CORVETTE 70 YEARS: The One and Only, apt title indeed

CORVETTE 70 YEARS: The One and Only
RICHARD PRICE
Motorbooks International (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$60.00 hardcover, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: The richly illustrated Corvette 70 Years is a complete history of America’s only sports car, detailing engineering, design, and key players.

There’s something for every enthusiast in Corvette 70 Years, from the classic early-generation models, to the legendary race cars, to the latest stunning mid-engine C8. Climb in and fasten your seat belt.

Chevrolet’s Corvette is one of the most influential and iconic American automobiles in history, holding the mantle of America’s sports car across seven decades. In Corvette 70 Years: The One and Only, author Richard Prince offers a richly illustrated and detailed book that captures the full story of one of these legendary automobiles. Beautiful, contemporary photos and rare historical images accompany in-depth analyses of milestone cars and events. Notably, the story is told through the lens of the three dozen most influential Corvettes representing all eight generations, including the:

The 1953 car that started it all

New performance heights in 1957 with fuel-injected V8

Early design and engineering specials , including the 1957 SS, CERV I, Mako Shark II

Landmark 1963 split-window coupe

The first of the revolutionary styled C3s

All-new 1984 C4 and powerful Callaway twin-turbos and ZR1s

World-class 1997 C5

Ultra-high-performance C5, C6, and C7 Z06 and ZR1

Revolutionary mid-engine C8 Corvette introduced in 2020

Corvette racecars

Created with the cooperation of General Motors, the book brings to light the engineering and design stories behind one of GM's most famous cars, as well as its key players. Comprising a unique perspective on a motoring legend, Corvette 70 Years truly is the one and only.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: The C6 buyers' guide is specific and it's practical. This piece of drool-inducing art photography and luxe design is the opposite: it's a browser's book, meant to elicit sighs of pleasure, tinged with twinges of envy for the designers and owners of these extraordinary machines.

The US has no other car like the Corvette in any of its particulars. There are, in these machines, the astonishing heights of technology, design, and performace achieved by Koenigsegg of Sweden, Bugatti, Maserati, Ferrari...but those are extraordinary dream machines that the very very few can afford to buy and maintain as toys. The Corvette is a practical automobile, usable on regular roads, and while expensive, is not utterky stratospherically out of mortal reach.

It's the reason Chevrolet keeps building them in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

all the places we'll go in the 'Vette

The images provided for publicity give the impression that the photos are mosty of the great icon of the development into the modern car, the 1963-1967 era of design gratness; this is not accurate, the entire development process gets its turns. But good heavens, it is not hard to see why they made this choice:

the way a car becomes an icon of design, performance, and style

Your 'Vette fancier will batten on the beauty of this photo essay on his object of obsession. But remember that it's about the entire car line's history!

He won't be disappointed if he likes other eras more, or to the exclusion of, the '63-'67 era.

If you're not sure which one's his favorite, you needn't worry. They're all here, and it all looks gorgeous.