davidwp97

I posted this spy pic summary previously as part of another post, but since we are getting closer, and since spy photos are a big piece of the C7 fun, here it is as a separate thread.

C5 Spy Photo History


Above - January, 1995 - The first C5 picture appeared in print (Automotive News)



Above - Automotive News - October 28, 1996 - Along with sister Crain Communications publication AutoWeek, AN showed the first public pix of an undisguised C5.



Above - The C5 was introduced as a 1997 model (coupe only) in March, 1997

C6 Spy Photo History


Above - April 28, 2003 Jim Dunne scored the first C6 spy shots and AutoWeek published them.



Above - November 16, 2003 - One of two pix caught during a GM publicity photo shoot by Benjamin Kopf IV of San Francisco and contributed to CorvetteForum.com. He gets the BIG prize for the first shots of the final version!



Above - On Sunday evening, January 4, 2004 at 7:00 pm, the 2005 Corvette was officially announced to the world.

C7 Spy Lead
Well, if you do the math, the C5 was caught over two years before introduction, but the C6 was only caught about 8 months before intro. Conclusion? GM is getting a whole lot better at hiding these things, particularly when the change is not radical. The C7 spy shot lead may be a lot shorter than 8 months.

David

Reference: Info above mostly from my web site.

vant

This is killing me. I feel like a fat person waiting for a McDonald's to open.

Garrett W

Cool post. I was wondering how long it took to at least get a spy photo of the c5 and c6.

CandyVette

Change the setting to my Chevy dealership and that is me sitting there waiting on the C7 (no, not fat either!)

Jinx

So...

If C7 is a 2014 model, actual production changeover ought to happen mid-summer 2013 (two years from now, sigh, so far away!), and the reveal at some big event in early 2013. I'd say the Detroit show at the first of the year -- European sales hopes notwithstanding, Corvette's too American to wait for Geneva in March, isn't it?

If the C6 timetable applied, we'd get a spy photo... next April, right?

Granted, cameraphones are more ubiquitous now than in 2003, but the leaner-and-meaner GM might not have as many ridiculous engineering standards boxes to check this go-round, and might be able to validate more stuff via simulation, so testing that requires C7 bodywork out in public (camo or otherwise) might happen later in the cycle, providing nothing to shoot for a long time yet. If dimensions are more than trivially different, an eagle eye might spot a C6 that looks a little awkward, but I doubt it.

I think we can all go to sleep for the rest of the year without fear of missing anything. Probably through next spring, too.

.Jinx

kp1a

If the C7 is going to be drastically different I would imagine that they would have test vehicles out early for dependability studies.

BuckyThreadkiller

All it has to be is basically the same dimensions of a C6 or a Camaro and they can have camoed mules out in the wild all over.

The other trick with spy photos is I think Jim Dunne finally retired. He was the king of spy shooters and if you read "All Corvettes Are Red" he used to have a great running battle with GM test car drivers.

ZL-1

Dunne retired but Brenda Priddy is even more dedicated. Brenda and her people will get pics for us.
I just hope it doesn't take her too long.

davidwp97

Doesn't even have to be the same dimensions, BT. Check this C5 mule with a Camaro "funny car" body. I can't believe how badly AutoWeek blew their guess. The wheelbase, fender flares and fuel filler made it obvious what it was:



David

Corvette ED

There was a 1995 yellow ZR-1 in the NCM that was fitted with a full C5 interior that GM used as a test mule. The car driving down the road looked like a C4 but it had a C5 interior.

z edge

that means if anyone sees a random C6 out on the highway somewhere with a mfg plate maybe they need to go get a closeup look to see what the interior looks like

2006c6keller

Hey, just might be NEW BOLT ON PANELS, no real testing needed. Just testing for rattles, remember the coupe top rattle?

ronssito

Thanks for your time and effort putting this history together ... always fun to see it again.

BTW, back in 2001, I spent a few days driving Ms. Priddy around the desert on a spy mission.

davidwp97

Glad you enjoy it. Pretty impressive hanging out with Ms. Priddy herself. Do you still have contact with her?

By the way, a fireman working Road America during a Corvette test session on September 4, 2004 took the pictures below. He was, amazingly, able to keep them off the internet for several months. So you firemen and EMTs that get offered some extra hours working Putnam Park or Gingerman or Road America or Sebring in the fall of 2013, jump on the chance. You may get a first look at the C7-GT race car.

Incidentally, the car below was C6.R bodywork (and, no doubt, many other modifications) on Chassis C5R-012.





David
I love this stuff

Senna1994

That is Engineer Rex Stump behind the wheel of that C5 Prototype in the first picture of the Alpha C5.

davidwp97

Housekeeping note - I changed software and provider for my website and the pictures in my OP and other posts turned into the dreaded red X. I have edited my posts and the pix are back.

Here is a bonus picture, an "Alpha" (first generation) C5 prototype. I shot it in the storage area the National Corvette Museum April, 2001 when I was there for my Museum Delivery. Note the humpy rear deck that, fortunately, didn't make production:



David

davidwp97

No one knows when we will see the C7 spy pix but here is the C5 and C6 history - one more time.....

rjwz28

We've already seen the C6-bodyworked mules

davidwp97

....but not the new body in camo...

David

Senna1994

I am thinking we will be lucky to see it in Camo by Summer, unless they do some arctic testing and someone lucks out.