car design thread

Before the Porsche design appeared in 1964 the window treatment was a more conventional 'fastback' design (XP-807) for the new Corvette >

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Whoa, that looks nice. Missed opportunity?

Don't understand the mid-late 60's fad of flying butresses, maybe trying to emulate the look of mid engined cars. Aero certainly not better as evidenced by the way Dodge filled in the hole when converting the Charger to the winged Daytona.

 

I can't remember which article I read it in that said Mitchell wanted an extreme fastback for the 1968 Corvette series but lost an internal political battle. So, the tunnel back that made production was the result.

 

Pretty conservative for Zagato.
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So, probably tapered in plan view, like 63-67, but squared off?

 

Not really. This car was so odd looking when introduced, but now looks almost normal as it predated so many of the design features of modern cars like high tail and square, flat sides.

 

Whatever presidents it may have set, it's conservative compared to a lot of their designs, which I think tend to be over the top.
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Yikes, what's that, LOL.

I understand your point and agree, but really the SZ was pretty out there when introduced in the late '80s.

 

Yeah, I had to think back to what was out there then.

 

That was absolutely engrossing! All forty plus minutes of it.

 

My favorite part: "Form follows function... but not in the German way." LOL!

 

It's amazing to me that it is from '64. Awesome roofline. Overall, way too modern for the era.

 

The design I believe was to tone down some of the more 'out there' design characteristics of the Mako Shark Corvette show car. GM management wanted a street car version that they could market as the new 1967 model year Corvette.

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They were working on many interesting design ideas in that period.
This picture dates from 1963. >

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Note the vertical crease in the front and rear glass. This design characteristic would show up a decade later in the 4 rotor Corvette design to.

 

Thanks. Yes, that's exactly what I was imagining. Forgot it was a Mako Shark I was envisioning...

 

The profile is very similar with some subtle adjustments needed for a production automobile. >

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Love the whole Mako Shark Corvette until they ruined it with a long tail later on. That stubby almost Cheetah looking tail is nice. The final Corvette product was also nice.

 

Are you sure it was inspired by the 904? I don't think so as the 904 was not the first with that style or even a trend setter.

 

Larry Shinoda in an interview said the 'sugar scoop' roof of the Porsche 904 was the inspiration for that design feature. Henry Haga and Larry Shinoda had a competition to see who could design the new Corvette. Of course Bill Mitchell was the judge and he chose the Larry Shinoda design. However the winning design was given to the Henry Haga studio to refine the design for production with the help of Larry Shinoda. The Corvette was to be a 1967 model year production but the introduction was delayed by one year to the 1968 model year instead.

 

I had heard it was the 64 GTO Ferrari?

 

Do you have any directly comparable long and short tail images to put side by side?

All the best,
Andrew.