September 2005 Early History While the Style of a Car May Be Just As Important Lackluster
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The Corvetter Corvette Club OF Texas Volume 57 Issue 9 - September 2005 Early History While the style of a car may be just as important lackluster. Compared to the Ford Thunderbird with its to some as to how well the car runs, automobile 312 in³ (5.1 L) V8 and British and Italian sports cars manufacturers did not begin to pay attention to car of the day, the Corvette was underpowered, required designs until the 1920s. It was not until 1927, when a great deal of effort as well as clear roadway to General Motors hired designer Harley Earl, that bring to a stop, and even lacked a “proper” manual automotive styling and design became important to transmission. Up until that time, the Chevrolet division American automobile manufacturers. What Henry Ford was GM’s entry-level marque, known for excellent but did for automobile manufacturing principles, Harley Earl no-nonsense cars. Nowhere was that more evident did for car design. Most of GM’s fl amboyant “dream car” than in the Corvette. A Paxton supercharger became designs of the 1950s are directly attributable to Earl, available in 1954 as a dealer-installed option, greatly leading one journalist to comment that the designs were improving the Corvette’s straight-line performance, but “the American psyche made visible.” Harley Earl loved sales continued to decline. sports cars, and GIs returning after serving overseas World War II were bringing home MGs, Jaguars, Alfa 1957 Chevrolet Romeos and the like. Earl convinced GM that they Corvette roadster. Fuel- injected models were needed to build a two-seat sports car. The result was identifi ed by badging on the 1953 Corvette, unveiled to the public at that year’s the side scalloping in the Motorama car show. The original Corvette emblem front fenders incorporated an American fl ag into the design; this was later dropped, since associating the fl ag with a product GM was seriously was frowned upon. considering shelving the project, leaving the Corvette to be little more than a footnote in automotive history, Taking its name and would have done so if not for two important events. from the corvette, a The fi rst was the introduction of Chevrolet’s fi rst-ever small, maneuverable V8 engine in 1955, and the second was the infl uence fi ghting frigate, the of a Soviet emigre in GM’s engineering department, fi rst Corvettes were Zora Arkus-Duntov. Arkus-Duntov simply took a 283 virtually hand built in³ (4.6 L) version of the new engine and backed it in Flint, Michigan in with a four-speed manual Chevrolet’s Customer transmission. That Delivery Center. modifi cation, probably the Our Friendly Rep! single most important in The outer body Friendly Chevrolet’s was made out of a the car’s history, helped revolutionary new turn the Corvette from a representative to the Corvette composite material 1954 Chevrolet Corvette roadster. 1953 and two-seat curiosity into a Club of Texas is Gary 1955 models are similar called fi berglass, genuine sports car and Kubiak. When you need to offering the strength of steel without the weight. Thunderbird competitor. It replace your Corvette with a Underneath that radical new body were standard also earned Arkus-Duntov new C6 be sure and give Gary the rather inaccurate Chevrolet components, including the “Blue Flame” inline a call at 214-920-1950. six-cylinder engine, two-speed Powerglide automatic nickname “Father of the transmission, and drum brakes from Chevrolet’s regular Corvette”. Also don’t forget to contact car line. Though the engine’s output was increased http://en.wikipedia.org/ Gary when you are upgrading somewhat, thanks to a triple-carburetor intake exclusive wiki/Chevrolet_Corvette the family car for a new one! to the Corvette, performance of the car was decidedly In addition to his regular work schedule, Gary is always at the Corvette Club of Texas dealership during our monthly PO Box 36022 - Dallas TX, 75235-1002 Friday night membership www.corvettecluboftexas.org meeting. Also, you can e- emailmail Gary Gary at: at: intdir@ intdir@ Sponsored by Friendly Chevrolet 2754 N. Stemmons Fry - Dallas TX, 75207 friendlychevy.com The Corvetter September 2005 From the Editor Meeting Well, here is newsletter number two! I warned you there would be changes. I think Information I now have the format almost the way I want it, so things should settle down... The Corvette Club of main reason for the changes is I reset everything in the newest page setter on the Texas (CCT) Monthly block: “InDesign CS2” from Adobe . This is by far the most complex, yet easy-to- Membership Meeting use document creator I have ever used (and I have used a LOT of different ones Held every third Friday of since the early ‘70s). It replaces, and is much better than, Adobe PageMaker. It the month, at 7:30 p.m. at makes Microsoft Publisher (in which I set the August issue) look like a kid’s toy! It Friendly Chevrolet, 2754 is pricey, but, if you do a lot of design work, it is worth a look. One BIG change is it North Stemmons Freeway, allows direct PDF input so we have our pretty colored fl yers back! Dallas. All members, visitors and Corvette owners are There was a big debate on my last newsletter about how much an editor should Welcome. be allowed to change submitted copy. My philosophy on that is I will change as little as possible to allow the submission to fi t the space and match the “style” of Following each CCT monthly the newsletter. Therefore I will almost always reset the text in a new typeface and membership meeting, a weight. When necessary I will correct any spelling and/or grammar errors and/or CCT after club social event clumsy wording. I will always add headers and, if I can, picture captions if none are is hosted by a CCT Member, supplied. I may delete superfl uous lines and white space if I need to fi t a specifi c starting at approximately space, but I will NEVER delete or change the wording of an article in any way 8:30 p.m. that changes the meaning of the article or the intent of the original author. If the meaning of your article depends on special spacing or formatting effects, let me know in advance, or submit it in PDF format which I will insert without change. Corvette Club of Texas Monthly Board Meeting Now that all your eyes have glazed over from all the technical talk, let’s get back to Held on the Monday before CCT stuff. Coming up in October is the Roundup autocross, our biggest event and the third Friday of the month only fund raiser of the year. If you would like to help out, give Paul Wolter a shout at 7:30 p.m. at Friendly and volunteer! See the fl yers and articles elsewhere in this issue for information. Chevrolet. All members are Joe Wagner invited to attend. 2005 OFFICERS, BOARD AND STAFF President Mitch Factor 817-329-0693 [email protected] The Corvetter Vice President Carol Factor 817-329-0693 [email protected] Volume 57 Issue 9 Treasurer Mel Roggenbuck 817-571-0284 [email protected] The Corvetter, the offi cial Secretary Jeanette Bradley 214-348-0775 [email protected] newsletter of the Corvette Club NCCC Governor Joann Powdrill 972-625-6479 joannp@fl ash.net of Texas (CCT), is published monthly by The Corvette Club of Texas P.O. Box 36022, Dallas, BOARD MEMBERS Texas 75235-1022 for the Russell Brundrett TBA NA [email protected] exclusive use of its members and invited guests. Initial Paul Wolter Term ends 12-2005 817-478-6096 [email protected] distribution is done electronically Phillip Schilt Term ends 06-2006 972-359-0864 [email protected] by e-mail. A small number of paper copies are delivered via Bob Mischel Term ends 01-2007 972-596-2984 [email protected] First Class mail or by hand when Ken Bradley Term ends 03-2007 214-348-0775 [email protected] necessary. The newsletter is also available on the CCT web site: www.corvettecluboftexas.org STAFF CHAIRPERSONS Subscriptions to The Corvetter Activities TBD are free to CCT members. Charities Coordinator Mary Wolter 817-478-6096 [email protected] © 2005 Corvette Club of Texas. All rights reserved. Reprints of Club Merchandise Mary Wolter 817-478-6096 [email protected] original material are available Membership Mary Wolter 817-478-6096 [email protected] on a per article basis only with written permission of a CCT Property Mary Wolter 817-478-6096 [email protected] offi cer, the author or the Editor. Previously copyrighted material if Historian Ken Bradley 214-348-0775 [email protected] any retains the original author’s Newsletter Joe Wagner 817-282-1355 [email protected] copyright. Photographer James & Joann Powdrill 972-625-6479 [email protected] Please send all submissions via e-mail to the editor at joe@y2k7. Raffl e Jackie Arbogast 972-727-6875 [email protected] com. All submissions become intellectual property of The Webmaster Philip Schilt 972-359-0864 [email protected] Corvetter. NCM Ambassador James Powdrill 972-625-6479 [email protected] 2 The Corvetter September 2005 President’s Prerogative September, 2005 Well, it is the “DOG days of summer” in Texas. As this look which refl ects his prior newsletter expertise and season comes to an end, it’s nice to look back and see experience. Please send all material for Joe to place in that we as a club have had some really great events.