Chevrolet Corvette News

The 42-year-old painter modified his convertible to look like a 1963 Grand Sport, of which there are only five models in existence each worth about $5 million. Barber added an extra wow factor when he spraypainted its original red body to silver to replicate the car used in Fast & Furious 5. "If I take the car into the city I usually get about 20 to 30 people taking photos," he said. "Everyone just goes wow, what is that? It's the only car I know of that looks like this in Australia." The Northbridge resident says he takes his car for a spin most weekends except when it's raining as the convertible does not have a roof. It also doesn't lock properly so he can't stray too far away. But this doesn't bother Barber who said the car was made in a time when looks mattered. "I think this is the sexiest car you can get, it's the only car made from fibreglass so this gives it a better shape. Nowadays they make cars so people don't get hurt, but in the good old days they just made them look sexy." The Corvette was shipped over from America and Barber won't say how much he paid for it. But he said the cars are worth up to $20,000 in the US and can fetch up to $200,000 in Australia. Because it is more than 20 years old Barber did not have to change it to right-hand drive so the steering is on the left. The similarity of the body of the 1966 model to the 1963 Grand Sport meant Barber could cut the windscreens down, put in a roll cage and change the lights to make it look like its million dollar counterpart. He said he painted it silver because movies such as Fast & Furious increase people's recognition of cars. He recently got F&F5 number plates. "A lot of time movies make cars, such as in The Dukes of Hazzard," he said. But it's mostly guys that are attracted to the car, not girls, he said. VITAL STATISTICS Model: 1966 Chevrolet Corvette convertible modified to look like a 1963 Corvette Grand Sport. Engine: 383 V8 Speed: More than 500 horsepower and can go from 0 to 100km in 5 seconds.

It went on to win at the 24 hours of Daytona, 12 hours of Sebring, and 24 hours of Le Mans.

Ford and Holden battle for first place in the top ten classic cars

STEVEN Richards has signed to race the V8 Supercar endurance races with former full-time employer, Ford Performance Racing. The two-time Bathurst winner will partner Mark Winterbottom while long-time enduro racer Luke Youlden will drive with Will Davison in the other FPR car. Winterbottom and Richards have driven together before with Bathurst and Sandown 500 victories.AFTER 15 years as a full-time V8 Supercar driver, Steven Richards will follow his father, Jim, into racing Porsches.  He will compete in a full season of the Porsche Carrera Cup in a 911 GT3 Cup. His first race will be at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix from March 24-27. "Our aim for this year is to win the championship. It won't be easy. It's a competitive field," he says.SPANIARD Carlos Checa became the first rider to score a world Superbike clean sweep at Phillip Island since 2008 when he won both 22-lap races at the weekend. The Ducati rider was followed by world champion Max Biaggi of Italy on his Aprilia in both races. Briton Leon Haslam (BMW) and MotoGP convert Marco Melandri (Yamaha) claimed the final spots on the two podiums. The last rider to win both races at a Phillip Island WSBK round was Australia's Troy Bayliss. It is now the longest period since a local rider won at the island. Australians Troy Corser (BMW), Josh Waters (Suzuki), Mark Aitchison (Kawasaki) and wildcard entry Bryan Staring of Perth (Kawasaki) finished well down the order. Round two of the championship will be held at Donington from March 25-27, where Australian Chris Vermeulen is expected to compete after sitting out round one to allow his injured left knee more time to recover.NEWCASTLE'S Broc Parkes was pipped by 0.009 seconds for victory in the 21-lap World Supersports race at the weekend, but it was still his best result at Phillip Island. The Kawasaki rider was beaten by Yamaha's Luca Scassa, with Briton Sam Lowes (Honda) and Spaniard David Salom (Kawasaki) also involved in the drag to the finish line. It was Scassa's first World Supersport victory.BMW rider Glenn Allerton dominated the two Australian Superbike races at Phillip Island at the weekend. In the first race he gambled with slicks on a damp circuit to win by more than 20 seconds. He also won the second race on a dry circuit by a comfortable margin. Allerton is 13 points ahead of Suzuki rider Troy Herfoss who is only one point ahead of Arpilia rider Ben Atard. The championship continues this weekend at Symmons Plains in Tasmania.THE Formula 3 Australian Drivers Championship will support two V8 Supercar rounds this year at Winton, Victoria, in May and Darwin in November. Organisers are also negotiating for a seventh round to be added to its 2011 calendar and have announced a "budget" race entry fee of $1600 per car, per round.FORD stalwart Dick Johnson will drive a GM product in his fourth Targa Tasmania. The five-time Australian Touring Car Champion and V8 Supercars Hall of Fame member will drive a V8-powered 2009 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 in the the 20th anniversary of the Targa in April.  The only Ford link for Johnson is that the car is owned by Yellow Cab owner Neill Ford, one of Dick Johnson Racing's sponsors.CHAD Reed has clung to third in the American and World Supercross after a dramatic clash with rival James Stewart in Atlanta at the weekend. The Australian led for 16 of the 20 laps, but collided with Stewart to finish third for the main event and hold on to third in the standings behind Americans Ryan Villopoto and Ryan Dungey. The next event is at Daytona this weekend. (March 5) ITEM DEFENDING kart champions Matthew Wall, Cian Fothergill and Pierce Lehane dominated their categories at round one of the CIK Stars of Karting Series in Ipswich at the weekend. Round two of the national series will be held in Adelaide on April 2-3.MARCOS Ambrose has jumped 10 places in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings with a 16th at Phoenix at the weekend following a 17-car pile-up in the opening-round Daytona 500 the previous week. At one stage he was running second until a race caution put him a lap down. "I know I've got great stuff and I know I can really do well," the Ford driver said after the race. The race was won by Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet), while second-placed Kyle Bushc (Toyota) leads the standings. The next round is this weekend in Las Vegas.LUKE Ellery leaves for Florida next Saturday (March 12) to race in the first round of the F2000 series at Sebring March 17-18 and Petersburg on March 26-27. The 21-year-old Victorian will then fly home and return to the US for the third round in Indianapolis in May. The IndyCar hopeful is a former national kart champion and three-time state Formula Ford champion. He will drive a Van Dieman for JDC Motorsports in the US series.

But the Ford race legend will be in a GM product - a 2008 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 which means it comes complete with seven-litre V8 engine.My plan is to exercise caution," says Johnson, now aged 65.His Dick Johnson Racing outfit, having taken James Courtney to be reigning V8 Supercar Champion, has its two Jim Beam Falcons in the hands of Steve Johnson and rookie James Moffat, to hit the track at the Clipsal 500 Adelaide three weeks from now after which he prepares for Targa Tasmania, April 5-10.Johnson will drive the Corvette coupe at the invitation of its owner Neill Ford who is a long-time Targa competitor and whose business Yellow Cab is a DJR sponsor in V8s.Three-time winner of the Bathurst touring car race and twice Sandown 500 winner, Johnson will be having his fourth drive in Targa Tasmania, which uses public roads closed to normal traffic over long competitive stages twisting through hills."It's a great event to participate in," Johnson said.  "I drove a Maserati Marchetta which was an open-top car  I have never been so cold and wet in my entire life. This time, thankfully, I've got a roof."Asked if he would be doing any pre-event testing to get familiar with the powerhouse Corvette, typically jocular Johnson said "It depends how far it is from aif parc ferme aifto the start line."Fellow touring car champion (with four titles) Jim Richards, a former race circuit rival of Johnson, has become the king of Targa Tasmania with a string of victories in Porsche cars.

However, be prepared to dig deep for the privilege of owning the Porsche-killing American supercar.  The ZR1 will cost around $300,000, more than double its North American price.Peter Whiston, who owns the Bundoora-based conversion company Corvette Clinic, plans to use the sleek American musclecar as his own personal transport but if anyone wants one he is prepared to do more. Whiston's company has 30-years experience converting the sportscars. It has a solid business with the C6 Corvette and Whiston believes the supercharged ZR1 could attract a small following. But he makes no apologies for ZR1's high price."There's a lot of local engineering input into the car," he says. Corvette Clinic even sources the leather dashboard material from the same orginal US supplier to Chevrolet. "We love Corvettes, and to be able to have this car - the first right hand drive example in the world - is a real thrill," he says.The company is the only Australian operations with the compliance paperwork to work on the ZR1. "We don't make a big song and dance about what we do, but we really are proud of our work," Whiston says.Although the ZR1 is based on the C6, the small operation faced many challenges to overcome. "The interior and dash is the most obvious and visual area of any conversion, and the ZR1's interior and leather-wrapped dash are unique," Whiston says.Whiston says GM in the US has been on board with the project from the start and even Bob Lutz - former chairman and product tzar - gave the local team the thumbs up. So impressed were GM officials that they say the car could have come straight from the US factory.The 476kW/819Nm supercharged and intercooled 6.2-litre V8 is mated to a six-speed manual gearbox, which pushes the powerhouse to 100km/h in less than 3.4 seconds and on to a top speed of 330km/h. It bristles with state-of-the-art technology, including carbon-fibre mudguards, roof and bonnet to save weight.The high-performance Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes are among the best-performing stoppers fitted to any production car in the world. The suspension has also been tuned to match the huge 19-inch front and 20-inch rear wheels and tyres. The aluminium V8 is hand-assembled using heavy duty, lightweight componentry and is fitted with the latest intercooled Roots-type supercharger. The close-ratio six-speed manual transmission has been upgraded to handle the power and torque.The ZR1 shares its Magnetic Ride Control with other GM products, including the local HSV GTS. Inside the "dual-cockpit"  design features include lightweight, heated, electric leather seats, along with head-up display, navigation system and Bose sound system. Safety equipment includes a full suite of airbags, traction control and active damping system."The Corvette is such an iconic vehicle that there always seems to be a demand for cars and conversions," Whiston says.

"Corvette Summer, Burt Reynolds, Smokey and the Bandit and those muscle car movies of the '70s inspired me when I was a teenager," says Robert Maxworthy, now 44, of Murrumba Downs. But it was another quarter of a century before he realised his teen dream.This Corvette Coupe is one of a limited edition of 6500 made to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the sporty Chevrolet. "Every year Indy 500 invites a different car manufacturer to contribute the pace car for the event," explains Maxworthy. "It was the 25th anniversary of Corvette in 1978, so they invited them. "This is the only colour you can get and it had the L-82 longer-stroke 350 Chevy V8 engine in it."Maxworthy has updated the suspension and fixed some of the very-70s silver upholstery but has yet to restore the original paintwork and signwriting. "With the Australian 30-year rule you can keep it left-hand drive so my search started with 30-year-old models," says Maxworthy who bought it from a New York owner over the web."I like a bit of a story and I fell in love with it because it is a little bit different."But I wouldn't recommend it (buying a car over the web) to anyone. "You hear horror stories and you do get some surprises. "I was pretty fortunate. He was a good guy who sent us pix of his family and helped with transport."Maxworthy paid $US18,000 this time last year when the Aussie dollar was worth 92 cents. It took a week to get to LA on the back of a truck and six weeks on a boat to Australia. "Then there was the task filling out all the import approval papers and red tape," he says. "I got Geezers — these Gold Coast car importers — to help me with the paperwork and transport."After paying them, the final figure to get it here was about $22,000." The fibreglass-bodied Corvette sits on 15-inch wheels with wide 255mm rubber and a high 60 per cent profile which fills out the flared guards.Maxworthy fires up the big Corvette in his garage where it kicks into life with a boom followed by a truck-like V8 exhaust note. He reckons it gets about 12 litres per 100km but he's not sure as he hasn't driven it enough. "I just use it for club events and weekends. "It's reliable and fast but I can't tell you how fast as the speedo isn't working."It's not only hot to look at, but also to drive. "They get really hot in the cabin. They tend to suck the heat in through the firewall," he explains. The limited edition pace car is not the first Corvette Maxworthy has owned.In 2006, he paid $30,000 for a right-hand-driver 1984 C4 which he still has. "I got into the Corvettes Down Under Car Club which was a great resource about the brand and I met people I could ask detailed questions," he says.At the age of 17, Maxwell had a ride in his girlfriend's father's Corvette and fell in love — with the car. However, his first car was a little less sporty. "It was 1969 XR Falcon family station wagon hand-me-down from dad with the big bus steering wheel. "In went the curtains and out came the back seat straight away."He then bought a HQ Kingswood four-door that was "tricked up to look like a Monaro". "After that I went off cars and my wife Tammy and I had 4WDs for years and got into fishing and 4WDing.""When I took over the family business in 2004 we got the opportunity to do a few things that we wanted to do and then the toys started to come." 

The Corvette Stingray will feature among several other General Motors products in the sequel to the 2007 action movie Transformers to be released here in June (see trailer video at end of story).The Stingray concept has been tipped as the shape of the next-generation C7 Corvette with wide shoulders, four tailpipes, vertical headlights and sculpted fenders.However, GM is tight-lipped about it going into production as a Stingray or the C7.GM Global Design vice-president Ed Welburn said the idea of the Stingray Concept was to incorporate past design cues in a futuristic shape."By giving my creative team the freedom to design no-holds-barred vision concepts, it helps them push boundaries and look at projects from different perspectives," he said.The car plays the character Sideswipe in the movie, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.In the original cartoon, Sideswipe was one of the original crew members of the ARK, although it was a red Lamborghini.GM has had the exclusive contract to provide cars for both the original movie and the sequel. GM cars in the sequel include the Chevrolet Volt rechargeable electric car, Camaro production muscle car due here in 2012 and the Beat and Trax subcompact concept cars which are intended to go into production.Chevrolet North America vice president Ed Peper said the first Transformers movie helped GM reach younger car buyers in the 18 to 34 age group."Chevrolet is thrilled to again be part of one of the most anticipated movies in years," he said."Transformers gives us a great opportunity to connect with young people on their terms, with a dynamic, environmentally friendly image."The new characters represent the change going on in Chevy showrooms. From the exciting Camaro, the 21st century sports car, to the game-changing Volt, there's more than meets the eye at Chevrolet today."Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, is about humans caught in an intergalactic war between armies of giant robots that can change into cars, planes and other technological creations.Stars Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox return as Sam and Mikaela, who know the secrets of the heroic Autobots, led by Optimus Prime.In the sequel, they are under attack by the evil Decepticons because of something Sam has learned about the origins of the Transformers and their ancient history on Earth.The US Department of Defense gave its official stamp of approval to the Michael Bay-directed film, in the hope it would lead to recruitment interest.Movies such as Top Gun, regarded as a major boost for recruitment in its day, and the recent Robert Downey Jr. blockbuster Iron Man also received military cooperation for the same reason.US military, some just returned form active duty in Iraq, were involved in the massive battle scenes for the movie.The film crew was allowed on the dunes of the Army's New Mexico missile range and to follow jets and fighter planes through the sky from nearby Holloman Air Force Base.More scenes were shot on the Navy's aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis, and Marines fill the ranks of the strike team battling the invading Transformers.The film's Army liaison, Lt. Col. Gregory Bishop, said: "As far as I know, this is the biggest joint military operation movie ever made, in terms of Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines. I can't think of one that's bigger."Military equipment used include two A-10 Thunderbolt II "Warthog" tank-killing jets; six F-16 Fighting Falcons; 10 armoured Humvees; the Army's Golden Knights parachute team; two Abrams tanks; two Bradley tanks; two missile-launcher vehicles; two armoured personnel carriers; and a quarter-mile of the missile testing range, cleared of unexploded ordnance and built into an Egyptian town and temple. 

It's the 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 and the first car has just landed in readiness for a right-hand drive work-over. The ZR1, called the 'King of the Hill' in America, is the personal property of a man who makes his living turning left-hand drive dream machines into a down-under drive. "This ZR1 is my personal toy. But if someone wants to buy one we'll be happy to assist them, bring it in and then convert it for them," says Peter Whiston of the Corvette Clinic in Melbourne. He has been doing the left-right switch hit on 'Vettes since the early 1980s and is looking forward to the new challenge with a car that's called the 'King of the Hill' in America. The ZR1 has a supercharged 6.2-litre aluminium V8 that produces a brutal 476 kiloWatts and 819 Newton-metres of torque. The two-door coupe is a genuine supercar with a 0-100km/h sprint time of 3.4 seconds, a top speed of 330km/h and a Nurburgring lap time of 7 minutes 26.4 seconds - which Chevrolet claims as a production car record. Whiston says the first ZR1 conversion will not be easy - with everything from a new dash pad to relocation of the air-conditioner and drive belts on the job list - but he is looking forward to the end result. "It's all going to be a bit of a bunfight, unfortunately. I'm 58 and I'm past all that. Once I would have enjoyed it, but now I'm looking to the result," he says. "It's early days with this car. It's going to be two or three months to get it converted. And now they've changed the steering ratio on the car, so it's totally different again." But Peter and Kane Whiston know Corvettes and know conversions. "We registered the business in 1981. Corvettes are all we do. I started with doing cars from '69 onwards," he says. "Over that time we've probably done about 500 cars. We are coming up to 30 cars with the latest C6 model." But the Corvette Clinic is not a retail store. "Our prime business is conversions for people. We do it under orders. We don't have a heap of stock," Whiston says. That's no surprise when a C6 conversion is $49,500 and the ZR1 will be worth around $400,000 by the time it is ready to roll. Whiston says the company's conversions are not costed on an hourly work rate, but an all-in price for a drive-in, drive-out service. "The hourly rate has nothing to do it with it. The car comes in left- hand drive and goes out right-hand drive," he says. Business is good because the Corvette has always been an American classic, although the recent drop in the Australian dollar and regulations which allow older classic cars to continue with left-side steering have cut the waiting time at the Corvette Clinic. "Business has slackened a little since the Aussie dollar took a dive. But we've still got plenty of work. We're probably got six months of work at the moment." That includes the complicated process for the ZR1, which must be certified under low-volume compliance regulations. Older cars get by under rules for a Registered Automotive Workshop, but all-new cars are different. "We'll have to update the compliance. It's noise, it's brakes, it's the engineering on the conversion," Whiston says. "But that's what we do. And this is the first car, so once that's done then anyone who wants a ZR1 can be taken care of."  

No.. but we are closer than we have ever been.Even more than architecture, fashion and aircraft, cars are the most visually represented statement of our possible future. From Rust Heinz’ 1938 Phantom Corsair to Syd Mead's Spinner in Blade Runner, the car has been central to our dreams and the imaginations for our potential.The 1950's saw the emergence of a style of design exemplified by Nuccio Bertone, Virgil Exner and Harley Earl, that while it may be considered visually naive now still has profound influence on our perception of future possibilities. GMs Motorama of 1956 was the major showcase for this style of design that lasted into the early seventies, the over-riding feature being the human interpretation of function as driven by form.. The last truly great examples of this period; the Coke bottle Corvette of 67-73, the Ferrari Dino, Lamborghini Muira and E-Type Jag are now revered as works of art by car cognoscenti and their prices reflect their stature in the motoring world.. All of these cars display a human’s perception of the flow of air over metal; the mind as a virtual wind tunnel. Post these cars we saw a period of design that was quite - well...., square.The second coming of car design emerged around ten years ago and has been going from strength to strength. While the Futuristic period of the 50's set the visual benchmarks and boundaries for current designers, the designers of the period did not have the shackles of the oil, financial or environmental crisis to deal with. They also did not have the technology available that allowed them to add the function to the form efficiently. At the very heart of the current design period is the evolution of human possibilities that advancing technology and social dreams and responsibilities allow and dictate.. What we are seeing is art meeting and merging with technology to create form with function. If the 50’s were the golden era of car design we have now reached platinum. The Veyron, the 599, the DBS, 997, Murcielago and yes, still the Corvette – all are incredibly beautiful and also capable of 200 mph in relative safety.As exciting as car design presently is the Futurama period is hard to let go of, hence the number of Retro-future cars we continue to see. From the Mini to the Mustang good design should be celebrated, honored and mimicked. The re-interpretation of a classic design when made relevant to the current situation is not something to scorn as it just adds another variety, another choice - and there is nothing wrong with that.For a lot of current designers the benchmark for futuristic design was set in the 70's by Syd Mead  ...Visually we are there. Technologically we are close.We are at the dawn of the alternate propulsion era. We have broken through the political and financial barriers of the oil era. In many ways we can thank the current financial crisis for that. Electric is on the way, which will be an enthusiasts dream with its full size slot car performance and environmental friendliness.Let’s just not get to the point we ban petrol cars from our roads, let them naturally evolve out.With the future - we are almost there, but our past is continuing to remain with us longer. - Thankfully.The last turn of a V12 on a public road should be put off for as long as possible.Rod Halligan