Corvette Stingray Concept Styling Analysis

The Front
The concept's slant-nose is probably the least retro portion of the car. The 1959 racer and the '63 production car had relatively tall, peaked nose and a sort of overbite look that, while distinctive, cause pretty horrendous aerodynamic lift. The Concept's nose is far less distinctive and the low, wide egg-crate grille is, according to Welburn, a detail from the curvy Corvette SS racer that preceded the Sting Ray. Corvette also gave up on flip-up headlamps several years back. Instead, the Concept has tiny finder mounted lights that have no prescident in Corvette history. Thankfully, the Concept doesn't have the fake hood vents of the 1963 car either. The sharp peaks of the front fenders suggest both the racer and the production car, giving the somewhat unadventurous wedge nose some distinction.

The Profile

The Stingray Concept's side view is where the early '60s influence is most obvious and successful. Like the '63 production car, the Stingray Concept's razor-sharp front and rear fender peaks which fade into the door panel define the side view of the car and accentuate the wheels. Unlike the inspiration cars, the new Concept's wheel wells are circular. On the old cars the crease that wrapped around the entire car, visually chopped the tops of the wheel well off. It's what give the old cars such an intensely horizontal -- almost flat -- look about them. The new Concept has that line but it's trapped in between the front and rear wheels, low on the body side. And unlike the old cars, the new Concept's crease has a fair amount of rake to it. Like most modern concepts or production cars, huge wheels take up a higher percentage of the side view than in any vintage car. There simply more depth to the new Concept's side view than creased envelope body of the old cars.

The new Concept recreates the roof line of the '63 with surprising accuracy and that strangely shaped B-pillar matches the look of the old coupe too -- albeit without the fake vents.

The Rear
The Concept's rear is its most outlandish and most controversial angle. It has, of course, a strip of body vertically bisecting the back light for no reason, other than that it's become the most recognizable feature of the '63 coupe. GM has attempted to re-create the quasi boat-tail look of the '63 coupe by visually stretching the tapered passenger cabin out beyond the tail of the car. It terminates in a sharp horizontal crease that brings back the horizontal line from the body side. So large are the rear wheels and so exaggerated are the rear haunches that cover them that the rear view of the Concept looks almost as if the central fuselage of the passenger cabin is sinking into them. They're like enormous origami pontoons. It's this, and the tail lights that are set into them, that give the new car a curious Barris Kustom vibe that has little to do with the original car. The center-mounted grouping of four big tail pipes have a similarly Kustom vibe. They are inspired not just by the '63 tail pipes, which also poked out of the bodywork but also suggest the four round tail lights of the original car.