GM press photos - Z06 and Z-06

[Duke W.]

I already sent out an APB to my mail list, but I thought others on the board may be interested in this page, which is all the GM Corvette press photos. The first 15 thumbnail screens have lots internal LS7 part detailed photos plus photos of the new Z06 and vintage photos of '63 models, some of which you may recognize from 43 year old magazine articles.

http://gm.wieck.com/forms/gm/*query?ws4d_nav=true&search_criteria=corvette@&Source=all&Page=1

Duke

[G B.]

Where are the old photos showing '63 models?

I jumped around in the 103 pages of photos and all I saw were those big-butt modern things.

[G B.]

Ah! Pages 12 and 13. *NM*

[Duke W.]

Re: Where are the old photos showing '63 models?

They are between pages 10 and 15 as I recall.

Duke

[Patrick H.]

Grand Sport

page 13, in the center...

Isn't the dark car with the white stripe a Grand Sport, not a modified Z06? It's got all the right scoops and flares for a GS.

Patrick

[Duke W.]

Re: Grand Sport

No, that's the Grady Davis Z06 at Sebring '63 (March). FIA rules were more liberal than SCCA, so that's probably why it has the flares, but the biggest available racing tire then, a 8.20-15, didn't need flares that big. Maybe they were hoping for a bigger tire that didn't materialize before the race. Tires began to grow wider, rapidly not long after. Also notice that the fuel filler is farther forward than on a production coupe with or without Z06. The same fill location was used with the big tank, so I don't know why Davis' car is modified.

I think Davis was as close to a "works" team as GM dared back in those days when they were observing the 1957 AMA racing ban. He also got the first Grand Sport ever released, still in it's original flareless configuration and raced it over the summer with Dick Thompson driving, but that was after Sebring

I think Davis' Sebring drivers are Dick Thompson and Don Yenko. Not sure if there was a third driver.

Delmo Johnson's car was also black, but carried race number 3 for Sebring '63, and the fenders are not modified.

The photo of white #6 is the Alan Green Chevrolet (out of Seattle) car, also taken at Sebring '63, and it was a member of the first Z06 batch that raced the Riverside six-hour in October '62. Green's drivers are Jerry Grant and Don Campbell, and I believe there was also a third driver, but the name slips my memory. Campbell was the salesman assigned by Green to order my SWC in February about a month before the Sebring race.

Some of this same batch of photos were published in Corvette News Vol. 6 No. 4, which has a report on the '63 Sebring race. GM apparently had a corporate or contracted photographer there to cover the action, and it's nice to see that the photos survived. Sebring was the first big international race that the new Sting Rays ran in. Unfortunately their performance and placing was not as good as hoped for. The GT class was won by another marque.

Duke

[Duke W.]

Opps!

The #6 car is George Robertson's car co-driven by Johnny Allen and Jef Stevens.
Green's car carried #7.

Davis entry also listed additional co-drivers Doc Wylie, Duncan Black, and Ed Lowther, Davis car retired after nine hours.

Duke

[Clem Z.]

doc wylie was a chemist that worked for

grady at the gulf research labs. doc raced those across the pond sports cars,elvas, and so did his wife in SCCA. i bet doc got grady into sports car racing. i think this is correct as it has been a while. there was no one funnier than ed lowther,we called him "ed loafer", at a party as he could really tell a racing story.

[Mike E.]

Re: Opps!

Davis entered two cars in 61, 62, and 63 at Sebring--that's why there were four drivers. Dick Thompson, at least in 61 and 62, was driving under a contract with someone else at Sebring, so one Gulf Oil/Grady Davis car had Yenko/Lowther, the other Wylie/Black. Duncan Black, by the way, as I recall, was born with a silver spoon in his mouth--his dad, if I hve it right, was the Mr. Black of Black and Decker.
Dick Thompson drove everywhere else for Gulf--that began midway through the 61 SCCA season when Yenko was protested in a Gulf car at the end of a race and the teardown indicated a shaved flywheel and he was suspended for the rest of the season. Thompson then came in and drove the 61 to the B-production championship, and the following year drive my old 62 to the A-production championship.

[Mike M.]

Re: Opps!

click on www.nationalroadrally for pics of the scca Cumberland airport races of the 50's thru early 70's. therein you'll see historic pics of the yenkos/thompsons/doc wyle etc. there's a pic of another doc in a 61 aka farm use. they all were cheaters. mike

[Clem Z.]

better way to cheat

they were not smart enought to remove the starter ring and drill holes radially to lighten the flywheel that would be covered when the starter ring was reinstalled. you need to weight the flywheel the way we did it to see if it was lightened. removing the weight externally was seen just by removing the tin bellhousing shield. removing the weight this way removed the weight from the outer most part of the flywheel which gave the biggest advantage we had great fun at dons expence about this in our corvette newsletter,flying fiberglass

[Dick W.]

Re: better way to cheat

Things like that is what used to make racing fun. Lay awake at night trying to outsmart "smart" tech inspectors. I used to be a "gofer" for a NASCAR team in the 60's. Owners day was made when he out smarted Dick Beaty and Bill Gazaway. Magically, somehow the bumpers would lose length and width, the windshields would be two-three inches smaller in height and width, bodies would get narrow, etc. I remember the #13 Chevelle and the #26 Fairlane. You would look at them and know something was changed, but until you saw them beside an untouched car, you could not figure out what was wrong. Used to give Norris Friel? a fit.