Rock 'n' roll tunes, "killer" fame, and a red Corvette. No, we're not talking about cruising down the road in your C6 with your iPod ablaze, dreaming of international superstardom. No, let's turn the clock back to 1957, when a man and his pumping piano made history in the emerging rock-music scene with the now-famous single, "Great Balls of Fire."

Next-Generation Corvette Race Car Revealed
Corvette Racing opened a new chapter in its history with the competition debut of the next-generation Corvette C6.R at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on August 6-8, 2009. Based on the Corvette ZR1 supercar, the new Corvette C6.R has even stronger links to the production Corvette than its predecessors and utilizes the ZR1's body design, aerodynamic package, aluminum frame and chassis structure, steering system, windshield, and other components.

My story begins with a trip I made with my father, Ron, back in 2000. He was on his way to purchase his first ZR-1 (one of three he currently owns-two '95s and one '94 Lingenfelter 385) from H&H Corvette in Orlando, Florida. During the trip I caught the bug and purchased my own first Corvette, a Competition Yellow automatic LT1. This was to be the "gentlemen's hot rod" replacement for my '90 351ci supercharged and nitrous-injected Mustang. After a year of modifying the LT1 with readily available bolt-on parts, it was still very underpowered compared with a stock ZR-1, so the search began to upgrade to "The King of the Hill."

The parallels between one of the most sensational racehorses of all time and the beleaguered blown-alky dragster you see here are both numerous and startling. Anyone familiar with the tale of Seabiscuit knows of his travails and tragedies-an undersized, bowlegged, neglected nag who went on to win not only some of the biggest races of all time, but also the heart of America.

What would possess a man to buy a brand-new 2006 Chevrolet Corvette Z06, then re-CNC its heads, swap out its cam, and install a 200-shot of nitrous, all in an effort to push its output to 750 hp? Could it have been passion? Desire? A need for respect?

Think your Vette is Menagerie material? Just send a photo of the car, a brief (or, if you prefer, no-so-brief) description, and whatever else you'd like to Vette Magazine, c/o 'Glass Menagerie, 9036 Brittany Way, Tampa, FL 33619. You can also email the information to vette@sorc.com with "Glass" in the subject line. So what are you waiting for?

Building an over-the-top road-race Corvette can take more than hard work and dedication. Sometimes, you have to have patience and be prepared to wait more than 25 years for the right car to come around again.

It's an oft-repeated story. After a sudden epiphany, a misguided soul sees the error of his ways and does a complete 180. In this case, though, we're not talking about a morality tale of giving up a vice such as gambling or drinking, but rather a simple realization concerning the virtues of our favorite sports car. And no ordinary Corvette at that, but one with a 600-plus-hp, blown-and-juiced LSX 427.

Think your Vette is Menagerie material? Just send a photo of the car, a brief (or, if you prefer, no-so-brief) description, and whatever else you'd like to Vette Magazine, c/o 'Glass Menagerie, 9036 Brittany Way, Tampa, FL 33619. You can also email the information to vette@sorc.com with "Glass" in the subject line. So what are you waiting for?

Who in his right mind would take two completely different Corvettes and turn them into one? Anthony McDowell, that's who. McDowell's abiding passion for cars led him to a 25-year career in collision repair and hot-rodding. In addition to providing him with a good living, all those years fettling wrecked and broken-down cars gave McDowell considerable insight into automotive structural design. This knowledge would eventually prove pivotal in the construction his hybrid Corvette.

It started with a simple trip to Corvettes at Carlisle in August of 2004. My son, Alex, and I, along with my father, made the excursion to pick up a few parts for my 1976 Chevy Corvette. The Chip's Choice display that year featured original Greenwood Corvettes. I became an instant Greenwood fan, and in the ensuing years have been fortunate enough to visit the company's shop in Apopka, Florida, and meet many of the members of the Greenwood team.inline_mediumwraptextright26881621/features/vemp_1001_1976_chevy_corvettevemp_1001_01_o+1976_chevy_corvette+greenwood_daytona_corvette.jpgTrue

When the first C6 ZO6 prototype was shown at the Detroit auto show in 2005, it was displayed beside the newly revised factory race Corvette, the C6.R. While GM officials took pains to highlight the mechanical similarities between the two cars, there was one key area in which the flagship street and competition Vettes continued to diverge: the brand of their tires. The racer was fitted with racing slicks from Michelin, while the production car wore Goodyear F1 EMT run-flats. But unbeknownst to most showgoers, Corvette Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter and company were developing the upcoming 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 supercar on all-new Michelin rubber.inline_mediumwraptextright31184232/features/vemp_1001_2009_chevrolet_corvette_zr1vemp_1001_01_o+2009_chevrolet_corvette_zr1+left_side.jpgTrue

Oxymorons-those odd combinations of opposites like "jumbo shrimp" or "controlled chaos"-come naturally to some Corvette owners. After all, it's their car, so they can mix things up anyway they want, right? Steve Katonis and his C5 supercharged 2002 Chevrolet Corvette fit this attitude to a "T." Reflecting Katonis' own contradictory nature, it's a car with a serious supercharger under the hood, but engine covers embellished with the Looney Tunes' twirling Tasmanian Devil. (And we haven't even gotten to the electric wine rack in the back yet.) But these jumbled elements all seem to fit together in some strange way, just like what he does for a living.inline_mediumwraptextright26852452/features/vemp_1001_supercharged_2002_chevrolet_corvettevemp_1001_01_o+supercharged_2002_chevrolet_corvette+burnout.jpgTrue

Bringing a corvette back to life from the depredations of an automobile graveyard is not for the faint of heart. It requires dedication, determination, talent, and time. It also helps if you own a Corvette reproduction-components company and can utilize your own parts bin in the process.inline_mediumwraptextright31075605/features/vemp_1001_1962_chevy_corvettevemp_1001_01_o+1962_chevy_corvette+fully_restored.jpgTrue

Indy pace-car Corvettes have always garnered collector status and incited plenty of production-number crunching. So, here are a few stats to file away on the '08 edition:

Whether attending a black-tie charity event, making a new professional acquaintance, or driving our Corvette to the local car show, we all like to make a favorable first impression. And while there's something to be said for a ratty-looking car with over-the-top performance, the fact is that most often our vehicles are initially judged by their appearance, not their horsepower. Such is the case with our most recent project car, a '71 Stingray we picked up on eBay for around $5,600. Granted, getting a running, driving chrome-bumper Stingray with an array of new suspension and drivetrain parts for this price was a good deal, so we didn't expect our purchase to be all that aesthetically pleasing-and we were right.

When Robert Redford and Paul Newman paired together in The Sting, it was a resurrection of sorts after their untimely demise in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Surprisingly enough, these legendary movies have a few parallels with Scott Mercer's 800-horse '69 Stingray.

In last month's issue, we followed Zip Products technician Keith Wilhelm as he assembled one of the company's heavy-duty Dana 36 differentials. This time around, we'll detail the process of installing the diff and matching cover in our '96 C4 project car. Although most elements of the job should fall well within the comfort zone of a competent mechanic, access to both a lift and a task-specific spring-compression tool is strongly recommended. Lacking all of the foregoing (especially the competence part), we outsourced the project to our Vette-savvy friends at AntiVenom in Seffner, Florida. Follow along now as we cover the highlights of the installation.

Back in the 1960s, Zora Arkus-Duntov and his team designed what would become one of the most talked-about and sought-after Corvette models in the marque's history. The car was called the Grand Sport, and only five examples were built. The story about what drove the company to build the Grand Sport starts with Duntov, a brilliant engineer and a passionate sports-car racer. He was born in Belgium to Russian parents, raised in St. Petersburg, Russia, and educated in Germany. He raced motorcycles and cars at a variety of European racetracks. In the late '30s, he moved to Paris to escape the rising tide of anti-Jewish sentiment that was spreading across Germany. He met and married his wife, Elfie, and spent a brief time in the French Air Force as tail gunner on a bomber.

Think your Vette is Menagerie material? Just send a photo of the car, a brief (or, if you prefer, no-so-brief) description, and whatever else you'd like to Vette Magazine, c/o 'Glass Menagerie, 9036 Brittany Way, Tampa, FL 33619. You can also email the information to vette@sorc.com with "Glass" in the subject line. So what are you waiting for?

What color do you dream in? Is it Marlboro Maroon, Tuxedo Black, Cortez Silver, or even Daytona Sunset Orange? Sure, the first Corvettes were only offered in Polo White, but from its second model year forward, the Vette and its ever-expanding roster of color choices have been the envy of automotive aesthetes the world over.

It wasn't long after the Corvette arrived that toy versions starting showing up in stores. At first they were mostly crude, die-cast iron or tin replicas, but as plastics caught on in the '50s, companies flooded the market with styrene-plastic kits of miniature airplanes, boats, ships, and, yes, cars. These companies formed a close relationship with carmakers, and by the mid-'60s, some car kits were being released simultaneously with their real, full-sized counterparts. While Matchbox was making vintage and European cars, Hot Wheels began to popularize muscle cars, race cars, and Corvettes in die-cast.

Think your Vette is Menagerie material? Just send a photo of the car, a brief (or, if you prefer, no-so-brief) description, and whatever else you'd like to Vette Magazine, c/o 'Glass Menagerie, 9036 Brittany Way, Tampa, FL 33619. You can also email the information to vette@sourceinterlink.com with "Glass" in the subject line. So what are you waiting for?

It started like a lot of other Corvette restorations these days. A friend of Jeff Barnett's had bought a rough-looking '68 roadster, and planned on slapping on a new coat of paint and selling it at a profit. While there's nothing new-and nothing wrong-with the idea of making money off of classic cars, the astronomically high prices you see for some vintage Vettes have made it seem like a great way to turn a quick buck. But this isn't a get-rich-quick story, and Barnett, who was told he could buy the car after it had been painted, wasn't interested in being part of one.

George Harbaugh's C6 may be swathed in conservative charcoal gray, but the twin turbos tucked tightly underneath the chassis mean this low-key Vette is anything but a pushover. Like a nattily dressed detective-say, Kojak in a three-piece suit (or Nash Bridges for younger TV viewers)-this enforcer looks ever the gentleman, but don't cross him. If you do, you'll end up face down on the pavement, with a set of tire tracks crossing your back. That's because when you pull the trigger, this undercover Corvette fires off 618 horses and 640 lb-ft of torque at the rear wheels.