Product Details
The Complete Book of Corvette: Every Model Since 1953

The Complete Book of Corvette: Every Model Since 1953
By Mike Mueller

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Product Description

Chevrolet's Corvette is the most iconic, and some would say only, sports car built in America. This lavishly illustrated work conducts readers through the Corvette’s fifty-plus years of continuous production, a rich and varied history unmatched in the automotive world.
 
An exhaustive review of six generations of American high performance, from the first 6-cylinder ’Vette of 1953 through today's fire-breathing, world-beating C6, The Complete Book of Corvette offers an in-depth look at the prototypes and experimental models, the anniversary and pace cars, and the specialty packages for street and competition driving that have made the Corvette a living automotive legend for more than half a century. With extensive details, specs, and photographic coverage, this book is the ultimate resource on America’s sports car. Officially licensed with Chevrolet and including many never-before-published photographs from the car maker's archives.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #64387 in Books
  • Published on: 2006-11-15
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 352 pages

Features

Editorial Reviews

Review

Corvette Enthusiast, April 2007

“No matter what part of the Corvette scene fascinates you – history, racing, restoration, high performance driving, engineering, technological innovations, or whatever – you’ll not be disappointed in The Complete Book of Corvette. It sweeps the reader away on a magical tour of the Corvette world from its inception in 1953 to the present.”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
Vette, July 2007

“If you breathe, eat and sleep Corvettes and Corvette lore, [The Complete Book of Corvette is] another must-have for your automotive library. In fact, [it] may be the most exhaustive review to date of America’s preeminent sports car.”

                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Road and Track, June 2007

“A massive undertaking, this...book lives up to its name by detailing all six generations of Chevrolet’s plastic fantastic”

From the Inside Flap

In 2003, Chevrolet’s Corvette celebrated its 50th birthday by barely slowing down to blow out the candles. Why dilly-dally when even better times lay ahead? Two years later, Chief Engineer David Hill’s team took what was already America’s supreme performance machine and transformed it into one of the planet’s greatest. Standard performance now qualified as downright surreal: 0–60 in 4.2 seconds and a top end of 186 miles per hour.
What a long, strange trip it’s been. Nearly cancelled a few years after its birth, rumored near death or dilution more than one time since, Chevy’s fantastic, plastic two-seater is rolling on more confidently than ever, this after six distinct generations of development. Code names for those generations came into vogue during the radically redesigned 1997 Corvette’s long haul to market after Chevrolet people let it be known that this all-new platform was identified in-house by the simple “C5” designation. It was only logical to retroactively label previous generations accordingly: Original solid-axle models built from 1953 to 1962 made up the C1 group; the C2 family consisted of the classic Sting Rays of 1963 to 1967; the C3 era spanned from 1968 to 1982; and the C4 ran from 1984 to 1996. (Chevrolet skipped the 1983 model year, as fourth-generation development work ran past its deadline.)
The fifth-generation Corvette was initially targeted for introduction in August 1992, just in time to help commemorate the Corvette’s 40th anniversary. But various pitfalls pushed that debut back repeatedly, first for the 1994 model year, then 1995. When all was said and done, the long-awaited C5 officially appeared in January 1997. The latest rendition, the expectedly tabbed C6, followed eight years later to take the Corvette legacy to all-new heights.
 
 

From the Back Cover

This is a Corvette book like no other Corvette book. Many celebrate the most powerful and most attractive Corvette models; few list the less famous, the prototypes, and the racers. Licensed with General Motors and illustrated from GM’s design archives, The Complete Book of Corvette showcases in photos, text, and technical specifications all the models since 1953: if it happened, it is here.
 
The Chevrolet Corvette is the most iconic—some would say only—sports car built in America. This lavishly illustrated work details the Corvette’s 50-plus years of continuous production—a rich and varied history unmatched in the automotive world. An exhaustive review of six generations of American high performance, from the first six-cylinder ’Vette of 1953 through today’s fire-breathing, world-beating C6, The Complete Book of Corvette offers an in-depth look at the prototypes and experimental models, the anniversary and pace cars, and the specialty packages for street and competition driving that have made the Corvette a living automotive legend for more than half a century. With extensive details, specifications, and photographic coverage, this book is the ultimate resource on America’s favorite sports car.
 

Customer Reviews

The Corvette book of the year5
I own a C4 Corvette and try to buy every Corvette book that comes out. I was given a truly bad Corvette book for a Christmas gift this year ("Corvette: America's Sports Car: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow" by Jerry Burton), a cheesy, vinyl-covered tossed-together collection of factoids and tired photography. I went out and bought this one myself. This is the book all Corvette owners should own. It is a well-written history of the Corvette that is so complete it serves as the ultimate Corvette resource book. Best of all, it's filled with 100s of never-before-seen photographs from GM Design's archives. That alone is worth the price of admission. If someone got you that low-rent red vinyl Corvette book as a gift, bring it back to the store and exchange it for this one.

Dream Cars5
This book has a well written history on the Corvette!! Great Cars - If you are a lover of Corvettes, like me, this is the book for you!! It is a book your wife will let you leave on the coffee table!

Billy Wannyn

Excellent Corvette History4
I bought this book to help me in my search for a car to buy. It was useful in that regard, but it is also a very interesting history of an iconic automobile. My research interest was in the fifth generation of the Corvette (the C5) since that is the model I was interested in buying. The chapters on the other models were very informative and entertaining. I enjoy reading history, especially automotive history, and this book fit the bill for the Corvette. It is a little short on raw data, but I don't think that was the intent of the author in the first place. All in all, a good buy.