car but it was very nearly old news because the C3 came incredibly close to being the first mid-engine Corvette all the way back in 1968. in fact in 1964 while the C2 Corvette Stingray was still going strong plans were in place to make the successor to the C2 Corvette a world-class sports car complete with a mid-engine layout for better weight distribution and handling no less than Zora Arcus duntav commonly known as the father of the Corvette Bill Mitchell who was General Motors vice president of design and fame designer Larry Shinoda are said to have actually come up with concepts for the new Corvette that put the engine behind the driver's seat duntov wanted this next generation of the Corvette to be able to stand Toe to Toe with Ferraris and he saw the improved performance of a mid-engine layout as critical for being able to do that besides weight balance moving the engine to the rear of the car meant the nose could be smaller as well as lower to the ground which would improve the car's overall aerodynamics proof of that is served one and serve two Serve by the way stands for Chevrolet engineering research vehicle now serve one first appeared in 1960 as a mid-engine engine engineering test platform it was an Open Wheel design and looked a lot like a Formula One car from that time the next year the engineering department produced the serve two like the previous iteration the engine was still in the back but this time around the car had a full fiberglass body and all four wheels were spun by the 500 horsepower engine the Surf 2 was used for several years to test different components and Engineering ideas duntov really wanted to take what he learned from the serve 2 and create his dream mid-engine Corvette unfortunately the real world simply got in the way although Chevrolet already had the Corvair which was in production from 1960 until 1969 too many components would have to be designed and engineered from scratch for this new mid-engine Corvette and the cost of development was just too high for the Bean counters the second generation Stingray Corvette was incredibly successful and GM brass didn't see a reason to upset the apple cart in fact GM chairman and CEO Richard gerstenberg is quoted as saying why would we change the Corvette we sell every one we can make still done Tov and Mitchell never really gave up on the idea to show the world what a future mid-engine Corvette would really look like duntime debuted the experimental prototype 880 also known as the Astro 2 concept to the world in 1968. the Astro 2 is an absolutely gorgeous vehicle and looks a lot like a Lamborghini mirror I think it definitely would have set the world on its ear if it had been produced and performed half as well as it looks but unfortunately it was just not to be pretty cool huh Story number two the Mako Shark 2 which was the concept car that the see-through was based upon was so successful it actually delayed production of the C3 by an entire year Corvette history is absolutely littered with incredibly cool concept cars and this story has to do with one of the coolest the Mako Shark was a design study by Larry Shinoda to try and bring Bill Mitchell's design brief for the upcoming C3 Corvette to life so that people could see it in life size Mitchell's design brief for the look he wanted reads like this a narrow slim Center section and Coop body a tapered tail and all of a piece blending of the upper and lower portions of the body through the center avoiding the look of a roof added to a body and prominent Wheels with their protective fenders distinctly separate from the main body yet grafted organically to it and this is what Shinoda came up with incredible huh the Mako Shark 2 obviously looks a lot like the C3 Corvette that's because it was so incredibly popular on the car show circuit the General Motors brass gave the go-ahead to create it as a full production car but it turns out the concept car was maybe a little too difficult to produce as an oem vehicle and also too far ahead of its time for example although the Mako Shark 2 was not a convertible the roof was hinged in the rear so it would open up like a clam shell when you open the door to make it easier to get into and out of the car there was also a squared off steering wheel and a super futuristic interior that did not lend itself well to actual driving also although the body looked incredible it did create some issues first it created aerodynamic lift at speed that made the car feel squirrely and even uncomfortable to drive once you're at highway speeds also those large fender flares and narrow rear window made visibility quite tricky so the aggressive look of the Mako Shark 2 had to be toned down for the production version of the C3 originally the plan was to debut the third generation Corvette as a 1967 model year but difficulties turning the Mako Shark 2 concept into a actual production vehicle were so extensive that the C3 didn't go on sale until the 1968 model year still the resemblance between the final production version and the concept is remarkable but the story doesn't end there as you might expect many people saw that mako shark too and had their heart set on one and a 1968 Corvette as good as it looked just wouldn't do so car customizer Joe Silva created a fiberglass kit to turn a 68 Corvette into a slightly modified mako shark he actually partnered with Joel Rosen of Baldwin motion to handle the Mechanicals on the kit car conversions so it was called the Baldwin mako shark interestingly to avoid copyright issues they changed the spelling of the Mako in mako shark from m-a-k-o to m-a-c-o now I don't know if that would be enough to avoid the copyright lawyers but I guess it had to be rumor has it the Baldwin motion only actually ever produced six of their mako shark versions so if you ever find one in a barn somewhere grab it up quick I hope you're enjoying these I know I did researching them we'll get the number three in just a second but first I wanted to let you know that we've got a new store up at horsepowermonster.com and new shirts to go with it and I'm really loving this one here this is what I think is our best design yet you can get it for yourself I'm trying to keep the prices down it's 24.99 right now trying to make them really affordable for people and all the proceeds go back into helping me get this thing back on the road anyhow if you like it you can find it at horsepowermonster.com or there will be pictures and a link if you're on the YouTube page probably right about there somewhere anyhow Corvette history story number three the government legislates a pig now if you have driven an original equipment late model C3 or know somebody who has they've probably described the experience as driving a pig and they ain't lying it's time for a little honesty here compared to Modern cars even four-door people movers the C3 Corvette is a little bit slow readily and not super comfortable to drive but that reputation has mostly been derived from the later model years of the C3 and if you're looking for someone to blame it ain't all Chevrolet's fault early model years of the C3 Corvette were actually quite potent for example in 1969 you could check the ZL1 option to get yourself a 427 cubic inch big block rated at 430 horsepower Legend has it that the engine was actually underrated from the factory in terms of power and you could squeeze out close to 580 horsepower from that big block if you replace the stock exhaust manifolds with free breathing long tube headers if you are more interested in carving Corners than blasting down the drag strip then between 1970 and 1972 you could order yourself the LT1 small block version to save you a couple hundred pounds on the nose and still made 370 horsepower the LT1 was a high river thanks to a solid lifters but it was also a bit High Strung apparently because Chevrolet would not sell you air conditioning if you chose the LT1 engine option anyhow a Corvette quit with an LT1 was capable of running the quarter mile and 14.4 seconds at 101.7 miles per hour which was the equivalent of a Porsche at the time at about twice the cost but the days of Chevrolet's hypo Motors were numbered and even though the Corvette was America's only sports car at the time it was not exempt from being a victim too increasingly stringent government regulations served to choke off Powers General Motors fought to keep engines in line with the new regulations for example new unleaded fuels didn't have the same high octane rating as the previous leaded Blends so that meant high compression engines were no longer practical and as a result compression went down and so did power on top of that the 70s are when we started requiring systems and cars to reduce pollution that includes catalytic converters smog pumps and other things which also serve to really kill power production over the years manufacturers have figured out ways to build very clean burning engines that still make great power but back then the technology just wasn't there to do both finally and this is more of a paper change than a real loss in power but in 1972 GM started rating their engines according to SAE net horsepower rules rather than the old school SAE gross now what this means is they started testing the engines and giving the flywheel horsepower number with the actual exhaust manifolds that would be used in the car as well as the accessory drives like the water pump power steering pump and so on so in 1971 the 427 cubic inch ZL1 big block was rated at 365 horsepower and in 1972 it was dropped all the way down to 270. some of that is real losses in the form of smog control measures and some of that is also reflected in the change from SAE gross to SAE net even worse if you lived in California and purchased a Corvette in 1975 the only engine available was a small block that had been choked off to a miserable 165 horsepower yeah that's going to be a pig just for comparison's sake the base model 2023 Chevrolet Malibu makes 160 horsepower out of its teeny tiny one and a half liter turbo four-cylinder and the 2023 Corvette starts with 490 horsepower and only goes up from there depending on the model you purchase Boy we have come a long way regardless if you were driving a C3 Corvette from the late 70s or early 80s and muttered the phrase they just don't make them like they used to well that was entirely correct early model c3s definitely performed better than the later ones cool Corvette history part four while we're on the topic of government interference let's talk bumpers the Corvette made a lot of changes during the run of the C3 between 1968 and 1982 but the biggest one in most people's minds is chrome bumper Corvettes versus rubber bumper Corvettes now my 1980 obviously is a rubber bumper vet but there's a big reason why Chevrolet made the switch now most people agree that the best looking versions of the C3 are from 1968 until 1972 when chrome bumpers Adorn both the front and the rear of the car and that's proven True by the fact that sale prices for those models are always higher than later model C3 Corvettes in 1973 Chevrolet switched up the chrome front bumper for a urethane bumper cover but kept the rear bumper and that one was lost in 1974 when it was urethane bumper covers all the way around now this is because U.S government regulations came into effect the set of vehicle had to be outfitted with bumpers that can withstand a five mile an hour impact without damage to the car now those regulations required a much more robust bumper structure than those little chrome bumpers even though they look so great and that's what led to their disappearance you may be on either side of the fence whether you prefer the old school chrome bumpers or the more modern look of the urethane bumper covers but there is a pretty cool story about how Chevrolet Engineers decided to attack the problem that isn't very well known many cars at this time went with heavy steel bumpers they had a sort of shock absorber behind them in order to meet the five mile an hour Collision requirement but Corvette Engineers felt that that would add too much weight way out in front of the front tires and hurt the Corvette's performance too much to be acceptable their solution was to build a lightweight collapsible steel bumper and hide it underneath the urethane bumper cover in a collision up to five miles an hour the urethane cover would pop back out and appear unharmed but the actual steel bumper behind it would be collapsed now technically it would have to be replaced before the car could withstand another low speed impact but that was legal and it saved significant amount of weight by making the inner bumper a sacrificial piece they were able to meet the requirements while also making it a lot lighter than other typical bumpers used at the time the new urethane covers on the 73 Corvette did stick out three inches farther than the chrome bumper previous model but considering the requirements that they had to meet I think the Corvette Engineers did a great job taking lemons and making lemonade for part five we'll continue our story with GM Engineers fighting for every ounce of weight they can cut off the Corvette urethane bumpers weren't the only significant change to the Corvette in 1973. in fact this was a big year for the Corvette although it may not look much different at first the 73 Corvette marked a change from Pure sports car into more of a sports tour that would allow the driver to eat up miles in Comfort while still also providing the ability to carve up the curves on either a Mountain Road or a racetrack on a Saturday now the big changes here aren't readily seen but they do play a role in how well the Corvette felt beginning in 1973 an asphalt-based sound deadener was sprayed on the floor and other interior body panels I don't know how much weight that added but if the word asphalt is in there it could not have been light there were also sound deadening blankets added underneath the hood and behind the dash as well as rubber body mounts previously all the car's body mounts have been solid this all came together to make the car much quieter from the cockpit the results must have been quite evident I found notes in car magazine reviews where the small block with a manual transmission went from 81 decibels at 70 miles an hour to 79 decibels that's the difference between the 72 and 73 models the quietest example which is surprisingly a 454 cubic inch big block with an automatic transmission was all the way down to 77 decibels at 70 miles an hour but all those efforts to cut cabin noise along with the switch to beefier Bumpers as well as guard beams in the doors to protect the passengers in a side impact added a pretty severe penalty and weight to the car to fight this Engineers put the 1973 Corvette on a really strict weight loss program 10 pounds were cut out of the car just by removing the flaps as well as the mechanical linkages that opened just in front of the windshield and hide the windshield wipers this was also the beginning of the C3 Corvette's iconic aluminum wheels made by American Racing Equipment these cut 35 pounds out of total weight by replacing the steel wheels and hubcaps over the years the Corvette slowly continued to gain weight thanks to new government regulations and options and features that Chevrolet added just to make the car more comfortable By 1979 the Corvette was nearly as heavy as some Chevrolet cars that were made out of steel bodies and could carry four people so you just couldn't have that so for the 1980 model Chevrolet Engineers went on a severe weight loss program for the Corvette and managed to cut 238 pounds from the car now they did this in pretty interesting ways for example this is the front bumper that goes underneath the bumper cover for 1980 they changed a lot of the bumper from metal to now it's plastic and foreign fiberglass okay so here's a couple more things they did I never would have thought of first up the windshield and door glass is actually thinner than in previous models so there's that plus the t-tops I had to dig this one back out I haven't had t-tops on in a while just so you can see the fiberglass and these t-tops is actually different than the fiberglass than the rest of the body to help lighten these up which is nice because it's way up high on the car they actually included lightweight glass beads in the material the thinking here is that the glass beads are lighter than the resin that it displaces so we got lighter t-tops of course if you have the glass t-tops that everybody loves I don't guess there's much can be done for those 238 pounds is nothing to sneeze at but unfortunately other issues kept the Corvette from really being able to shine at the time Car and Driver magazine said that somehow even with the reduced weight the car's acceleration and braking test showed no real Improvement we can only imagine how bad the car would have been had the Chevrolet Engineers allowed the Corvette to bulk up even more number six let's stick with the t-tops because when it comes to retro cool I don't think it gets any better than t-tops and they're iconic on the C3 Corvette t-tops showed up in every hard top model from 1968 to 1982 everything that wasn't a convertible but did you know that t-tops weren't part of the original design and it was actually a Band-Aid of sorts to fix another problem when the C3 Corvette debuted in 1968 it became the first production American car to be outfitted with t-tops now T-top since then have become pretty iconic with the C3 but the two-piece removable roof was actually a Band-Aid and not a design feature from the start when the C3 was first designed Engineers wanted to have a fully removable one-piece Target top roof that would sort of follow the Mako Shark 2's liftoff roof design but unfortunately the chassis which was really a holdover from the older C2 Corvettes simply wasn't stiff enough and flexed without the roof in place and even with the roof on it squeaked and rattled so much that the design team decided that it just wasn't acceptable as a fix they came up with a design that placed a steel beam down the center between the windshield frame and the back of the roof and then made two removable roof pieces that connected on either side and Bam hey we have t-tops that Center beam that you're used to seeing isn't just there to give the t-tops a place to mount up it's actually a structural member to help stiffen the chassis because Chevrolet was not able to build a chassis that was sufficiently stiff on its own the C3 Corvette got its iconic t-tops instead of a Targa number seven duntov removed the removable glass one of the cooler features of early C3 Corvettes is the rear glass is actually removable at the time this was a pretty popular feature but that capability was removed with a 73 model why well it turns out that zoroarkis Dunt off himself decided that you didn't need it done top explained that you could pull the t-tops roll both windows down and cruise at 140 miles an hour with no wind buffeting inside the cabin as long as the rear glass was in yes he listed 140 miles an hour as if that's important but if you pull the rear glass the wind buffeting gets annoying even at road legal speeds so don't have decided that the glass didn't need to be removable after all and that really cool feature was simply deleted still that reference to a cabin air quality at 140 miles an hour as if people rode around in Corvettes at that speed all the time is a pretty awesome Flex if you ask me cool Corvette history number eight gill slits or Fender vents depending on what you want to call them they're probably more iconic than t-tops on the C3 Corvette that's because throughout the production run no model appeared without some version here they changed over the years but they were a whole lot more than a styling choice the fender Vents and the C3 changed looks over the years but they were always there and they were always functional that's because those events weren't just helpful they were actually quite critical the C3 Corvette had a low slung hood and Coke bottle shape that wrapped the fiberglass in the front of the car really tight around the engine plus the grill openings were also pretty minimal which limited how much cool air could get to the radiator so c3s have a habit of running hot on really hot days in later models the bumper cover was redesigned to help move more air through the Grille into the radiator and there were even efforts to Route fresh cool air to the engine but the most important thing was how well those Fender vents allowed hot air to get out of the engine compartment and away from the engine so it would not be heat soaked these days many modern cars are decorated with all kinds of slits and Vents and ports and stuff like that and you have to look twice to see if they're actually functional or just decorative but in the case of the C3 those gill slits behind the front wheels don't just look fantastic they actually serve a really useful purpose hey thanks for watching I hope you enjoyed this little tour through C3 history thanks again for watching the horsepower monster and we'll see you again for more great engine builds and updates on the Abomination Corvette foreign [Music]

Channel: The Horsepower Monster

Views: 82,408

Keywords: C3 Corvette, C3 history, C3 facts, Corvette history, Corvette trivia, Zora Arkus Dontov, chevrolet history, corvette

Id: hYkMpjt6WNk

Length: 25min 37sec (1537 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 22 2023