Reference Material

It is always good to have reference material when putting together that special Corvette project.  The formatting has been updated with several new additions.. if you know of a book or reference material that you found of use when building a model Corvette, please let me know: ar@pdqnet.com

Corvette Books:

• Corvette American Legend, The Beginning, by Noland Adams (1996) Part 1- The 1953 Corvette with 261 pages of great info how Chevrolet developed the Corvette. 

• Corvette American Legend, 1956 Success - by Noland Adams (1998) Part 3 - 208 pages with 200  B&W illustrations.   The development of the 1956 Corvette and the start of racing successes for Zora Duntov.

• Original Corvette 1953 - 1962, by Tom Falconer (1997) - Some of the best photography I have seen of C1 Corvettes..  with 96 pages of well detailed shots of interiors, engine compartments, body trim and even a below view of the chassis of a 1960 290bhp fuelie used as a daily driver.

• Corvette, America's Sports Car, by Randy Leffingwell (1997) - Good history of Corvettes with sections on Racing and Styling, 192 pages with some great photographs.

• Corvette Milestones, by Mike Mueller (1996) - 96 pages of Corvette history from 1953 to 1996.

• Corvette - Prototypes & Show Cars Photo Album, edited by Wallace A. Wyss ((1997) - A great album of the Corvette prototypes & show cars.. 108 pages of black & white photographs.. many which you may recognize.

• Corvette - The American Legend, by the Auto Editors of Consumer Guide (1997) - 144 pages of large photographs of Corvettes from the C1's to C5's.

• Catalog of Corvette Numbers 1953 - 93, compiled by the Staff of Cars & Parts Magazine (1993) - All the numbers you ever want to know about Corvettes.. options, engines, date & VIN codes.. it has 214 pages of great reference if you want to know about the options or engine on that model your building. Also feature an exterior paint file and interior trim fabric sections at the back of the book.  Great when you are confirming what exterior paint was available for a certain model year. this is one of my favorite reference books.

• Corvette - America's Most Exciting Sportscar, by Bill Reynolds (1993) - Another 114 pages of great Corvette photographs.. some of which I have used to determine detailing and paint matches on models I have built.

• Corvette - C5, by Mike Mueller (1998) - A short history of Corvette leading into the development of the C5 generation with 128 pages of some great information I haven't seen before. If you are into the C5's.. you will want to see this book.

• All Corvettes Are Red, by James Schefter (1996) - 384 pages of insight into corporate politics and how GM works.. and what factors lead into the creation of the C5's... great reading, when I get a chance.. I will read this book a second time.

• Corvettes - The Cars that Created the Legend,  by Dennis Adler ( 1996) - 176 pages of photographs and text which will certainly add to your reference base.   Some great pictures of Corvettes Racers I haven't seen before.

• Corvette Sting Ray 1963 - 67,  compiled by the Staff of Cars & Parts Magazine (1996) - A series of articles on buying and restoring a 1963 Sting Ray Coupe.. everything you ever want to know about dismantling a '63 coupe and then putting it back together again.  There are 256 pages of great information.. the bad part, all the photographs are in B&W and some are kinda fuzzy.. but at least you have a place to start your search when building that '63.

• Essential Corvette Sting Ray, by Tom Falconer (1995) - Some 79 pages of good information on the mid-year Corvettes.. since these are my favorites years, just had to buy the book.

• Corvette Sting Ray, 1963 - 1967, Gold Portfolio, compiled by R.M. Clarke (?) - 172 pages of magazine articles on the '63 to '67 Corvettes.  For those who missed these articles (like me) it is a great reference of how the Sting Ray was judged by the Motoring Press.  Also has great reference to technical information I have not found elsewhere.  The only drawback is that all the photographs are in B&W and some are just plain hard to define.

Related Corvette Books:

• Indianapolis 500 Chronicle, by Rick Popely with L. Spencer Riggs (1998) - 416 pages of the best picture history I have seen for the Indy 500.  Starting with a short history of the Carl G. Fisher buying the land and building the racetrack, a 2-1/2 mile oval, to pictures of the 1998 Indy 500 race.  The format lists all drivers, cars, starting and finishing places for every Indy 500 race from 1911 thru 1998.  There are sidebars with interesting facts and highlights occurring for each year.  Of interest to Corvette model builders are listings and pictures of all the Chevrolet Pace cars including Corvette Pace cars starting in 1978.  If you have ever followed the Indy 500 as I have.. this is a must have book.

• Standard Catalog of Chevrolet 1912 - 1990, by Pat Chappell (second printing 1995) - A great reference for Chevrolet vehicles and Corvettes.  It includes sections on Dream cars and Racing and Pacing Corvettes.  

• GM Motorrama, Dream Cars of the Fifties, by Bruce Berghoff (1995) - This book documents and recalls the Motorama's from GM's the first car and truck show in 1932 to the last Motorama Show in 1961. There 136 pages of cars shown including Corvettes and GM concept and show vehicles.

• Chevrolet High Performance, by Robert Ackerson (1994) - There are 608 pages of excellent reference material on all of Chevrolet's high performance vehicles from 1955 to 1995.  Corvette is well represented with chapters beginning with the 1956 Corvette, fuel injection, the SS series, Sting Rays and Grand Sports and ending with the 1995 Vette. You are looking for information on a high performance Corvette.. this book should be one of your first stops.

Just Released & Older Corvette Books:

• Corvette American Legend, 1957 Fuel Injection - by Noland Adams (1998) - 256 pages and 225 B&W illustrations.

• Original Corvette - Sting Ray 1963 - 67, by Tom Falconer (1998) - 96 pages and 200 color illustrations.

• Corvette Black Book, 1953 - 1999, by Michael Antonick (1998) - 128 pages and 45 B&W illustrations.

• The Heart of the Beast, by Anthony Young - The definitive ZR-1 book.

• Corvette Racers, by Gregory Von Dare, MBI, (1992) -

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Page updated 12/20/01