1964 Chevrolet Corvette XP-819 Rear Engine

The Chevrolet R&D XP-819. It was called the ‘Ugly Duckling’ but the overall concept was not so bad. The design was handled by Shinoda and John Schinella (now chief designer of Pontiac Studio).
The Chevrolet R&D XP-819. It was called the ‘Ugly Duckling’ but the overall concept was not so bad. The design was handled by Shinoda and John Schinella (now chief designer of Pontiac Studio).
Chevrolet Corvette XP-819 Rear Engine, 1964
Chevrolet Corvette XP-819 Rear Engine, 1964
Chevrolet Corvette XP-819 Rear Engine, 1964
Chevrolet Corvette XP-819 Rear Engine, 1964
Chevrolet Corvette XP-819 Rear Engine, 1964
Chevrolet Corvette XP-819 Rear Engine, 1964
The width of the front wheels was 7" and the rear 10". Wheel design was by Shinoda and Frank J. Winchell. Can be described as the original of a design widely seen today, and the one which was later used on the Chaparral race car.
The width of the front wheels was 7" and the rear 10". Wheel design was by Shinoda and Frank J. Winchell. Can be described as the original of a design widely seen today, and the one which was later used on the Chaparral race car.
Rear engine overhanging rear axle. Was back-heavy, with a weight bias of 70/30, but handled very well with lateral acceleration exceeding 1G on the skid pad. Many of the items found on this car were to be found on later Corvettes.
Rear engine overhanging rear axle. Was back-heavy, with a weight bias of 70/30, but handled very well with lateral acceleration exceeding 1G on the skid pad. Many of the items found on this car were to be found on later Corvettes.
Chevrolet Corvette XP-819 Rear Engine, 1964
Chevrolet Corvette XP-819 Rear Engine, 1964
Chevrolet Corvette XP-819 Rear Engine, 1964
Chevrolet Corvette XP-819 Rear Engine, 1964
Chevrolet Corvette XP-819 Rear Engine, 1964
Chevrolet Corvette XP-819 Rear Engine, 1964
Chevrolet Corvette XP-819 Rear Engine, 1964
Chevrolet Corvette XP-819 Rear Engine, 1964
Иллюстрации: www.corvettes.nl; deansgarage.com
Рейтинг:  11    -3    +14
1965 XP-819: The little-known rear-engine Corvette was built by GM to test the viability of a V-8-powered Porsche 911 killer. Larry Shinoda styled the car, which is said to have handled well, but only if fitted with special tires. It crashed in testing (on stock Corvette tires) and was quietly forgotten.
The XP-819, developed in the mid-1960s, was an engineering exercise to test a rear engine concept for the Corvette. The body was designed by Larry Shinoda. You can see styling cues in XP-819 that later appeared in Shinoda’s famed "Sting Ray" design. A GM marine engine powers the car so the two-speed transaxle would operate properly. The entire chassis, suspension, and steering are custom made components unique to this car.

Actually, the XP-819 was the result of a clash between Zora Arkus-Duntov and engineer Frank Winchell, who’d been involved with the Corvair project. Winchell contended that you could make a balanced, rear-engine, V-8 powered sports car by using an aluminum engine and larger tires on the rear to compensate for the rear weight bias. Duntov adamantly disagreed. A loose design was drawn that received some very unflattering comments from Duntov and Dave McLellan. Winchell asked designer Larry Shinoda if he could make something beautiful with the layout, to which Shinoda told him that a tape drawing could be shown after lunch. Shinoda and designer John Schinella sketched out the basic shape shown here. Duntov asked Shinoda, "Where did you cheat?". It didn’t look "too bad", so a working prototype was ordered. Shinoda supervised the styling and Larry Nies’ team of fabricators built the car. In only two months the XP-819 was on the test track.

It turned out that Winchell’s theory about rear-engine, V-8 cars didn’t work out very well. However, Shinoda’s design was well received. They were obviously into the "shark thing" and picked up styling points from the Chaparral cars. It even had wheels from a Chaparral.

This car was definitely a Corvette, even though the back end was big. Unfortunately, with all that weight behind the rear axle, it was only a matter of time before it crashed during a high-speed lane change test. Paul vanValkenberg crashed it because he put the same (standard) size Corvette rim on the car front and rear and then wet down the track and went out and lost it. He bounced it off the wall a couple of times and pretty well wrecked it. It was then sent off to Smokey Yunik, where it was later found. The chassis was cut in half and usable parts were removed. What was left was stored in an unused paint booth as just "old junk." Years later, a Corvette collector was buying some parts from Yunick and offered to buy the junked XP-819. So the pile of car scrap was rebuilt and finished as a streetable car, like a kit car. A cast-iron V-8 was used in place of the original all-aluminum engine. We’re talking serious rear weight bias here. It’s quick and now does awesome wheelies!

XP-819 now sits in the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green (KY). It is "on loan" from Ed McCabe, who runs his own advertising agency in New York. Ed bought the car in 1990 at an estate auction being run by Sothebys in Palm Beach.


Великой несправедливостью было бы пройти мимо проекта XP-819. Так как он дает лишний повод восхититься инженерными поисками американцев и их решимостью построить заднемоторный спорткар. Да-да, перед нами «Корвет» наоборот — с алюминиевой «восьмеркой» от катера в заднем свесе и хребтовой рамой.

Поначалу компоновочный вариант конструктора Фрэнка Уинчелла решительно не нашел поддержки у Аркус-Дантова. Автомобиль рисковал так и остаться сумасбродной идеей, если бы художник Ларри Шинода вовремя не подсуетился и не представил удачные эскизы прототипа. Мускулистый и при этом грациозный облик в стиле бэтмобиля пришелся мистеру Зоре по душе. Впоследствии дизайн трансформировался в шоу-кар Mako Shark II, а тот в свою очередь предвосхитил серийный Corvette третьего поколения.

В статике Chevy казался эстетическим идеалом, а на деле оказался сущим монстром. Огромный двигатель в хвосте гарантировал крайне неоптимальное распределение массы по осям и жуткую свистопляску при быстром маневрировании. Широченные задние покрышки компенсировали развесовку и как будто делали поведение более подконтрольным и предсказуемым. Но авария после их смены на обычные колеса была лишь вопросом времени.

Так и получилось. Во время теста на скоростную переставку строптивый заносчивый спорткар вышел из-под контроля испытателя и несколько раз приложился об ограждение. Позже его восстановили, заменили мотор на чугунный и выставили в экспозиции музея Corvette в Боулинг-Грин, штат Кентукки.
По материалам: Frank Markus - MotorTrend Magazine; Mario van Ginneken - www.corvettes.nl; motor.ru
Автомобили марки Chevrolet
1953 Chevrolet Corvette C1, 1954 Chevrolet Corvair, 1954 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible Coupe, 1954 Chevrolet Nomad, 1955 Chevrolet Biscayne, 1956 Chevrolet Impala Show Car, 1956 Chevrolet SR-2, 1957 Chevrolet Corvette Coupé (Ghia Aigle), 1957 Chevrolet Corvette SS, 1957 Chevrolet Q Corvette XP-84, 1958 Chevrolet Corvette XP-700, 1959 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, 1959 Chevrolet Impala, 1960 Chevrolet CERV I, 1960 Chevrolet Corvair, 1960 Chevrolet Corvair Coupe Speciale (Pininfarina), 1961 Chevrolet Corvair Sebring Spyder, 1961 Chevrolet Corvette Kelly (Vignale), 1962 Chevrolet Corvair Monza GT, 1962 Chevrolet Corvair Monza SS, 1962 Chevrolet Corvair Super Spyder, 1962 Chevrolet Corvette C2 Prototype XP-720 , 1962 Chevrolet Mako Shark, 1963 Chevrolet Corvair Testudo (Bertone), 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray, 1963 Chevrolet Rondine (Pininfarina), 1963 Chevrolet Wedge Corvette, 1964 Chevrolet Chevy II Super Nova, 1964 Chevrolet Corvette XP-819 Rear Engine, 1965 Chevrolet Mako Shark II, 1965 Chevrolet Turbo Titan III, 1967 Chevrolet Astro I, 1968 Chevrolet Astro II (XP-880), 1968 Chevrolet AstroVette, 1968 Chevrolet Corvette C3, 1969 Chevrolet Astro III, 1969 Chevrolet Manta Ray, 1969 Chevrolet XP-882, 1970 Chevrolet Scirocco Showcar, 1973 Chevrolet Corvette Four Rotor, 1973 Chevrolet XP-895 Reynolds, 1973 Chevrolet XP-897GT Two-Rotor (Pininfarina), 1973 Chevrolet XP-898, 1974 Chevrolet Mulsanne Showcar, 1976 Chevrolet AeroVette, 1983 Chevrolet Corvette C4, 1984 Chevrolet Citation IV, 1984 Chevrolet Ramarro (Bertone), 1986 Chevrolet Corvette Indy, 1987 Chevrolet Aero 2003A, 1987 Chevrolet Blazer XT-1, 1987 Chevrolet Express, 1988 Chevrolet Venture, 1989 Chevrolet California IROC Camaro, 1989 Chevrolet XT-2, 1990 Chevrolet CERV III, 1990 Chevrolet Corvette Nivola (Bertone), 1992 Chevrolet Concept Monte Carlo, 1992 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray III, 1992 Chevrolet Lumina Sizigi, 1993 Chevrolet Highlander, 1998 Chevrolet Monte-Carlo Intimidator, 1999 Chevrolet Nomad, 1999 Chevrolet Tandem 2000, 1999 Chevrolet Triax, 2000 Chevrolet Avalanche, 2000 Chevrolet SSR, 2000 Chevrolet Traverse, 2001 Chevrolet Borrego, 2001 Chevrolet Sabia, 2002 Chevrolet Bel Air, 2002 Chevrolet Journey, 2003 Chevrolet Cheyenne, 2003 Chevrolet Equinox, 2003 Chevrolet SS, 2004 Chevrolet M3X, 2004 Chevrolet Nomad, 2004 Chevrolet S3X, 2005 Chevrolet T2X, 2006 Chevrolet Camaro, 2006 Chevrolet Prisma Y, 2006 Chevrolet Sequel, 2006 Chevrolet WTCC Ultra, 2007 Chevrolet Beat, 2007 Chevrolet Camaro Convertible, 2007 Chevrolet Groove, 2007 Chevrolet Trax, 2007 Chevrolet Volt, 2008 Chevrolet GPiX, 2008 Chevrolet Orlando, 2009 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, 2010 Chevrolet Aveo RS Concept, 2010 Chevrolet Volt MPV5 Electric, 2011 Chevrolet Colorado, 2011 Chevrolet Colorado Rally, 2011 Chevrolet Mi-ray, 2012 Chevrolet Code 130R, 2012 Chevrolet Tru 140S, 2014 Chevrolet Adra, 2014 Chevrolet Niva, 2015 Chevrolet Bolt EV, 2015 Chevrolet FNR, 2017 Chevrolet FNR-X Concept, 2020 Chevrolet Corvette C8 Stingray, 2022 Chevrolet FNR-XE
Обсудить автомобиль
Автор
E-mail
Комментарий