All I know is If I stepped on a Stingray it would hurt like hell.........whatever year it was........did that add any more confusion to this issues?????

 

Anybody know why the c3 body style was called a stringray? Was it just a name or does some part of the body look like a stingray? I see why it's called the coke-bottle design, just don't get where the stingray came from. :crazy:

 

Sharks, they're all sharks!
:conehead

 

Travis

Yes, the coupe roofline. Here is a pic. of Jerry's 77 STING RAY.


There is no confusion. Many non Vette owners can recognize a STINGRAY.
An unmarked police car is still a police car. Believe It or Not!

 

I think the essence of the answer is contained in Ganey's line right here. The Stingray emblem (as distinct from the Sting Ray emblem of 1963-1967) appeared on all Corvettes from 1969 to 1976. Unconfirmed numbers of late 1968s and early 1977s received them as well.

Now, the issue at hand is whether a 1968 and 1978-82s are Stingrays or not. If the criteria is whether their fenders were labelled as such, then they are not. If instead the criteria is more exhaustive to include an extensive assessment of the vehicle and its conformity to the model design, then they must be.

The exterior difference between a 1968 and a 1969 can be boiled down to a door lock mechanism. This is akin to someone shaving their moustache. They do not change identity with a minor finishing adjustment.

The exterior difference between an early labelled 1977 and an unlabelled one is none. Arguing that a late 1977 is not a Stingray is like saying my name is not SuperFast80 becasue I didn't tell you.

The debate around 1978-1982 is the one people like to point to and for me it is quite simple. As Ganey so aptly pointed out, they are akin to an unmarked police car. They can still put the bite on you even if they don't advertise it in advance.

Official CorvetteArchive.com position on this issue:
All C3s are Stingrays, some are just on a need-to-know basis. :cool: