The Complete History of the Corvette
This is the complete edition of the RCR Stories on the history of the Corvette. Originally released as a trilogy on the main channel, this edit compiles the award-winning saga into one epic video.
Follow the history of one of the most iconic cars in American automotive history, from its genesis at Chevrolet under the visionary Harley Earl, through its rise in popularity, the suspicious year that didn't have a Corvette at all, and all the way through to the march to mid-engine. It's an unforgettable saga of automotive ingenuity, innovation deferred, and a remarkable resurgence in prestige for a car whose identity has changed over the years from sports car superstar, to mid-life crisis car, and back again.
How was the Chevy Corvette created? Why is it so revered? And what is its outlook for the future? Originally released in installments over on the main channel, this is the omnibus that collects the three different parts into one engaging whole. This is RCR Stories: The Complete History of the Corvette.
Chapters:
00:00 Prologue
01:48 Harley Earl and the Early Auto Industry
27:04 Zora Arkus-Duntov and the Birth of the Corvette
45:20 The Motorsports Ban
50:28 The Stingray
69:00 Rise of the C3
76:00 Death of a Legend
79:43 The Year Without A Corvette
92:54 The Corvette C4
104:54 Rescuing the Corvette
128:05 The March to Mid-Engine
152:16 The Financial Crisis
161:28 Reinventing the Corvette
178:02: Recalls, Recollections, and Epilogue
For more RCR Car Stories:
The Fast Life and Tragic Death of Mickey Thompson: • The Fast Life and Trag...
The Life and Death of Tucker Automotive Corporation:
• The Life and Death of ...
The Life and Death of SAAB:
• The Life and Death of ...
The Life and Death of AMC:
• The Life and Death of ...
The Life and Death of Pontiac:
• The Life and Death of ...
The Cash For Clunkers Disaster:
• Cash For Clunkers: RCR...
Subscribe to Regular Car Reviews:
/ regularcars
I still have an hour of the Saab history left to watch.
Inbred.
You're welcome!
I save their videos. Then I binge under the pretense of "errands"
@Kevin84 Well, I think that is definitely thinking outside the box 📦 brother! 💯🤣 goat 🐐 status 🤣 I definitely give you an "E for Effort" Sincerely: Stephens Motorsports of "Best Virginia" / Huntington WV
@@KevinM23 ya lost me. But I believe you are saying you enjoy them so cheers to you!
I have never been more excited to watch 3 hours of something in my life
I don’t understand why Roman gets so much hate. Sure, he’s no voice actor but his videos are incredibly informative and I find his narration style “welcoming.”
Some hate comes because these videos are full of errors. I stopped watching at the C3 section when he said 75 lwas the start of the hiatus on convertibles (wrong, 75 had a convertible and 76 is when it was discontinued) and that the 76 model year saw the end of the sugar scoop (also wrong; 78 was when it ended). Some may not think these are a big deal but it does bring into question how many other mistakes if he’s getting very easily gathered information wrong.
@@user-ro2kr1dk8uAs a ‘74 owner, those two were the obvious mistakes I noticed. Made me also wonder what others there may be that I am not knowledgeable enough to notice. Still an enjoyable program. I quit watching after the ‘77 mark as that is when I loose interest in Corvettes.
Who hates Roman?
This is with out a doubt the best story on the Corvette I have ever seen. As a restorer in the late 70's to the late 80's I thought I knew the facts but you have opened my eyes. A suggestion for a future episode, the tail of the "shade tree" owners of Corvettes. The individuals that kept the 'older' Vetts alive. There is a difference between Corvette Owners and Owners of Corvettes.
I have a 1999 Corvette and Iove, Iove, Iove my baby! Took it on the Vegas Raceway track and had a 'IittIe fun' a few years back, and it IS the most soIid vehicIe on the road!
@@staralioflundnv I drove a 99 for 20 year, still have my 92 ZR-1 in the basement. got a 2015 for my daily driver.
@@drbooo -- That's awesome! They're great vehicIes, I'm a "Iifer"for sure, and have a passion for driving a vehicIe that is such a joy and pIeasure...one truIy feeIs aIive!
My dad had a service station where I got my very short mechanics career started (I finally gave up trying to keep track of tools). One of my customers never failed to mention that he was a road tester for a corvette prototype. Obviously, it was the highlight of his life. He also liked to nitpick everything I did. I smile when I recall those exchanges. Thanks for this informative video.
Incredible sir. Having recently ended my career with GM recently, you have accurately captured some of the magic of their incredible history. Well done.
That metal gear reference at 2:42 made my day
It’s Māko Shark. 😊
That was long. Thank you for your hard work and thoughtfulness. And I'm not even a Corvette person. I used to have a 356B. But I loved cars in my youth... yet, for the past 12 years I got rid of my E280 and started bicycling as my main day-to-day transportation. Thank you again... my favorite would be '56.
I drove a $500 “junker” ‘56 for two years from 17yo. Self-maintained 301” (327 block, 283 crank) w/ dual quads & Warner 4-speed. Most fun car I’ve ever driven, including continuous rotarys from ‘84 GSL/SE to RX-8, plus current M3P.
Thanks for such a great documentary of Corvette History. Thanks for giving my brother, Joe Spielman, credit alongside Jim Perkins, for one of the many saves from extinction. Joe loved that car from the very beginning and it was a big reason for his unwavering dedication to GM for his entire career. Well done!
Looking forward to watching this. For some reason, like a lot of Americans I guess, I have an irrational nostalgic love of Corvettes. I guess it's always been our one shot at being part of the international sportscar scene, so they always seem a little more special than all of the great muscle cars we've had here.
If only they listened to Duntov instead of the bean counters in the '60s and made it midengine from the C3 onward. It would have been right up there with other "exotics" since then, it's only with the C8 that people are taking it seriously even though it has always had very quick and great handling special editions throughout the years.
I'm glad they finally went mid-engine, it does make the car seem more exotic. I think in some ways the C6/C7 are better sportscars though.
@@anydaynow01 i disagree. The c6 and c7 were extremely capable track cars even with that big motor up front. They are front mid engine anyways. I think its even better that we had the c7r to dominate the rear mid engine super cars one last time before crossing over to compete more directly.
May, may, may, Mako shark.
Many thanks from a long time Corvette owner! I did learn several things and feel very lucky that the brand didn't end so many times in the past. I have traveled all lower 48 states in a Vette and loved every minute running the back roads of America.
Simply outstanding. I don't normally watch long videos on KZhead but what you have created here drew me in 100%. Just plain good content, well worth the time to watch.
Mocko shark??? I always thought it was Mako Shark. Not tryin' to be a dick, but it drove me crazy every time he said it.
Great video, learned some new info about the Corvette and really enjoyed the history. The pics of the C7 brought back memories from a few years ago when I worked for a company that built the dash, door panels, center consoles and other interior parts for that model run. I still have the different dash plaques with the different designs for each model from that run. Looking forward to watching more of your videos, keep up the great work.
I loved every minute of it. Amazing work!
loved it. great amount of work and well presented documentary. very fascinating, thank you for this
this is the best audiobook I've ever listened to. Chapeau!
Thanks for the complete video put together. I learned a lot. Keep up the good work. I wasn't sure I would get through it when I saw 3hrs but it was very engaging and I'm glad I got to the end.
Thank you for the Steiner reference
Well done. Really like the long format as well.
Such high quality content !!!!!
after owning many cars over the years, I never thought about owning a corvette....but the C8 changed my mind! Cheers and thanks for the video!
You are the Dan Carlin of automotive history. Thank you for your depth and unending love of history.
These videos are very well done and include so much information.
Extremely well done. I was born in 1953 same as the fiberglass fossil. owner since 1974. this is good.
Woah.. excellent! Watched it start to finish!! ❤
I didn’t know that I wanted to hear this story. Thanks for your work on it.
This is going to be amazing!
The best narrative History of the true American Sports Car, Corvette!!
I’ve got all the RCR stories downloaded on my phone, I have them playing in the background most evenings after a long day of driving.
Outstanding.
Beautiful video thank you!
Thank you for this, Roman
You can see many Hollywood cars mentioned in this video at the Nethercutt Collection and Museum for free in the San Fernando Valley. Over 250 cars in drivable condition. Very impressive and diverse group of cars. Located near the San Fernando mission.
Awesome Video bro
Excellent, and just what I needed to get to know the Corvette!
Well, I finally did it… I got through all 3+ hours of this video. it was interesting and informative tale of hopes and dreams, fears and misery, opportunities seized upon, and some opportunities lost. One thing that I seriously did not know until making it through this video is how many times the Corvette was almost killed off! Anyway, very well done and well put together documentary about just about every car enthusiasts favorite car.
Great video, I learned a lot.
The story I got from Tom Hill back in 1988 was there was a rebellion in the ranks about destroying the last and only 1983 Corvette that so many of them had done so much on to create. When they learned there would be no production 1983, they didn't want to destroy any of them, but they were darn sure that the last one would not be destroyed. So they didn't hide it out back, they brought in right into the lobby, right where everyone could see it, and build four concrete pillars around it to contain it there. It became part of the building, trapped inside four huge concrete columns. It stayed there on display until it was moved to the Corvette Museum across the highway in the '90s, which involved closing the front lobby and breaking in equipment to tear out the columns. By hiding in plain sight, the amount of interest by the public was something Chevrolet couldn't risk destroying. Every plant tour was taken to it and shown it. And yes, I saw it there in 1988, where Tom pointed out to me the various differences in the 1983 and the 1984 Corvettes. Sadly, Chevrolet still had their no-cameras inside policy or I'd have a picture. And since this was a special tour with Tom, I didn't want to risk his job by sneaking on in, like I had done several times in St. Louis. I've never heard the "lost under a tarp" story or the cowboy boot story.
And I'll bet you've never heard a Mako pronounced Mocko either!
Outstanding! It's a definitive course in American management history!
I hope you’re making money with this! So well written, informative, and the voice acting is superb! I never thought I’d watch a 3 hour KZhead video! I have many favorite moments, but the best was, “To CERV Man.”
Appreciate you efforts. Amazing.
It was pops for me at the end , his face said it all 😂😂
I am not a mechanic once inside a motor thank you for explaining what your looking at where I can easily follow the video and it makes complete sense. Occasionally explain things like what may cause journals to be scarred or why it's important to replace the caps exactly as they came out
Excellent video. Very interesting for car enthusiasts.
I love your content as well as regular car reviews. May-ko, not Mack-o. Seems like something a deep dive woud have discovered. Its a shark.
Sitting here on a JetBlue flight to Newark to get a cars and bids auction car (1996 Lincoln Town car hearse) in Staten Island to drive it home to Florida (if RCR wants to review it though I did submit an app!) Watching Boruto 😒 and then this pops up! I have a 64 C2 red vert and a 95 ZR1 purp so it's an obvious choice
Here's to hoping Brian and Roman see this so you can make a detour to PA.
@@TheyCallMeMrMaybe perfect name perfect reply ty kindly!!!!!
Thank you for proving that any idiot can live a life of leisure.
That was really fun to watch, thanks for producing it 🫵🏻👍🏻
Great video
Great content. Subscribed
Thanks Roman, I'm all podcreased for a day of admiring the corvettes from the podcoast. As we say in automobiling, parts is parts.
I've loved this entire video! For me it's the L88 in big block cars, the LT-1 in small block cars.....C3's are my favorite corvettes.... probably because I was born in 68. Of the modern corvettes I think the Pinnacle is the C6 ZR1. It was the first true Corvette supercar. And it was still available with a manual transmission. And for me a Corvette isn't a Corvette without one.
I have usually found that Corvette is divisive because it is better than its critics want to admit. I was always moderately enthusiastic about Corvettes, my father having been a GM executive ( Oldsmobile Division ). But I tempered my enthusiasm as I grew fonder of German cars during the malaise of the domestics in the 1970s and 80s. That fit right in with the snobbery of some of my friends regarding "Detroit". Ultimately, while still driving and tracking my BMWs, I bought a collectors edition C4, arguably one of the least appreciated generations of Corvette. ( My brother-in-law, meantime, was winning awards all over the world for his stunning C2 restorations. ) I quickly became a Corvette enthusiast, a real "owner" of the marque, through my C4 ownership. Even to the point where I was alienated from my "Europhile" car friends. They thought I'd lost my mind, or at least my taste. I would challenge them, "Have you ever driven a Corvette?" Invariably, the answer was "Well, no." So, their shunning of America's sports car was based on nothing but pure, old-fashioned prejudice. Not a sound basis for a car assessment in my opinion. The critics hate Corvette because it has beaten Europe's best on their own terms, at half their price. That's enough to make anyone ( without an open mind ) furious. So be it. Corvettes are great cars, and, dollar-for-euro, fantastic bargains.
Interesting story.... I myself am not a Corvette fan, but I can appreciate it, because I need SOMETHING to be able to blow away between red lights, and down drag strips... 🤷🏻
great video, thank you. I have a c6 and love it...way long
18:31 "coming up Milhouse!?" Awesome lmao
Fantastic documentary my friend. Like your viewpoint👍🏻
Love these long format videos but I have to say that every time I heard the pronunciation "Mah-coe" I had to cringe. I have always heard it pronounced "May-coe". I'd love to see more of these videos. Thunderbird? Corvair? Wagoneer?
I'm stuck in the same mud puddle... MOCK-O... so cringe!! lol
May-coe...as it should be. Just like the shark.
Strangely interesting like iconic movies 'Director's Cuts'. Three hours of pleasantly brought information whilst working on my hobby room renovation and overhaul. Top notch!
I thought I was familiar with all this since I was 13 but am still learning new things from this, like the women design team
Can't believe it took me two days to see this, starting immediately.
Dude, you have a great voice for this.
Definitely one of my top five cars ever!
I love videos of all the Big 3....Stangs, Dodge, Vette...but very well done
As a boy growing up in St Louis a favorite field trip involved going to the Corvette plant on Grand Avenue (?). The employees would drive the finished cars away from the assembly line with a stylish screech of the tires.
yayyyy im happy now, I watch
Godsend! Just in time to keep me company for a boring analog photo scan session (it just takes so damn long).
Not even a corvette fan. But this was excelent. Thanks
I'd follow up with a complete compilation of all the Corvette reviews you've ever done from C1 to C8. Also, it would be awesome if someone would loan you a C2 to review. I don't think you've reviewed A C2 beyond nominating one for "Best Corvette" one year.
Good show!❤
Sure, I wouldn't mind watching these again.
I wondered why this seemed familiar. I finally read the description
THAT. WAS. SO. F'N. GOOD!!!!! and I learned how to replace a fuel pump on a 90s Porsche.....
Excellent research. Had no idea the LA Tafts were not related to the president.
The rear tail light place placement is h i d e o u s
Great Video, C4 ZR1owner.
Brian 'Mr. Regular' Reider (born 1981) is the founder, co-owner and co-writer Regular Car Reviews, providing the majority of the narration over the titular reviews with the help of his friend, channel co-owner, songwriter and occasional narrator Nick 'The Roman' Roman.
The TNA Stiner voice was gold
I love "Everything was coming up Milhouse" reference line. A-1. =D
Great video, but it’s May-Koh Shark not Mack-Koh.
1. 63-67 Corvettes were Sting Rays or Mid Years 2. Its predecessor was from the Mako Shark, not Maako shark. Grrrrr.
“Dynamic Obsolescence” of American automotive design … ended at about 1973. After that, the accountants took over as auto designs such as the 1980’s GMC trucks stayed the same for eleven years.
Thanks
Anyone notice the 56 Vette with the modified v8 duntov set the flying mile record with, was a HEMI head engine? The spark plug holes go down the middle of the valve covers. It also seems to be deep holes which would indicate an overhead cam engine as do the insanely WIDE valve covers. They look more like a Ford sohc cammer valve cover than any smallblock or even big block gm heads ever seen. So maybe he did device an ohc setup and hemispherical combustion chambers. It's possible! If anyone has further engine details on that particular car please help he out here! I'm only 36 but an auto Machinist major and my A.D.D. is going wild trying to fly by the possibilities here!
Update: it's not a hemi nor is it a gm engine at all. Turns out, if this is the type engine used, in the photo, and it's highly possible because it's the only v8 Duntov had a ton of experience modifying... Then Duntov would be the first man to Ford swap a Corvette and then destroy all the other Corvettes ever produced EVER with said Ford v8 swapped car. 😂 That there is a Ford flathead V8 with Ardun (ARkus DONtov) overhead valve conversion heads on it, that yep, Duntov designed and was selling at the time, himself. So a Jewish Russian immigrant SAVED the Corvette for all of history, by Ford swapping it and actually making it fast. Talk about breaking stereotypes with a sledgehammer. Frikkin awesome if you ask me.
You’re laughably wrong. 😂 The picture you refer to has the caption “Ardun-powered Allard”. That isn’t the record setting car the narrator is talking about, which was powered by a Chevrolet V-8.
Although they did consider building a hemi SBC for the Grand Sport in 1963, which was going to be 377 cubic inches. Same as a “383 stroker”, except with a standard 4-inch bore. 16 plugs like a modern Gen III hemi. My source is the book “Corvette, America’s Star Spangled Sports Car” by Karl Ludvingsen, 1975. They built at least one; there’s a picture which came from GM’s photo archives.
Good Morning dear Diane, we both have a love for cars. I found this interesting and thought you might also find it interesting. 🤔 😊
New subscriber, thanks! Great production!
Time to brew some Pauper's roast and relax listening to this. I'll swing by the local department store later to pick up a spare sock.
So the first v8 powered Corvette and first fast GM car ever was Ford Powered. I knew it!
24:40 seeing black and white footage of new zealand really threw me off after being tunnel visioned in on the video for the past half hour lmao
Did you cover the C6? or did I miss something. Very informative, thank you!
Enjoyable listen, thank you (C3 owner). Im a bit surprised that you didnt mention the upcoming electrification of the C8 starting with the all wheel drive e-ray, a new era is dawning.
Thank you for all the information about the Corvette,and if I had the opportunity to buy a new Corvette of course I am not financially able to buy one right now,I would buy one, the new Corvette looks better than Ferrari at a faction of the cost ,and the 2024 model is better than ever ,it is a bit pricey
Some '83s exist, but resold as '84s, so really, they're just '84s despite rabid sales pitches on various sites stating otherwise. There is a 83 C3, but that was a special twin turbo, don't think that one was ever sold. Another true '83 is cut in half unless someone wants to weld-together the parts. Corvette Black Book says there's potentially 6 total with the VIN "D" marking given to extreme private collectors in the same way there are GM EV-1 cars that "exist" in-secret (about 6 or 7) in working condition. None of any of these will ever come to market due to agreements. The mythical '83 is the stuff of lore and legend at-best, and I have no first-hand knowledge, nor do I know anyone who actually owns one but I "know a guy" who "knows a guy" has one mothballed "in secret" and has it mothballed and sealed-up like an archeological mummy. What's the good in that? Apparently, agreements were made that of the 6, none of them are allowed to admit it or talk about it, sort of like how a real "gangster" never brags about that kind of business for leverage. Just like the few EV-1 owners, it's to be kept hush.
Very entertaining. I did however, find one small flaw. The 1982 C3 collector's edition had a glass hatchback.
To dream the impossible dream. This is my quest to create the mid-endine Corvette.
You also get people that don't know what a blinker light is also try to get in a lane you need to be in and people will speed up so you can't get in until last minute.
03:22 heeeeeey i DO recognize that quote!!! wasn't it in the "Harly Earl and The Birth of The Corvette" video? at like 3 min 32 sec
Nice