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1958 CORVETTE Page one |
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There's never been enough of either to go around. Used-car values bottomed out
and headed up less than a decade after the Sting Ray's knock-'em-dead debut,
making this one of the first postwar cars to exceed its original list price on
the collector market. Cynics said the fast turnaround reflected the Corvettes
that followed. In fact, many still regard the Sting Ray as simply the best
Corvette ever. 
The Sting Ray was very much stylist Bill Mitchell's car, the first Corvette that
owed nothing to his legendary predecessor, Harley Earl, the founding father of
General Motors Styling. It originated in late 1959 with the XP-720 program that
drew from at least three earlier experimental projects. The first was the
so-called "Q-Corvette," begun in 1957 as a smaller, more radical sports car
sharing a rear transaxle, independent rear suspension, and all-disc brakes with
a line of large, rear-engine sedans being planned for 1960. Only a fastback
coupe was contemplated, and its styling, by the same Bob McLean who'd laid out
the first Corvette, was amazingly predictive of the future of Sting Ray's.
The entire Q-program was soon shelved as too complicated and too costly, but
Corvette engineers led by Zora Arkus-Duntov continued toying with rear-engine
designs even as Chevy introduced one in its first compact, the new-for-'60
Corvair. The advent of that car, plus Duntov's work with the experimental
open-wheel CERV I single-seater, prompted a rear-engine Corvette proposal
designed around the Corvair's air-cooled flat-six power package. Again, however,
GM managers just couldn't see the expense. 
Mitchell, meantime, had spirited away the development
"mule" from the abortive Sebring Super Sport project, the long-distance racing
Corvette consigned to the corporate attic after the Automobile Manufacturers
Association's 1957 "anti-racing" edict. Mitchell decided to refurbish the car
and campaign it on his own. Assistant Larry Shinoda adapted Q-Corvette lines to
create a new open body for what Mitchell called the Stingray Special, built in
his bootleg-projects "Studio X" area at the GM Tech Center in Warren, Michigan.
Dr. Dick Thompson, one of the winningest Corvette pilots in Sports Car Club of
America competition, was signed to drive it in C-Modified events, then dominated
by prestigious European machines. "The flying dentist" promptly ran away with
the class championship in 1959 and '60. 
Though it never raced as a Corvette, Mitchell's car was
obviously a GM effort. Because it made a big public impression, its styling
figured heavily in XP-720, which sought to deliver a new production Corvette
with more passenger and luggage room, better ride and handling, and even higher
performance. 
The starting point was a clean-sheet chassis reflecting lessons learned from all
those earlier experiments. Despite the Corvair's arrival, a conventional
drivetrain layout was never in doubt. Passengers were again placed relatively
far to the rear so that the engine/transmission package could sit behind the
front-wheel centerline for even front/rear weight distribution (which ended up
at 47/53 percent). To further enhance roadability, the wheelbase was trimmed
four inches from that of previous Corvettes, to 98 inches, and the center of
gravity was lowered by having passengers ride within the frame rather than on
top of it. For improved torsional rigidity and optimum driveline placement, the
old Fifties-fashion X-brace frame was discarded for a new ladder-type design
with five crossmembers. At first it was a little too stiff, yielding an
unduly harsh ride. The production unit was made less rigid but still stronger
than needed. 
But the big news was independent rear suspension, which Duntov sold to
cost-conscious GM managers by saying it would help sell 30,000 Corvettes a year.
His Sting Ray design employed a frame-mounted differential with U-jointed
halfshafts linked by a transverse leaf spring, much as on CERV I. The spring
bolted to the back of the diff case, which was carried on rubber-cushioned
struts that lessened ride harshness and increased grip, especially on rougher
roads. A control arm extended laterally and slightly forward from each side of
the case to a hub carrier, with a trailing radius rod behind. The halfshafts
functioned as upper control arms. The lower arms also controlled vertical wheel
motion, while the trailing rods took care of longitudinal loads. Being
considerably lighter than Corvette's old solid axle, the new irs brought a
significant reduction in unsprung weight.
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