Car classics: Corvette Stingray

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SWEET LOVE ON WHEELS: The extraordinarily exotic Stingray would have been deemed vulgar by small-town America driving their Caprice and Impala land yachts.

Chevrolet's 1968-82 'Vette should have come with an optional chestwig and gold medallion, writes Shahzad Sheikh.

Car journos will often refer to ‘coke-bottle' styling, which is an easy fall-back when they need to describe cars with bulging extremities and narrow centres.

The 1968-1982 C3 Corvette Stingray (only badged ‘Stingray' from 1969-76, but it's what everyone calls it anyway), viewed from any angle, absolutely epitomises this comparison to that iconic piece of brand-boosting beverage-holding Americana.

Its exaggerated extremities are cartoony. The bodywork is draped over the wheels, and a huge bonnet announces the car's unquestionable masculinity with all the subtlety of the late Barry White's basso profundo.

There's a tiny cabin to keep things intimate between the driver and his, er, associate, and that boot-less rear actually has a generous compartment and is an ideal place to hide stuff, because a man's gotta have secrets - it makes him sexier (at least that's what it said in a woman's mag... apparently).

The self-acclaimed ‘America's best sportscar', has always been a subject for extrovert design, and the reason the C3 looks so outrageous is because it's virtually unchanged from the concept car that sired it - the Mako Shark II, which had an even more protruding and sharply pointed nose.

Those familiar with Elasmobranchii will know that the Mako is one fast shark.

Appropriately the cars typically came with 5.7-litre (350cu) or 7.4 (454cu) engines with power outputs up to 425bhp.

The public got another preview of the car when Mattel released its first line of Hotwheels 1/64 scale toy cars, and included a ‘Custom Corvette' a few weeks before the official launch of the C3. Oops.

In 1968 Yanks were mostly driving Chevy Caprices and Impalas - huge wallowy yachts with expansive straight-edged metalwork. In conservative small-town America, the psychedelic Corvette would have been deemed vulgar, but it clearly had longevity and ran for over 14 years with nearly half a million made.

The fewest were produced in 1974, which makes Pravin Bhagwat's stock 350Ci V8 T-Top in its original orange with the beige vinyl interior, a rare example of the breed.

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