11 "I've met Chuck Jordan...
11 "I've met Chuck Jordan several times over my career writing Corvette histories. This photo seems so implausible: dapper, disciplined Chuck sitting on a cartoon. Series creator Bob Kane and executive producer William Dozier asked GM Design's help in creating a suitable escape car for their lead character, Batman. The TV show ran from 1966 through 1968 and starred Adam West."
He finished the tome's text in July 2011. Immediately afterwards, he flew to Detroit and travelled to the GM Media Archive. "I went through every photograph that GM had on the Corvette," Leffingwell remembers. "Some years--1953, 1963, 1968, 1969, and 1997-had more than 1,000 photos each."
12 "As a former newspaper...
12 "As a former newspaper photographer, I love street photography--the slice-of-life, decisive-moment glimpse into what happened during an instant in time. This photograph is one of my favorites, for showing the engagement of some people on the street at seeing this new sports car, and the disengagement of others."
Seven working days later, Leffingwell had amassed a shortlist of 1,500 Corvette photographs from the archives. His next challenge was to pare down the archival shots to the ones he could fit in the new book. "I knew Corvette Sixty Years was to contain 250 color photos and 150 in black and white. The problem was that I couldn't just fill the entire 256-page book with previously unpublished images of the very first year, or even just the solid-axle cars, so that initiated the editing challenge. Motorbooks wasn't going to let me add 500 pages and another 1,000 images to the specs for this book," he says.
13 "This photograph is just...
13 "This photograph is just simply beautiful. I wish I knew the name of the photographer, so I could pay the compliment directly. It has a very classic style. The light on the car is gorgeous, and, to me, every element of this image works to direct the viewer’s eye right to the ZR-1."
Leffingwell recalls that approximately 300 of the book's 400 images came directly from the GM Archive. The others--such as a '69 L88 (the last L88 convertible), the one-of-one supercharged '53 Corvette, and the '55 Duntov mule--are modern photography of iconic Corvettes by himself and the book's co-photographer, David Newhardt.
14 "Collectors often put...
14 "Collectors often put their cars away before the first snowflake falls. To GM development engineers, Corvettes simply are cars that have to work in all kinds of weather. These C5 'Beta' prototypes, by the side of a road in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, give a hint of the kind of cold-weather testing prototypes must pass so production cars never fail."
"Corvette Sixty Years is a new historical appraisal of a well-known history," Leffingwell concludes. "Its collection of phenomenal images from the GM Media Archive, [along with] new photography, makes this the most exciting book-at least for me--that I've authored on the Corvette." Hopefully, VETTE readers will agree. Corvette Sixty Years will be available for pre-order on April 15, 2012, at
www.motorbooks.com. It will be published in 10x12.25-inch hardback and retail for $50.