VetteHalen

It's funny to think about how many animals cars have been named after. There's the conventional ones, like Mustang... Ram... Cougar... Viper. Then there's the less conventional ones, like Beetle (a bug, really?), Pinto (I know: a horse... but also a bean), Road Runner (cool car, odd bird), mongoose (ok, it's the 'Mangusta', but it's actually a kick-*** Italian-American-Argentinian sports car), Gremlin (it's an 'animal,' right? Don't they exist in eastern Europe or something?)...

Then I was wondering if there was ever a car named after the dolphin so I dug around and YES, there apparently was the Sipani Dolphin... which was also known as the Reliant Kitten... which was actually a Reliant Robin.

AND now back to our regularly-scheduled "Stingray/Sting Ray/Stin Gray" discussion....

rdknight

Bill Mitchell that designed the C2 and C3 called them all Sting Ray or Stingray until his retirement after the 76 model year.As a thing of respect Gm officially retired the name with him.The 68 did not receive emblems because of production delays with name change on side to one word.But I have read and spoke to many that new Bill and they all were Sting Rays to him.He had nothing to do with the 78 restyle that was Jerry Palmer team.A high level corvette team styling told me that GM will never use that name again.God Bless Bill Mitchell for designing the Shark body that he called STING RAY!A Masterpiece! Today many people think that Stingray was a opinion But people in the know are aware that 63-76 are the true Stingrays.I would never correct a person that called my 77-82 Stingray but I would never call it one.Shark is a term that has been thrown around in the last 15 or so years.

Raphiki

The car was designed in my hometown of Detroit and everyone knows the Detroit river is teaming with sharks and stingrays. So I'm sure they knew the difference.

oldgto

This is wrong, nothing could live in that water!

briankeery

She's crystal clear on the Windsor side.....

iokepakai

No confusion here,my Corvette clearly states it's a Stingray right on the front fenders!! [IMG][/IMG]

vetteguy75

Nope...I really want to know.

I can see it being called a "Stingray" because it states it on the sides BUT why is it called a "Shark" too? Where does shark come from????

oldgto

http://corvettes.about.com/od/histor...te-Concept.htm

mrvette

Read up on the topic......I not taxing my memory only to get jumped on by some purist nitwit......

something about a Gulf/Mexico fishing trip and landing a shark by one of the GM execs.....

the thought hit him about restyling the vette to look like that....

I suppose the market/sales/addy types didn't pick up quick enough, as other groups/marques in the company had higher priority......

Domobomb

I don't know why chevy stopped putting the stingray badge on the fenders. Maybe they vette flags just looked cleaner.

But really, what is the difference between a '76 and a '77? They're both stingrays to me. All the c3s are.

PRNDL

If it has the badge, it's a Stingray!

gdh

The Steve Irwin C3.