Transcript of Split Window: Origins of the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray | Full Documentary
Jerry's Rides
0:06[Music] There's something about the 1963 Stingray
in particular that makes it stand out above all 0:14other sports cars. I could not believe how that
car caught my eye and didn't let me look away. 0:25If it had not been for Bill Mitchell, this
car would never exist. The 63 Stingray made 0:33history. It will live forever because of
its impact to the industry in the sports car0:42field. Very few car designs transcend their
era and leave a lasting mark. But within each 0:52style line, there's history to be told.
And the 1963 Stingray is no exception.1:02You know, there's something about
the classics that represents the 1:05American [Music] spirit. My dad's
story is inspiring. He started from 1:13nothing and was able to leave a
lasting mark in the automotive1:16industry. Now he's preserving history, one
vehicle at a time. This is the story of a car 1:26that shaped the future of American automotive
design. The 1963 Corvette Stingray. [Music]1:52Even though this is one of the most
well-known classic cars in the world, 1:57it was almost never made. The Corvette came out
in 1953 and it was designed to attract sports car 2:09people and the sports car people became alive
in America because of the Second World War. 2:18the Americans in Europe were exposed to
sports cars. So coming back to America, 2:24they wanted this and so General Motors stepped up.
Prior to that point, all cars had been designed by 2:33engineers. There hadn't even been a director of
design at General Motors. [Music] Harley Earl who 2:40was the guy let's call him the father of design
the guy that invented automotive design really 2:45he literally created General Motor styling it
was called the art and color department and now 2:51that he was retiring he had pretty much decided
that that whole importance of guiding the company 3:02was going to transition to his right-hand
man was a guy named William Bill Mitchell3:10Bill Mitchell was probably
one of the most powerful 3:12guys I've ever worked for and a guy that loved3:15cars. I'm Peter Brock. I'm probably best known
publicly for things I've done in automotive 3:30design, but I really consider myself
kind of a historian in automotive art. 3:35I love automobiles and also u the overall
exterior design has always been important 3:42to me because that's more of an aesthetic. So
it's a combination of aesthetics and engineering 3:47that's really um guided my direction
and the things that I've done in my3:51life. My dad and Bill Mitchell are cut
from the same cloth because they both 4:02love vehicles more than anything. A lot of
people don't know that I started a company 4:08called Bushwhacker. I started Bushwhacker
out of my garage and was with it for 48 4:17years. I came up with a thing called a
fender flare. And the reason it was named 4:23Bushwhacker is because we were making products
at that time strictly for off-road vehicles.4:35The Corvette endured through all of the ups and
downs of Detroit. However, Corvette needed to come 4:45out of that old look that they started with and to
really make it into a more worldwide sports car. 4:57He wanted to create some automobile that
was completely different in an idea and 5:04aesthetics. I can't tell you how exciting that
is when you have a chance to build something 5:11that is going to turn into a real car on the
street. This is something that thousands of 5:15people are going to see eventually. In 1957,
General Motors hired a 19-year-old designer, 5:23the youngest in company history.
That designer was Peter [Music]5:27[Music] Brock. At the same time, there
was a real problem from the standpoint of 5:43product liability in Detroit. Because illegal
street racing was increasing in popularity, 5:51public safety reached a tipping point
on American roads. The fallout of 5:57all of this was the AMA ban. The Automobile
Manufacturers Association outlawed sports car6:05production. The collateral damage in this
was the Corvette program. That was the end 6:16of the Corvette program. As far as they were
concerned, the program was gone. It had been 6:20cut off. It was never going to happen again. they
were not going to be involved in racing. But Bill 6:25Mitchell had been there long enough to realize
that over time everything changes and goes back 6:33to whatever is successful and sells automobiles.
He personally decided that he would go against 6:39management and design a new Corvette in secret.
So I arrived at that time when this was going on.6:50that individual had that much power and vision
to change the corporation and decide to build 6:58a Corvette in secret. Now, he could not go
upstairs of the Chevrolet studio to do that. 7:05He came downstairs to where the advanced concept
was. Management never really comes down there. 7:13This was the one place that
Bill Mitchell could go and 7:16present his idea for a new Corvette
and know that he could develop it in7:20secret. Here I was an advanced concept. I'd
only been there a few months and Bill Mitchell 7:30walks in. He says, "Guys, come on over here. Sit
down. I want to tell you what I want to do." Now, 7:35he wants to make a statement. This is going to
be a breakaway from all the previous work that 7:40had been done there. and we're looking at each
other going, "Bill Mitchell wants us to design 7:44the new Corvette." So, he was looking for
uh more concepts, drawing draw. He wanted 7:52everybody to try every possible thing. And
uh he would pick the stuff out. He realized 7:57stuff that was too far out. Some of it was
difficult, you know, even to think about doing, 8:01but you have to reach, you have to try and put
stuff out there and and see what it looks like. 8:08We knew at that time that there was
going to be a real change on the8:12car. These young guys, they wanted to put their
fingerprint on the automotive industry and here 8:24they're given this amazing opportunity to design
the next Corvette. The lines on a Stingray coupe 8:32were so dramatic, swooping, sloping, slippery
looking. The car standing still looked like it 8:44was moving. Bill Mitchell comes back into the
studio after about a week and he slowly walks 8:50around the room, looks at all these sketches
on the wall and stops at one sketch and said, 8:56"This this is looking pretty good." He says, "Who
did this?" Okay. He says, "Great." He liked it 9:04because of the fenders, how they were bulged
and how the line between the fenders kept the 9:14fenders together. He says, "All right, I want
you to be the lead designer on this project." 9:25It's pretty incredible to think that Peter
Brock was only 20 years old when he sketched 9:30the original concept for the Corvette Stingray.
And that's a sketch that Bill Mitchell literally 9:37picked off of the wall that would go on to
inspire car designers for generations to9:44come. So, you got to realize that
that Bill Mitchell is the designer. 9:53What we are is the guys that are illustrating
his ideas for him. This carved form developed 10:00over a period of time. So this is quite an
early sketch. You can see this is 92457. 10:07So this is a couple of months before we got
the final design. General Motors eventually 10:14figured out that Bill Mitchell was working
on a new Corvette concept in secret. Bill10:20Mitchell was not just a good designer, he
was an extraordinary designer. He took that 10:32under his own wing, presented it to GM, they
went crazy. You know, they they weren't sure 10:40they were going to continue the Corvette. And
that this is the way Bill Mitchell said, "Yes, 10:48you are. Yes, you are." And he did a great
job because he had that eye and he had that 10:56goal in his soul to create and make it work.
Management liked what they discovered behind 11:05the scenes and decided to let Bill Mitchell
continue with development under two conditions. 11:11First, he would have to finance the concept
himself, and second, he couldn't use the 11:16Corvette name. So, at that point, he had to back
up and say, "Okay, we can't finish a thing up in 11:23coupe form." Because building a coupe is about
three times more complicated than building a11:27roadster. Since he's paying for it himself, uh
he said, "We're going to do this as a roadster." 11:37So this is where we developed what became
the XP87 and ultimately that's what the C211:45is. Bill Mitchell being a deep sea fisherman loved
going down to Florida and so he named the car the12:01Stingray. I mean that had sort of a magical thing
to him. This beautiful thing that flowed through 12:10the water and stuff. So the lines of the stingray
all the way around and the sharp tail and stuff on12:16it. Automotive design is
it's a study in compromises. 12:32There are so many different things that can change
in the development of an automobile. Zora Dunto, 12:39who was the chief engineer at GM during this
time, deserves a lot of credit for the success 12:44of the Corvette. Uh tell me uh what do you
think about acceleration and traction? He 12:52was constantly pushing the limits of not only
the engineering but the performance of the12:56Stingray. His background as a European engineer
and as a race car driver at Lama added a ton of 13:06value to the performance and design of the 63
Corvette. And this was Zora's main thing all 13:12the time that he was working at General Motors
was constantly trying to improve the Corvette 13:17and he was constantly butting heads of course with
the bean counters because anything that he wanted 13:22to do was going to be more expensive. So there
was always this limitation of what could happen 13:27with the car. But if it had not been for Zora,
the car would not have progressed and progressed 13:34and progressed. The important thing is here
we had a strong leader with Bill Mitchell and 13:39what he wanted for that car. That doesn't mean
that the design group around him agreed with 13:44everything he was doing. In fact, we fought with
him on on several things. One of the things that 13:52they famously disagreed on was the split window
design, which only ended up being offered for 13:57the first year of production, but it came to be
known as one of the most defining features of the14:04vehicle. Bill had a great great love of the
great classic cars that were done during the 30s, 14:13and one of his favorite was the Bugatti with a
split window on the back end. when I'd finished 14:19the car up as a coupe and he says, "Okay, now I
want you to model that as two separate windows. 14:26We're going to have a separate window on either
side." Zora Dunto, who was the chief engineer, 14:32didn't want it because it was hindering to the
driver. They couldn't see out the rear window. 14:37Dunto comes in and I remember, you know,
in this wonderful Russian accent. I mean, 14:43he was just absolutely apoplelectic. What is
this? And it turns into this giant shouting 14:50match. And the the bottom end of it is is that
Mitchell throws Zora out of the studio and says, 14:56"I don't want you coming back in here. This is my
car and you don't have anything to say about it." 15:02And he was absolutely right because he had built
the car on his own money and Chevrolet engineering 15:10had not put a dime into the car. So they didn't
have a word to say about it. And as much as Zor 15:15didn't like the car, that's the way it was going
to be. He pushed the limits of what was possible. 15:24And I think that was part of why he buted heads
with Bill Mitchell was because he wanted certain 15:31things performance-wise and Bill Mitchell wanted
certain things aesthetically speaking and the 15:38two are not necessarily compatible. So that's
why this car is such an iconic design of Bill 15:46Mitchell because it it is reflected with all the
details he had on it, primarily the split window.15:55How sad is that how the next year the new model
came out and it had it didn't have the split 16:02window. It had one piece window. And so, uh,
people that had the first model with the split 16:08window were cutting it out and then putting
the one piece in. Yes. And they had no idea 16:14what they were doing at the time. This makes this
car and you instantly know what it is. You know 16:21exactly what that car is once you see this.
There are a lot of really unique features in 16:28the 1963 Stingray. One of which would be the
hideaway headlamps, which became a trademark 16:35for the Corvette all the way until the 2005
version. It wasn't just the car lines. They 16:42made the suspension on that car. Independent
rear suspension, independent front suspension. 16:49Up to this point, they had solid axles which made
for a rough ride and when cornering could cause 16:56some problems. So, it just really rode wonderful
and it cornered immaculately. The 1963 Stingray 17:07also had some like really top-of-the-line
engine packages. If you wanted to splurge 17:12and you wanted the fastest Corvette, you could
have a fuel injected V8 with 360 horsepower.17:26To have that kind of horsepower
in a small car, even in today's17:29standards, that's a lot of muscle
power to get you down the road.17:41And you know, all Corvettes are fiberglass.
Yeah. Yeah. SMC, slush mold compound with 17:48small fibers with the resin. And they're made
very nicely. Yeah. In today's environment, 17:55it's it's carrying less weight. Yeah. Yeah.
Which means faster car. Uh faster go-kart. Yep.18:05If you look at the car and look at that tapered
line that goes all the way around, what we call 18:11the belt line in the studio, it tapers off toward
the back end. when we finally got the sketch that 18:17that Bill Mitchell finally picked off the wall.
You can see this car is clear up in November 22nd 18:2357. So it's two months between that thing and this
thing. And during that period of time, there were 18:29all kinds of sketches and ideas before we did it.
But as I was telling you earlier, this particular 18:35belt line here is much lower in the front and
higher in the back end. And I was trying to get 18:40Bill to do that because I knew aerodynamically
that would work out a lot better. You know, 18:46finally at that point after gently trying to
put that idea across, he says, "You know, kid, 18:52I want you to understand that I designed the
Corvettes around here now. Just do what I tell 18:56you." The other thing that was really interesting
is that again, cost became a factor on the car. 19:03And as you look around at this Stingray, you'll
see that there are various vents on the car on the 19:08side front fenders and on the SE-pillar and the
back. Those are phony vents. It used to drive us 19:15nuts that those weren't functional. So when Bill
would come into the studio, he'd want to put all 19:21these little things on the car and it would just
drive us crazy cuz we were trying to keep the form 19:25as pure and as functional as possible. His point
was that when the people walk into a showroom and 19:32walk around the car, there has to be certain
points of interest that they talk about. So, 19:38we had a special word for these and we call those
surface entertainment, but they did sell cars.19:50See all that's new from Chevrolet. And
for you who really love to drive, listen. 19:58Your symphony begins. Chevrolet's super sports
for 1963. The new Corvette Stingray. Ramjet 20:09fuel injection V8 in this Corvette. [Music] The
impression of the Stingray when it first arrived 20:26on the street to the public absolutely changed
people's thinking of what General Motors cars 20:32were going to be like for the future. As far as
I'm concerned, when I first saw the Stingray and 20:37even today, I think that's an iconic car.
It's going to be loved today and tomorrow. 20:46It's such a beautiful car and uh it was beautiful
in 1963 and it's beautiful today. It was the first 20:54time that uh General Motors had made money on
the Corvette program. I think they sold 10,000 21:00units immediately on it. As I understand in ' 63
they sold about the same amount of convertibles 21:08as they did the coupe. I think I can understand
that because the convertible was always there, 21:13but now there's a coupe and it
it became one of the big sellers.21:34[Music]21:35My dad's21:35collection shows you how much he loves cars.
It shows you how much he loves the people 21:48that develop those cars and the entire industry
around automotive engineering. Over the years, 21:58I've had the opportunity to collect vehicles
that are special. What I love about cars is 22:09like art. I think cars are a rolling art. And
that's what I try to create when I build a car.22:23One of the pieces of rolling art that
I feel has come about in years past 22:32is the 63 Corvette Stingray
split window coupe. [Music]22:47When my dad decided to restore
his current Stingray, there were 22:50several design features that he wanted to
modify to make it his very own. It's his 22:56way of putting his personal touch or
signature in a sense on the vehicle.23:05The first thing that came to my mind is I'm
going to lower it. He lowers every vehicle 23:11it seems like. And he did the same thing with the
Stingray. I didn't want to do a white wall because 23:17the the white wall takes away from the visual of
the rim. He had the tires scrubbed and then went 23:25for a sleek silver and gray on the rims that still
fits with the overall look and feel of the car. 23:30The scoops were a little bland. One of his ideas
was to take these nonfunctioning vents and scoops 23:39and give them a stainless steel accent. and he
even went as far as putting wire mesh underneath 23:45them to make them look like they were actually
functional. This was my dad's version of adding 23:50his own surface entertainment to the vehicle. My
dad will tell you that he never liked the door 23:57handles on the original vehicle. Never liked the
door handles. There's a friend of mine in in Utah, 24:03Dave Kindig, and he makes these handles that
are flush with the body, and I thought those 24:10were really slick. So, I put those on the car.
The interior was black. I tore that interior out, 24:18put in midnight blue interior. It seems like a
subtle change, but my dad actually owned a silver 24:2463 Stingray back in the 1970s before he had this
one. And that one actually got stolen more than 24:31once. So, the choice for a midnight blue interior
is a nod to his old vehicle. The original color 24:39of the car was Sebring silver, one of the seven
original options, but my dad of course had to 24:44put his touch on it. He used a custom fine silver
from PPG paint and it just gives it that smooth 24:52glossy appearance. And then the windows, they're
glass and it's tinted glass. It's not a film. It's 25:00actually in the glass. The way my dad described
the car to me when he saw it for the first time 25:07after it was finished can only be described in one
word. Wow. That stance was the first thing that 25:14grabbed me. And when I looked at that paint, it
just popped. In general, I mean, it's amazing. And 25:21I think the reaction to it is, it doesn't matter
who you are. It doesn't matter old and young 25:26alike. Everybody that sees uh the stingray um just
loves it. This car was so different than anything 25:34that was out there. I mean, it was Everybody
remembers that car from the first time they saw25:40it. This car was always something that I enjoyed.
I I bought a 63 back in the day. Yeah. And uh in 25:53fact, I drove that from the Chicago area out to
Portland when I moved out there. Of course, going 25:58across country in that car in 1964, it got a lot
of looks. What's great about my dad's collection 26:07of cars is that there are so many stories about
each one. My first Stingray was a Roadster. It was 26:15red in color with a black leather interior. I was
late in my 20s when I got married and my wife and 26:24I decided that we wanted to get as far away from
our in-laws as we could. So, we picked Portland,26:31Oregon. We load up this U-Haul and you know,
I'm a brave soul. I got this Corvette. I'm I'm 26:41going to go through the Rockies. Well, I I didn't
get very far out of Cisero. The Corvette didn't 26:49move the trailer. The trailer moved the Corvette.
So, I decided, you know, we're going to ship the26:55stuff. This car came with a 327 uh V8 engine with
a two-speed Power Glide automatic transmission. 27:10The engine that I selected for this car
was a 350 crate engine from Chevrolet 27:17parts department. I decided to uh do
a fuel injected. So I did the ramjet, 27:23but instead of having the ram in the front, I
changed it to the side. That makes it look like 27:30the original Corvette fuel injection. I put a lot
of chrome. So when you lift the hood on this dude, 27:41when you open that hood, it smiles back at you,
but you smile because what you're looking at is so27:50awesome. The changes that my dad makes to the
vehicle a lot of times are very subtle, but to car 28:01collectors, maybe they're over the top. I do get
a little feedback from some people out there that 28:11take a look at some of these classic cars that I
own, but normally most people will say when they 28:19see a car that I put my signature on, that's
the way it should have came from the factory.28:30Bill Mitchell really had an
incredible vision for what would 28:34ultimately become the Stingray. And as I learn
more about my dad and his passion for cars, 28:43I see that he has a similar vision as an
automotive innovator. And ever since he 28:49saw the 1963 Stingray, he had a vision
in his mind to make it his very own.28:58Jerry's vision of what the car should be.
I think he's right on for the one thing is 29:03is that he's taken those things and he's
made them functional to a certain extent. 29:07He's also accented them a little bit, which
Mitchell would have loved on it had he gone 29:12back and shown this car to Mitchell in
1963. I think it would have gotten great29:17approval. I love cars because of my dad. Writing
along with my dad was always an experience because 29:31he was teaching me life's things as we drove
along. Of course, the birds and the bees, 29:41but he uh would, you know, be honest in what
you do and shake of the hand is a contract and 29:50you need to honor that. And yeah, there was
five kids. I was the last and there's only 29:57one seat in the Corvette. So whenever dad went
somewhere, you wanted to be in that seat. You 30:04wanted to be in the passenger seat. And that
was always like something we fought over. We 30:10just wanted to go ride with dad in the Corvette.
I remember this really cool picture I saw when 30:19I was I don't know maybe I was maybe four or five
years old and I'm washing my dad's white Corvette 30:28and I saw that picture and I I actually I
could go back to that day and I remembered30:36um yeah I remembered washing that vehicle30:45I don't know why that stands out to30:46me. Yeah, it was just me and my30:52dad. When you think about Corvette,
you automatically just think of the 31:07iconic American sports car.
and it's carried through to31:12today. In 2020, Chevrolet unveiled the C8
Corvette, the first mid-enine production car 31:22they would release to the public. A vehicle
that Zora Dunto would have been proud of. 31:29The 2020 Corvette is a work of art. The C8
is um an amazing piece of engineering. GM 31:40outdid themselves. [Music] We've all been
waiting for it since Zor decided that he 31:51wanted to have a mid-enine car back in 1957.
And General Motors has gone through a number 31:57of mid-enine Corvettes. I think they did
everything they could with the C5, C6, C7, 32:06and there were great cars. It's taken this
long for the powers to be to say now's the32:16time. The main advantage that we've had over this
period of time is primarily from an engineering 32:26standpoint, but I know from a standpoint of
the way cars get designed at General Motors, 32:33there's a lot of input from people. So there's
again compromises that go on it. It's going to 32:41get refined in the next couple of seasons
and it's going to keep getting better and 32:46better and that also goes for the engineering.
It's really excellent now and all it can do is 32:52get better. So uh I'd like to own one.
You know that's all you can say. [Music]33:07When the brand new C8 Corvettes came
out, they were really hard to get your 33:12hands on at the dealerships, but
my dad found one down in Florida, 33:17and so we took the opportunity to travel
down there together to pick it up. [Music]33:40After we picked up the C8 Miami, we
had a once-in-a-lifetime invitation 33:45to visit the Kennedy Space Center and
drive both of the vehicles out there.34:02Corvettes and the space program have always
kind of had this unique connection. So, 34:07it was really fun to go there to see the
historic place and they also let us drive 34:11the cars as fast as we wanted to
go on the shuttle landing strip.34:19Thinking back when that uh C2 came out, uh it was
uh space time. You know, the vehicle then became 34:30popular and synonymous with uh the space race
and and everything that NASA was doing. [Music]34:48[Music]34:49What an awesome venture this34:52is. I think I got the C8 up to uh
definitely over 150 mph and I kind 35:05of backed off because I'd never
driven a car that fast before.35:12I have to say uh driving the C2 and my son in 35:19the C8 Corvette at the space center
was an event that I'll never forget.35:41[Music]35:42You know, they say if you just keep moving that, 35:44you never grow old. And that's
what the cars do for my dad. 35:49This C2 Corvette is very important to him because
it's nostalgic on many different levels. Cuz when 36:00he sees this vehicle, when he drives it, I
think it takes him back to when he was young.36:13I think Corvette and GM, they need to continue
to push that envelope of performance and they 36:20need to have those people that are passionate just
like Bill Mitchell on the design side like Peter 36:27Brock trying to push that form, but then also
have that balance of someone like Zora Dunto, 36:35the engineer that is pushing
the boundaries of performance.36:43Time is the only judge of good design and
great design lasts forever because there's 36:50a universal appeal that it attracts people
and it has that aesthetic form that people 36:56agree on that makes the car successful.
And that has certainly happened with a 37:01split window Corvette. It has become the
most beautiful form of its particular time. 37:09It became known as a worldass sports car
and to have been a part of that, you know, 37:18is just really exciting for me. Still, I
see the car on the on the road and I love37:24it. Corvette is going to be around for a long, 37:33long time. And this one is
going to be known forever.38:00[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]38:11[Music]38:13Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music]
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