Month: February 2013

If the luxurious new C7 interior on the way this fall has given you a case of “leather envy” and you still love your C6, then you might want to think about contacting a company called Carlex Designs for an upgrade of your current Corvette.

One such car has already been envisioned by the company, which says the owner of this C6 coupe asked for a nice toned interior, “something that would suit a middle aged gentleman who enjoys casual driving in his lovely Corvette.”

“We have come up with a few projects, but our customer chose the one we liked best,” Carlex says.

The resulting interior is done in high-quality Napa leather in a vanilla and pepper color scheme.

While the color combo might seem a little busy to some, it definitely offers a richer, more elegant look for the discriminating Corvette owner.

As the company says on its website, “At some point of our life we buy a sports car not to race it with others but simply to enjoy the sound of the V8 engine and the beauty of the car. As we all know, American sports cars have 3 things in common. The first one is a rough looking body line, the second one is the one of a kind engine sound a sound that can send shivers down the spine and the third one is…. the most horrible and tasteless interiors on the whole planet. Of course it’s a matter of taste but please the 60′s and 70′s are long over, maybe it’s time to come up with a fresh new look?”

Carlex says its main aim is to develop the most unique car interiors, starting from a draft, ending on complete project realization.

“In our designs we always want to show the individual character of car owner and his car, far beyond the offer of car manufacturers,” Carlex says. “We set high limits when it comes to quality and innovations, our minds are always fresh and full of ideas. Motorization is our passion; we have lots of love for beauty and esthetics. Our dream is to set new paths in interior stylization and introduce new trends in car interiors – we are fully dedicated to that goal. Unique design, high quality of service, wide range of materials used that what Carlex Design is about. We prove it with every project !”

Do you think Carlex realized their goal with this car? Leave us your comments below.

Source:
CarScoop

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Since the 1.1313 reveal, most of the recent sightings of the prototype Corvette Stingrays have been in the Arizona and California but they are also working out in winter climates as well. This Velocity Yellow 2014 Corvette Stingray Coupe was spotted on some snow covered back roads in Michigan and it’s the first one we’ve seen wearing a full-body racing stripe.

Our friends at Corvette7.com have a bevy of shots showing the Velocity Yellow Corvette wearing what looks to be the 60th anniversary stripes found on the 2013 models. The strip is tapered at the front of the car and grows wider as it flows over the radiator extractor vents and onto the hood bulge.

We also noticed that this Stingray is apparently wearing matching silver-colored headlight buckets. All the previous shots of the prototype test cars and the two show cars have black headlight buckets.

The other item we’ve picked up on is this picture is that hood vent doesn’t look very black either and it almost blends with the stripes whereas every other C7 view those vents are very black. (Perhaps its the angle or the overcast sky.)

Corvette7.com and AutoBlog.com are both wondering if the striped Corvette could be a Grand Sport model. Despite the stripes not being an option on the Corvette Colorizer, previous body stripes have mostly been offered through the Genuine Corvette Accessories catalog and so like everything else, they are being tested on the Corvette. Don’t the stripes make the C7 Corvette look much faster in the snow?

A prototype builds go, this one seems to be a bit rough as well. On the rear sides where the fascia joins the car, there is matching yellow tape covering the gaps. Some have joked that it was done for weight savings with tape being lighter than the fasteners, but we’ll chalk it up to being a pre-production car and leave it at that.

Check out all the pics over at Corvette7.com.

Source:
Corvette7.com and AutoBlog.com

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By all accounts, Chevrolet has a hit on its hands with the new C7 Corvette Stingray Coupe but already the automotive journos are looking to the future as they ask what’s next for GM’s halo car.

Earlier this week was the report from Motor Trend that the C7 Corvette ZR1 could be packing 700 horsepower.

Now from Road & Track, we get the opportunity to see just what a C7 Corvette ZR1 might look like via this rendering from the talented Theo Chin/Chris Doane Automotive.

Taking design cues from the C6 Corvette ZR1 and how it differentiates from the standard C6 Coupe, this rendering imagines a C7 Corvette ZR1 with a carbon fiber front splitter and rocker panels on the side while the rear boasts the ZR1′s larger carbon fiber spoiler. The front quarter panel vents are also changed from one single vent outlet to two and the C6-styled widebody rear brake scoops behind the doors return as well. The ZR1 badge and blue brake calipers complete the look.

Click here for a larger version of the rendering.

Although not detailed, we have to assume that the new ZR1 would continue Chevy’s aggressive use of carbon fiber for the fenders and rear hatch to get that weight even lower and perhaps some slightly larger wheels featuring Michelin rubber will increase the stance.

The one design feature not carried over is the see-through window on the hood to show off the 638-hp LS9′s supercharger cover. We can’t decide whether its omission is a good thing or a bad thing.

Overall, we think this is a very good representation of the what the next Corvette ZR1 (or Z06 for that matter) might look like.

Plus that color is killer and reminds us of a metallic version of War Bonnet Yellow.

Do you like what you see or would you rather Chevy went in a different direction for the future performance variants of the Corvette? Hit the comments and let us know or pop over to Road & Track to see the the rear rendering as well.

Source:
Road & Track

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It’s not often that Corvette enthusiasts can say they will have a chance to see a car they’ve never seen before.

But come the week of March 8-10, at the 18th annual Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance in Florida, the 1964 rear engine experimental Corvette known as the XP-819 will be unveiled to the public for the first time ever.

It’ll mark the debut of the nearly 50-year-old car after expert restorer Kevin Mackay’s more than 3,500 hours of restoration at the request of Mike Yager, the founder and Chief Cheerleader of Mid America Motorworks who bought it at an auction in California 11 years ago.

The XP-819 is a rear-engine Corvette built under the auspices of a Safety Proposal program headed by Frank Winchell. Zora Duntov didn’t care much for the car and preferred a mid-engine design instead.

XP-819 is significant since it shows some of the later C3 design characteristics of Larry Shinoda and John Schinella in the fender line, rear window deck area, and swooping rear clamshell.

Chevrolet ordered the XP-819 destroyed in 1969 and asked Smokey Yunick to do the honors. The car was indeed cut apart and stripped of usable parts and then stored in Yunick’s shop in Daytona Beach, Fla., where it remained for years until it was found by a Chevy dealer out of Missouri.

Since the car had been dismantled and stripped of some parts, Mackay soon found out that the restoration job would definitely not be an easy one. Each missing part had to be made by hand since no other car in the world shares XP-819’s build.

“I am looking forward to the day when XP-819 finds its way back home to MY Garage Museum,” Yager said. “It will be exciting to show guests a Corvette that I can confidently say they have never seen before!”

Thanks to Yager and Mackay, the XP-819 will drive onto the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance show field next month with fully functional brakes, steering column, and two seats.

Corvette enthusiasts can be grateful that these two men were willing to sink so much time and money into making sure that a unique piece of Corvette history, once in danger of disappearing forever, will once again live on forever.

Source:
Mid America Motorworks

Related:
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