Gary63

Just reading the forum and I see C-1, C-2, C-3 and on. This seems like Cambells Soup to me.
In my neck of the woods the 63-67's were called Stingrays, not Corvettes or any thing else. You either had a convertible or a fastback, not a SWC.
Anyone else remember what they were called in your town back in the 60's?

Black_Magic

Same here

C1's were called Corvette's, C2's were StingRays and no SWC

That was before there were C3's (Sharks)

George

Tempus_Fugit

I have always called 53-62 "early" or "solid axle"

63-67 have always been "midyears" to me and will continue to be so.

I don't really have names for anything after that.

I am not int the C1, C2... thing.

It is a result of GM marketing on the C5 intro. You never saw "C" anything prior to that.

rayvaflav

I notice that I do tend to use the term "Sting Ray" more often than "Corvette" when discussing my '66. That may be because I am making a point that the car that I have is not a modern one. It also sounds a little more intriguing and some people would know what a Corvette is but not a Sting Ray. Maybe it's just my uppity side showing !

Mike Ward

That's strange- only the 69-76 Corvettes have Stingray emblems on them

66BlkBB

Prior to the 68's coming out I always called them "Sting Rays". After that they became Mid-Years. Not sure why but that was what everyone called them when I joined the local Corvette Club at the time.

1snake

I was reading an old issue of the NCRS Restorer and it referred to the 53-55's as the "First Generation". How times have changed.

Jim

LSUvetteguy

Same here.

Early cars were straight axles
63 - 67 were the mid-years or StingRays
68 - 73 Shark cars
74 - 82 Rubber bumper cars

Last 62

What I remember was that they were Corvettes. I had a black one, Joe has blue one, Greg and Buddy had silver ones, etc, etc.

They didn't get classified until sometime later, around the the early 70's.

Jim

Nowhere Man

when I was growing up it was either a solid axle for the early ones then mid years then sharks or rubber bumpers. and that was in the 90's

magicv8

Yes it is. I refer to my 1966 as a Chevy or a convertible, unless someone asks for a specific model.

Spell checkers don't flag that........

Sky65

Correct.
63-67 were Sting Rays and 69-76 were Stingrays.

Nitrodamus

Yep, we called C2's Stingrays... or Corvette Stingray

C1's were just called old Corvettes... you could buy them really cheap on used car lots. If fact I had some enterprising friends that would buy C1's off the used car lot and swap the engine out over the weekend with whatever clunker Chevy engine they had... and return the Corvette to the dealer on Monday. That way they had a real Corvette engine in their car. And probably the reason why so many 55 and 57 Chevys have Corvette engines... and early Corvettes do not have matching numbers.

When I bought my 68 coupe the C2 guys said it was funny looking.

scotty t

53-62= straight axle
63-67= mid year
68-?= who cares

wow

In the 60's, we just called them Vettes...as in yep, it's a Vette...that was enough for anyone to know what you had (or wished you had).

Hitch

I think that you will find that most of us here on the forum agree that 53-62 are straight axle cars, 63-67 are midyears and 68-82 are sharks. I think that the forums are names as they are to help people navigate the forum.

As for calling them a "convertible or a fastback, not a SWC" what would you call a 63 "fastback" to distinguish it from a 64-67 "fastback" or what I would call a coupe.

Trophy Blue

coop51

I remember well. When I was a teenager in the '60's, everything before '63 was a "Corvette". From '63 on they were "STING RAYS". (Notice the emphasis, hehe.) After '67, well they were just "Corvettes" again.

BADBIRDCAGE

Me too. Vette it was. Now, with the variety of titles, it is more specific to identify a particular car.

My favorite now is a friend who uses FRC (fixed roof coupe) to identify the 2000 car he drives. FRC is supposed to be special. I tell him my 63 coupe is the 1st FRC and his isn't ****. (even though it runs circles around my car and gets better fuel mileage)

Rich

clarkakirby

I will take my cue from the musical masters of the era, The Beach Boys. The specific lyrics from their #3 hit single in 1963, "Shut Down": "...happened on the strip where the road is wide, two cool sharks standing side by side, my fuel injected STING RAY and a 413 are revving up our engines and it sounds real mean." This is proof that in 1963, the new Corvettes were called "Sting Rays", due to the emblems on the right rear of the cars. (also on the left front of the hood in '66). -Clark