Home Chevrolet History Corvette America's Star-Spangled Sports Car

1968 Stingray L88 Coupe, from Chapter 39: Preening the Shark

Despite struggling with internal divisions within GM, Zora Arkus-Duntov was able to take pride in a clear sign of success when the brand new third generation of the Corvette sold out its 1968 production run. In Chapter 39: Preening the Shark, Ludvigsen writes about the design, development and introduction of this new Corvette, commonly known as the C3 and seen here in this opening illustration by renowned automotive artist Steven Cavalieri of a Safari Yellow 1968 Stingray L88 Coupe.

Click here to open a close-up photograph of the page spread of pages 534 and 535 from Chapter 39: Preening the Shark.

Sample page spread from Corvette - America's Star-Spangled Sports Car.

1963 Corvette Grand Sport, from Chapter 30: Lightweights Go Racing

Frustrated by GM's adherence to the Automobile Manufacturers Association's 1957 ban on corporate support for automotive racing, to the detriment of the nascent Grand Sport Corvette, Zora Arkus-Duntov arranged for the five prototypes that had already been built to be made available to carefully selected race teams. Chapter 30: Lightweights Go Racing tells the story of the technical challenges these prototypes faced in their first racing season, with racing and technical illustrations like this cutaway of a 1963 Corvette Grand Sport by legendary automotive artist Yoshihiro Inomoto.

Click here to open a close-up photograph of the page spread of pages 420 and 421 from Chapter 30: Lightweights Go Racing.

Sample page spread from Corvette - America's Star-Spangled Sports Car.

Preview an excerpt - Chapter 34: 1967 and L88 Origins

Click here to view an excerpt from this book discussing the roots of the legendary 1967 L88 Corvette Stingray: Chapter 34: 1967 and L88 Origins

Karl Ludvigsen
Karl Ludvigsen

In addition to his motor industry activities as an executive (with GM, Fiat and Ford) and head of a consulting company, Karl Ludvigsen has been active for over 50 years as an author and historian. As an author, co-author or editor he has some four dozen books to his credit. Needless to say, they are all about cars and the motor industry, Karl's life-long passion.

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