Filed under: Concept Cars, Sports/GTs, Chevrolet, Rendered Speculation
Rendered Speculation: C6-based retro Corvette C3R
Click above for high-res gallery of C3R renderings
While it can be argued that the current Corvette is the best ever built, there are those who would say the C6 is, well, homogenized. Safe. Boring, even, at least in the looks department.
Christian Cyrulewski would be among those who are visually disinterested in the current Corvette. But instead of grousing about it over a beer or six with the local Corvette club, he's taken matters into his own hands and come up with the C3R. In his words, that stands for "third-generation retro Corvette based on the sixth-generation (C6) platform."
Christian's website is short on details but rife with renderings of a curvaceous custom Corvette based on the latest platform out of Bowling Green. Top Speed says Christian plans to cruise the Woodward Dream Cruise next year in a C3R prototype, and if there's enough interest, could offer a kit version of the car. Like your retro-styled muscle cars with actual muscle? Top Speed says Christian also plans a 427-powered version of the kit complete with side pipes. No word yet on pricing, availability, or, heck, validity of the C3R, but we'll keep ya posted.
[Source: Top Speed]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
SHF 11:34AM (11/07/2008)
Just make this the next Corvette. I'm not that much of a Vette fan but this thing is pretty sweet
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Carlos 11:35AM (11/07/2008)
That thing is sexy! Though I don't like hidden head lights.
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2004m3driver 11:38AM (11/07/2008)
Yeah no need for extra mechanical parts just for looks. Even the NSX did away with that.
Dean 11:35AM (11/07/2008)
This seems to be following the trend of manufacturers building 'retro' cars. The lines are very clean, and it looks very well done. Probably my favorite of all the retro cars out there. Let's hope the real car looks as good as these renderings. Where do I sign up?
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BigMcLargeHuge 11:36AM (11/07/2008)
Do any new cars have hide-aways?
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Rev 11:36AM (11/07/2008)
Nice! That's what I'm talking about!!
Let's leave the eighties/nineties styles back in the decades they came from and reach back further to the glorious old school, before the time of big hair and fuzzy-dice...
Camaro ditched the cheap, fleet look - you can do it too, 'vette!
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LDMAN 11:37AM (11/07/2008)
The last chrome bumper on a Corvette was on the 1972 model. All we need now is 454 or 427 block and we are in busines. It actully looks better than the C6
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sirholio 4:21PM (11/07/2008)
actually, the '73 had chrome in the back still, but that was all.
Elise SC 11:37AM (11/07/2008)
I was hoping you guys would write about this design. It would be awesome to see the guy's idea to become a reality. This blows the current Corvette out of the water, IMO.
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Eddie 11:39AM (11/07/2008)
I like it. It looks better than the C1 + C5 conversions.
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Arturo 11:42AM (11/07/2008)
I like it papa.
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why not the LS2LS7? 11:43AM (11/07/2008)
Don't like it.
And I kinda doubt there would be a kit, the current Corvette doesn't pinch down and up in the middle like that, and a body kit isn't going to change it.
Also, if there's one thing I'd take off the Corvette, it's the wing mirrors. They've been used too long now (including in the SSR), it's time for them to change. And yet there they are on this rendering.
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Shotgunner 11:49AM (11/07/2008)
I've been wanting to see something like this for too long. The key element that i felt needed to be addressed was the boring upright b-pillars, and i loved the fairing-style swept-back pillars on the original C3. Sure it reduces the trunk lid to a tiny hatch, but damn it looks good! And I agree, it would be interesting to see some exposed headlights on this.
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Torrent 11:53AM (11/07/2008)
get rid of the hideaway headlights, and you've got a winner
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Nelson 12:03PM (11/07/2008)
Is that based on C6 wheelbase and track width? The proportions look much more attractive than most C5/C6 conversions.
I like this one too.
http://www.automotivestylings.com/gm/stingray_front.htm
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TheClassic 12:27PM (11/07/2008)
Very nice, I like it. Although there was something that just didn't sit right with me in the area above the rear wheel. Its probably most noticeable in the first picture of the gallery. I've had a hard time figuring out exactly what I would change. I think the rear wheels need to be brought forward (remove the brake, with less space between door and wheel arch, and more between wheel arch and tail. Then taper the rear down and in a little more.
Obviously the designer was limited and couldn't change the wheelbase.
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LMBVette 12:53PM (11/07/2008)
The C3 has always been my favorite Vette. I'd trade in my C6 in a heartbeat for one of these!!!
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Golferal 1:16PM (11/07/2008)
I quite quite put my finger on it, but there's something about the current generation Vette body that's out of proportion. I can't figure out if it's the length (too long) or if it's too flat & wide.
In any case, I like the retro touches in this design.
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Sweeney_O 1:16PM (11/07/2008)
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who doesn't harken back to the flip-up headlights. That's one retro touch we do not need to bring back.
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BoxerFanatic 1:21PM (11/07/2008)
I am not a corvette fan in general, just as a matter of subjective taste. I tend to prefer mid-engined cars, and the C6 looks a bit to "playskool" with blunt lines, and rectangular and radiused features, like a lot of GM's designs. I kinda like the C6 better than the bloated C5, though.
But I REALLY like this. (and the stingray re-body version, too...)
It is finely chiseled where the late models are soft, it is lithe, long, and curvaceous, where the new designs are just a bit bulky despite the body lines.
If someone were to choose to do retro. DO IT RIGHT. Go back to the smooth. THIS is right, with tailored, sharp, clean styling. This car looks right because it is GOOD DESIGN, and good design is largely timeless. Bad design comes and goes, and good design comes back, if given a chance.
This blows Camaro, Mustang, Challenger, and Beetle and Mini out of the water. This is re-visiting design purity, not just nostalgia. I like looking at classic sports cars, especially european, because they are so cleanly and purely designed. Cars aren't like that anymore, including C6. This C3R goes back to that, with all the advantages of technical modernity.
Although I would change one or two aspects... Transparent targa roof, with the side rails, AND the a-pillars on the windshield painted body color. I don't know why the C6 doesn't get painted A-pillars. (while leaving the triangle at the base, forward of the door glass blacked out...). Either that, or completely blacked out, like ZR1.
The sail panels of the C3R concept, and "hoop" over the rear window remaining body color, as they are in the renderings, I kinda like that. Especially if there were some sort of mechanism under the rear window area, to open a vent mechanism, and use that vacuum area behind the rear glass, to pull air through the interior for ventilation.
I like the cove rear window, but I could also see a fastback rear glass option (which later C3s got, but this could keep the C6 rear glass it was originally built with...)
I would also adopt flush transparent light units, perhaps L-shaped in the bodywork along the inside of the fender crest line, into the front bumper line. Kinda Like the TVR Sagaris. And mounted slightly lower than the rendered covers on the C3R renderings now... Come to think of it, this kind of looks like a sleeker, simpler TVR T350/Sagaris, in the form of a C3 Corvette.
The whole front of that car could be flattened just a slight bit. The fenders could be a little thinner, vertically, and the contoured a bit flatter to match... with the headlights closer to the bumper-edge.
Actually, I think the rear fenders are nice. Not as short as the original C3 design, but that helps lengthen the car, visually. The sail panels, and the compound re-flex curve in the tail panel are very nicely rendered, The rear diffuser could get bigger, to help cut the visual thickness of the lower part of the tail panel, and wrap to the sides, for that C3 bobbed-tail look.
The wheelbase is more complex on the C6 anyway, due to it's transaxle design, which has performance benefits for weight distribution, and front engine placement.
I would not myself choose to buy a C6... but, if this becomes a reality... I could see myself buying a used C6 and converting it like the renderings show, and a few of my own touches, and really enjoying a finely shaped sports car.
Part of me would be wanting my preference of a small displacement DOHC, high revving, flat-crank V8, in such a lithe package, rather than the sledgehammer-approach of a 6-liter+ small block...
But SBC is an integral part of Corvette, both C3 and C6, and I won't dispute that tradition. SBC fits with Corvette, if not partially defines Corvette. Maybe a C4 ZR1 engine would fit... :D
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