Veteran auto writer and photographer Richard Prince has just released his latest book, Corvette 70 Years: One and Only (Motorbooks/Quarto $60.00), and it was a lavish love letter to a model that Prince had cherished since he was a boy. “My connection to Corvette dates back to childhood,” he said Car and Driver, recalls the first time he saw a C2 in the middle of the year. “I was intrigued because, in my opinion, it is one of the most beautiful cars ever made. That’s the car I wanted when I got my license.”
The Prince’s fascination not only resulted in him owning at least one Corvette continuously over the past 40 years, but also when he founded, with his wife, a restoration shop specializing in Corvettes, texts. your three Before bookand over 1500 articles about the model, and about him serving as the official Corvette photographer for Chevrolet since the introduction of the C5.
This inner connection proved invaluable in the making of the book, in which more than half of the often rare (or previously unseen) images came from GM’s internal archives. But it also makes reading these chronicles strange at times. “Because I have worked with GM for many years, thousands of my own images are stored in the archives,” says Prince. “So it’s a bit odd to be doing research and coming across my own work all the time.”
One would imagine that after telling the story of Chevy’s “Plastic Fantastic” sports car so often, there might be little else to discover. But Prince’s detailed approach to the subject offers fresh insights. He was particularly interested in learning new information about the Corvette’s origins in the early 1950s, at the dawn of American sports car interest.
Zora Arkus-Duntov spotted on a pre-production Corvette.
“Perhaps the most surprising thing I found was a tape recording of a 1954 interview by GM vice president of styling, Harley Earl, by a Detroit-based journalist named Stanley,” said Prince. done by Brams. came to him in September 1951 while he was participating in a motorsport race in Watkins Glen, New York. “Mr Earl was inspired by the huge crowd and intense enthusiasm he witnessed there in 1951,” he said. “Hearing from him directly in this recorded interview answers the question emphatically. ”
1957 Corvette SS
He was also forced to realize that, despite the car’s iconic nature and market success, its continued existence was often precarious. “It’s amazing how fragile the Corvette has been throughout its history,” Prince said.
“It’s well known that a lot of people at GM wanted to give it up early when sales were dismal,” he said. “However, no one knows for sure that the car has come so close to unwarranted death many times in its 70-year history, including recent decades as GM has faced financial difficulties. violently leading to bankruptcy reorganization.” The Corvette has been repeatedly saved from the gallows by the passionate, powerful people within GM who believe in its mission and drive this passion forward.
Prototype Corvette 4 Rotor
Prince also believes in this mission, citing the compelling and unique nature of Corvette’s core holdings: intense enthusiast base, unrivaled cost-to-performance ratio, production volumes high in line with the affordability of new and used markets, and automobiles’ overall durability and reliability.
But he’s not a purist, and thankfully foresaw complex changes like the switch from round to square taillights, from pop-up to fixed headlights, or even from dad. front engine block to mid engine block. “A lot of enthusiasts, especially those with high voices, are fiercely loyal to their favorite era and decry any deviation from tradition,” he said. “I have a completely different approach. Evolution and advancement are essential if Corvette is to survive.”
Design proposal for C5 Corvette
This makes his detailed and well-researched book all the more enjoyable to read (and watch), grounded in as it lies in the continual and lifelong adaptation of the model. With confirm an all-electric Corvette and going forward, Prince’s views are trendy and well-regarded.
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