1995The National Corvette Museum, after many years of gestation, finally opened its doors to a tremendous public turnout. When all was said and done, more than 4,000 Corvettes took part in caravans to Bowling Green, and the NCM logged more than 100,000 visitors in its inaugural weekend. Two weeks after the Corvette Museum's debut, Mid America Designs celebrates its 20th birthday with a weekend show, and festivities attract some 600 Corvette faithful. In March (Vol. 19, No. 3), VETTE honored the '71 Shark with a Silver Salute, and Dick Guldstrand introduced his LT5-powered GS90 supercar. In April, D. Randy Riggs and Dr. M.F. Dobbins took an in-depth look at restoration labels and decals for mid-years, and a Corvette would again pace the Indy 500 in 1995. May contained only one tech article-a piece on distributor caps, but contained the annual Price Guide and Zora's 85th birthday party. June featured Cops and their Corvettes, while in July James Resnick followed the Callaway LM racers' maiden voyage in American racing as they almost finished the 24 Hours at Daytona. D. Randy attended the Bragg-Smith Advanced Driving School in the August issue, where he explored both his and the school's Z07-equipped Corvettes' capabilities. August also marked the debut of a new but uninspiring logo, and the tagline changed to "America's Favorite Corvette Magazine." The October issue unveiled the final rendition of the C4 platform, whose one-year-only heart will be the 330hp LT4 in all six-speed cars. Special edition cars commemorating the occasion included the '96 Grand Sport and the Collector's Edition. November contained the introductory installment of "Project Code Red," a badly dilapidated '85 coupe that VETTE would restore, bit by bit, over the next couple of years. Code Red was the first-ever VETTE Magazine giveaway project car.
1996This proved to be a milestone year for VETTE Magazine and the Corvette community as a whole, for better and for worse. The March issue, Vol. 20, No. 3, headlined the latest and greatest from Reeves Callaway-an astounding 783-horse, twin-turbo, DOHC LT5 that propelled a ZR-1 to 10-second quarter-miles. In April Doug Rippie Motorsports performed a coilover suspension conversion on a C4, and the Silver Anniversary of the '71 Corvette was saluted.
May 1996 was D. Randy Riggs last issue as Editor-in-Chief. After a total of 95 issues, 89 as Editor-in-Chief, D. Randy resigned to pursue other opportunities in photojournalism, and to write a Corvette book "completely unlike any you've ever seen." Richard Lentinello, who claimed in his first Driver's Seat that VETTE's new motto was "To be driven," replaced Riggs. June also introduced a new series called "Power Tuning," and featured a story on the legendary Gulf Oil road racing Corvettes.
In the July issue (Vol. 20, No. 7), the Corvette world mourned the loss of Zora Arkus-Duntov. If not for Zora, the Corvette would not have survived past 1955 nor developed its illustrious racing pedigree, and who knows where American sports cars as a whole would be today without him. D. Randy Riggs returned for a special Driver's Seat farewell, which opened with:
"The true friend of every man or woman who ever had a sparkle in their eye for a Corvette is gone. Zora Arkus-Duntov, the Corvette's Godfather, died of natural causes on Sunday, April 21, 1996. He was 86 years young and, to the end, boasted an energetic zest for life and living-as well as an innate mechanical curiosity and genius that propelled him from innovation to invention, time and time again."
Riggs, who considered Zora a personal friend, contributed a three-page article highlighting the life of the legend, as well. The crew at VETTE also offered a special edition tribute entitled Duntov: The Man Behind the Corvette. We're sure a copy of that tribute is now worth considerably more than its $3.99 cover price.