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Greetings,
Scott Teeters here. Welcome to the August issue of The Illustrated Corvette Series Newsletter. It's hard to believe that Summer '07 is almost behind us. Hope yours was terriffic. We have several new things to tell you about, so lets get right to it.
* The new Illustrated Corvette Series No. 126
- The 2005 C6.R Le Mans-winning Corvette.
* The new Illustrated Corvette Series II No. 126
The 2005 C6.R Le Mans-winning Corvette - same art used in the Vette Magazine column, but no story copy.
* C6.R Video - A VERY cool aft-view from the C6.R.
* C6.R In-car Audio - Listen to the racing LS7.R at work.
* Corvette Oddball - "Grumpy Jenkins" Corvette?
* Corvettes at Carlisle - A quick look at one of the largest Corvette shows in the nation.
* Hot >From the Rumor Mill...
A Mid-Engine C7 Corvette?
On we go!
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The Latest Illustrated Corvette Series:
The 2005 C6.R Corvette -
"Continued Racing Success"
 Those frustrating days of eating the brake pad dust of fussy little Porsches and Ferraris are OVER! The dark days of heartbreak seeing number 1 qualifying Corvettes break half way through a 12 or 24 hour race are GONE! The Corvette Racing team has proven itself to be an international road racing force to be reckoned with.
The '05 C6.R was in development for a full year before the first C6 rolled off the Bowling Green assembly line. All the preparation work paid off with a very close 2nd place win at the C6.R's debut race in Sebring and 1st in GT1 Class at Le Mans for the 4th time since 2001! This month we take a look at the amazing C6.R.
(PS - I like Porsches and Ferraris too, just having a little fun at their expense)
You can order ICS No. 126 directly from The Illustrated Corvette Series website by using the PayPal payment buttons, or you can call us TOLL-FREE at: 1-800-858-6670.
All
of our prints measure 11" x 17", are printed on tan parchment paper,
are signed by the artist and cost $19.95, + $4.95 S&H. For an additional $10 you can have your print personalized!
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Special Club Offer
I'd like to make a special offer to you and your Corvette club. Each signed, parchment paper print retails for $19.95, plus $4.95 for shipping and handling. If your club places an order for 5 or more prints, each print can be yours for just $15.00 each. That's a $4.95 savings - almost 25% off.
Each print measures 11" x 17", is made on tan parchment paper, and signed by the artist - me.
If your club orders 5 or more prints, we're offering FREE SHIPPING!!!
So, I invite you to browse our online catalog at: www.IllustratedCorvetteSeries.com We have art prints of every production Corvette from 1953 to 2007. Besides reproductions of the Vette Magazine series, I also have side-view profiles of every production Corvette and 18 Corvette engine illustrations.
If you own a Corvette,
we have an art print of YOUR CAR.
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Illustrated Corvette Series II No. 126:
2005 C6.R Le Mans-Winning Corvette
Now Available!
 The astonishing success of the C5-R and the C6.R Corvettes has wet the racing appetite of GM. We can be reasonably assured that there will be "R" Corvettes on road racing courses for a long time to come. It's fun to see the other teams trying to catch up with the Corvette team. We should emphasize the word "team" here, as the C5-R's and C6.R's success has been a total team effort. The team's engineering, pit crew, designers, drivers and other support members are second to none. EXCELLENT job everyone!
Featuring a large side-view rendering of the '05 C6.R Corvette, as well as front and rear 3/4 views. Check it out HERE.
Each print is made on 11" x 17" tan parchment paper and signed by the artist, and cost $19.95, plus $4.95 for shipping & handling.
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Looking Out the Back of a C6.R
 This is shaping up to be the C6.R newsletter. My car buddy Don Amadio at Scrambled Eggs Productions showed this to me. The site is BadBoyVettes.com and they have an excellent collection of C6.R videos you can watch on their site. The link below will take you one of my favorites.
To make this video, a small digital video camera was attached to the rear bumper cover. The C6.R leaves the Road America pit lane and does one lap with the team member C6.R following the camera car. The net result is that you get to hear the beautiful sounds of the LS7.R engine while watching the team C6.R run the course.
After watching this I though,
"Can you imagine doing this for 24 hours?"
To watch the video, CLICK HERE.
Be sure to visit BadBoyVettes.com. It's a fun site.
SPECIAL NOTE. I have a G4 Mac that uses System 10.4.10. I could not get the videos to play using Netscape and Internet Explorer required a missing plug-in. However, the browser FireFox worked perfectly the first time and did not require me to go find a plug-in.
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The Sweet Sounds of the C6.R at Work!
 Okay, okay, I'll admit it. You have to be a wee bit of a nutter to get into this. But that's okay, we're all nuts about Vettes, right?
The link below will take you to an audio file of a recording inside of one of the C6.R Corvettes during a lap around Le Mans in June 2007. See if you can spot the LONG Mulsane Straight.
I guess I must be used to the explosive engine sounds of drag racing machines. What struck me was the smooth, gradual growling sounds of the LS7.R. And the up and down shifts are quick and smooth. I have to admit that here and there, I was getting a bit of a rush.
So sit back, crank up your computer speakers, put your seat belt on, and ENJOY the sweet music of the C6.R! (Racing helmet is optional)
CLICK HERE
SPECIAL
NOTE. Like the above video, I found that the audio file worked best using FireFox. This browser is a free download at www.FireFox.com in a Mac, Windwos, and Linux format.
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Illustrated Corvette Series Catalogs
 Our lllustrated Corvette Series website, is updated several times a month. But if you would like to receive a free 22-page catalog, you can send me an e-mail with your mailing address to:
lightoak@comcast.net
Or, you can call us toll-free at: 1-800-858-6670 and we'll be happy to send you a catalog package.
THIS JUST IN!!!
Our Corvette Art Prints catalog is now available as a FREE PDF file.
To get yours now,
CLICK HERE!
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Let's Play, "Corvette Oddball!"
Quirky Vette Factoids
Hey! No mailbox hood scoop and Lakewood traction bars???
Question: Is the "Grumpy" Corvette for real?
Answer: I'm going to make a broad assumption that everyone reading this knows who Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins is. If not, we're going to have to suspend your drivers license for a month while you take Muscle Car and Nostalgia Drag Racing Sensitivity Training Classes. There'll be a test at the end.
But seriously folks, Bill Jenkins is a true living legend, right up there with Zora Arkus-Duntov, A.J. Foyt, Don Garlits, and lots more. Da' Grump doesn't live too far from the Carlisle Fairgrounds - just up the PA Turnpike a ways. It seemed that the bright guys from K. C. Kerbeck, in Atlantic City, thought it would be a lot of fun to dress up an out of the box, $44,950 Corvette with a few official Corvette accessory items, add some stripes, letter the car with "Grumpy" and "JENKINS/KERBECK" graphics. Then, to really send up the flag, they got the grumpy one himself to come by on Saturday, sign autographs, and grunt through endless bench racing stories.
Kerbeck wanted to celibrate the Corvette's new "base" engine, the 430-horsepower, all-aluminum LS3. Remember when the all-aluminum ZL-1 seemed exotic? Now "all-aluminum" is stock. And that 430-horsepower figure is "net" horsepower. Back in the golden days, power ratings were based on "gross" dynamometer reading. That is, readings without a fan, mufflers, alternator, power steering pump, etc. That means that if the famous old '67 - '69 L-71 427/435 engine (the solid-lifter version with the 3x2 carb setup and the triangle air cleaner), the net power rating would have been somewhere in the high 300-range. But unlike the old L-71 beasty, ther LS3 is so trackable and easy to drive, your Mom could drive to the flower shoppe in your Vette.
The F.C. Kerbeck guys also added the official Corvette accessory stripes, wheels, and rear spoiler. So, to answer the initial question, was the Grumpy Corvete "real" or not... yes, it's a real car, but no,it's not for sale.
But I'm sure that if it was for sale, someone would have bought it.
Too cool!
PS - Don't let that "Grumpy" thing fool you. He's a pussy cat.
 
For "Grumpy" artwork, CLICK HERE.
Be sure to read this wonderful Steve Collison story titled, "Speed Shifting With Grumpy & Strickler." Former Super Stock & Drag Illustrated editor Steve Collison shares a great story about Bill Jenkins and Dave Strickler from Steve's old Car Carft dayz in the early '70s. CLICK HERE.
Got a "Corvette Oddball" factoid that you'd like to share? Zip me off an e-mail at, lightoak@comcast.net and I'll include it in the next newsletter.
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Corvettes at Carlisle 2007
For East Coast Vette lovers, the annual trek to Corvettes at Carlisle show in Carlisle, Pennsylvania is just what you do the third weekend of August. "Oh, it's the third weekend of August, guess we're going to Carlisle." If you have never been to a large Corvette show, such as Corvettes at Carlisle, it can be sensory overload.
The fairground is situated in a huge natural bowl that covers perhaps hundreds of acres. The parking lot is a show in itself, as they only allow Corvettes into the fairground parking lots. When you are inside the fairgrounds, all you can see are Corvettes! everywhere you look, you see nothing but Corvettes!
On the fairgrounds there is everything a Corvette buff could want - old parts, refurbished parts, NOS parts, Vette memorabilia, Corvette art, and TONS of specialty Corvettes. Anyone that's anyone in the Corvette hobby is there.
One of my favorite places is Building T - "Chip's Choice Display." This is where the vintage Corvette racers are on display. I just love those old war horses. Were it not for the men and women that loved and raced these cars, Corvettes wouldn't enjoy the street image that they do. The stock '08 Vette with its 430-horsepower simply would not be, without the racing efforts of the C5-R, C6.R, and many other previous Corvette race cars.
Pictured here are just a few of the vintage Corvette racers that were on display at this year's show.
My only disappointment was that I didn't see any old factory prototypes or show cars. A few years ago one of the '60s mid-engine prototypes Corvettes was on display. It was the first time I had ever seen the car in person and was immediately taken by the size of the car. It was very small.
Oh well, I'll just have to go back for the '08 show. The "Grumpy Corvette" almost made up for the prototype no-shows.
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Hot From the Rumor Mill:
A C7 "Mid-Engine" Corvette?
 Corvette
fans have been drooling over the possibility of a mid-engine Corvette
since the 1968 XP-880 (Astro II) mid-engine experimental Corvette. Although the
Astro I was technically considered a "Corvette," its mid-ship placed
engine was a hot rodded Corvair engine. (Lucky for us that Chevrolet
didn't decide to go in THAT direction)
Then there was the '70 XP-882 (pictured above) that really looked like it would be at local Chevy dealers as a
'72 model. But the muscle car party was over and GM was too busy reducing emissions to seriously consider tooling up for a mid-engine Corvette.
There were several other mid-engine, experimental Corvettes
in the mid-'70s and late '80s. But ultimately "cost" was always the ax
that came down on the mid-engine layout. Besides, as the '80s and '90s,
moved on, the car just kept getting better and better. Why mess with
success?
Well, this might be just a rumor (magazine BS), but
apparently the mid-engine Corvette is now under consideration... again.
Interesting! Here's the link...
http://www.autoextremist.com/index.shtml
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Coming Up In The Illustrated Corvette Series
Here's what's coming up in the series for the rest of 2007...
No. 127 - Briggs Cunningham's 1960 Le Mans Racers (Sepember 07)
No. 128 - 1963 Z06 (October 2007)
No. 129 - 2004 Dick Guldstrand 427 Special (Nov 2007)
No. 130 - 2008 Production Corvette (December 2007)
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Suggestions Anyone???
Since the series started in the Spring of '97, it has been telling the chronological history of the Corvette. Beginning this September, the series will be covering interesting famous racing Vettes, specialty Vettes, and some of the more obscure prototype and show Vettes, such as the '63 4-seater Sting Ray prototype and the 1954 Nomad. This should be a lot of fun, as there's always a good story behind race cars, prototypes, and show cars.
So, if you have a suggestion for something that you'd like to see in the series, please e-mail me at: lightoak@comcast.net. I'm open to all suggestions.
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SPECIAL CLUB OFFER!!!
When your club places an order
for 5 or more prints,
we will discount each print
$4.95 to just $15 each!
PLUS, FREE SHIPPING!!!
You can pick and choose from
our collection of over
300 Corvette prints.
Check out our selection at: www.IllustratedCorvetteSeries.com
If you have any questions or would like a FREE catalog, call us at:
1-800-858-6670.
List Price:
$19.95 + $4.95 S&H
Club Discount Price:
$15.00 each & FREE SHIPPING
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That 's all for now. Here in New Jersey we still have at least six more weeks of warm to hot weather before we get to enjoy those wonderful cool Autumn days.
Drive safe everyone.
Scott
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