Veteran automotive writer and photographer Richard Prince recently released his latest book. Corvette 70 Years Old: The One and Only (Motorbooks/Quarto $60.00), a gorgeous love letter to the model Prince has cherished since he was a boy. “His connection to Corvette goes back to his childhood,” he said. car and driver, I remember the first time I saw a mid-year C2. “I was blown away because it was, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful cars ever produced. It’s the car I wanted when I got my license.”
Not only has Prince’s enthusiasm led him to own at least one Corvette consistently over the past 40 years, he and his wife have founded a Corvette restoration shop, have written three books to date, and have written 1,500 books on the model. I wrote the article above. , and to his actions as Chevrolet’s official Corvette photographer since the introduction of the C5.
Pre-order now
Motorbooks Corvette 70 Years: The One and Only
Pre-order now
Motorbooks Corvette 70 Years: The One and Only
This inner relationship proved invaluable in creating the book. In this book, often more than half of the rare (or previously unseen) images were from his GM’s internal archives. But it also made perusing these chronicles eerie at times. “I’ve worked with GM for many years, so I have thousands of images of myself in the archive,” Prince said. “So it was a little surreal to be doing research and coming across my work so often.”
Repeatedly talking about Chevy’s “Plastic Fantastic” sports car, one might imagine there is little else to discover. But Prince’s detailed approach to the subject offers fresh insights. He was particularly interested in seeking out new information on the origins of his Corvette in the early 1950s when America began to take an interest in sports cars.
Zora Arkus-Duntov in a prototype Corvette.
“Perhaps the most surprising thing I found was a tape recording of a 1954 interview with GM’s vice president of styling, Harley Earle, conducted by a Detroit-based journalist named Stanley Brams.” Prince said. In September 1951, while attending a sports car race at Watkins Glen, New York, Mr. Earle went to see Mr. Earle. This taped interview definitively answers the question.”
1957 Corvette SS
He was also forced to discover that despite the car’s iconic nature and market success, its continued existence often remained precarious. It’s amazing how vulnerable it has been for almost all of its history,” Prince said.
“It’s well known that in the early days when sales were sluggish, a lot of GM wanted to give it up,” he said, adding that at the end of the 1954 model year, about a third of production went unsold. “However, many times in its 70-year history, cars have come close to sudden death, including in recent decades when GM faced severe financial difficulties that ultimately led to a bankruptcy restructuring.” Many times the Corvette has been saved from the gallows by passionate and powerful people within GM. They believed in his mission and carried this passion forward.
corvette 4 rotor prototype
Prince believes in this mission, citing the attractive and unique nature of the Corvette core stock. A passionate enthusiast base, an unmatched price/performance ratio, high production numbers that promote affordability on the new and used markets, and the car’s general durability and reliability.
But he’s no purist, thankfully for esoteric changes like going from round taillights to square taillights, pop-ups to fixed headlights, and even front-engine to mid-engine layouts. “Many die-hard fans, especially those with high voices, are fiercely loyal to their favorite eras and deny any deviation from tradition,” he said. rice field. “I take a completely different approach. Evolution and progress are essential for the Corvette to survive.”
C5 Corvette design proposal
This makes his detailed and well-researched book a lot more fun to read (and watch) because it’s based on the model’s lifelong continuous adaptations. Appearing, Prince’s perspective is timely and appreciated.
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