Original subtitles

Hi, everybody, Jeff Dunham and Walter at Dunham Family Motors.

-I'm not in your family. -How are you, Walter?

How do you think I am?

It's the '60s, and I'm an old guy.

-And you look like a hippie. -Well, I like it.

-Get a haircut. -Some things are just American.

Baseball, corn dogs, asking to speak to the manager,

and this -- -[motor rumbling]

America didn't invent the sports car, but we sure

made it louder, shinier, and a lot more fun.

Fiberglass wrapped around horsepower.

A declaration of independence.

And yeah, this one stole the spotlight,

but the story starts before the car,

and it doesn't end there either.

This is the tale of the first three generations

of an automobile that was the red, white, and blueprint

of an American icon. -That's right.

It's our '68 convertible Corvette Stingray.

All fiberglass so it weighs next to nothing.

Take a spin in this, baby Walter.

[Jeff] Throughout time, humanity has been obsessed with getting

places using anything but their own two feet.

-[horse neighs] -[Jeff] We've tried all kinds of things,

until finally, the greatest invention

of all time, the automobile.

-[puppet giggles] -[Jeff as puppet] Moron!

[Jeff] These are the cars that drove us.

[marching band playing]

[Jeff] Americans are, if anything, decisive.

They want their pie full of apples,

they want their jeans to be blue,

and their birds to be bald. -[eagle calls]

[Jeff] But most important, Americans don't just love

sports cars -- they love the C.

Not that sea. We're talking the Corvette.

C1, C2, C3,

which are indeed sodden with nautical tales.

Trust me, you'll see.

Well, the Chevrolet Corvette is America's sports car.

[Jeff] It's the car of choice for

everyone from Dominic Toretto to Barbie.

[woman singing] Barbie Corvette, now I'm driving for real.

[Jeff] Even alien robots are transforming into Corvettes...

[transformer] Clear the path.

This is a good story that you'll like.

[Jeff]...because when it came to the Corvette,

it was love at first sight.

When the Corvette was first introduced,

it was essentially a failure.

[Jeff] OK, maybe not love at first sight, but trust me,

this is a love story.

But to tell it, we need to go back a century.

[Peter] Automotive design in the '20s and '30s

in the United States was very mundane.

[Jeff] Cars weren't sleek,

and they definitely weren't sexy.

But all that changed in 1928 when General Motors opened

a new department. -Art and Color.

[Jeff] The Art and Color department marked a seismic shift

in how cars were made.

It was actually the first internal design team

for a major corporation.

The guy that made it happen was probably the Leonardo da Vinci

of car design, Harley Earl.

[Jeff] While Harley and Earl sound like two guys you'd wanna

crack open a beer with, it was, in fact, the name of one

legendary designer. -Harley Earl was a visionary.

He wanted to change the whole idea of what the automobile was

to make it an exciting, something that was more

than transportation. -He made cars emotional.

[Jeff] While the GM engineers focused on efficiency,

Art and Color had their own priorities.

Design, vision, exploration, development.

You're testing out new ideas.

[Jeff] And one of their biggest ideas?

The Buick Y-Job.

[1930s advertiser] A dozen years of automotive progress

telescoped into one effort...

[Jeff] The Y-Job pushed the rules of design as well as technology,

featuring never-before-seen concepts like

retractable headlights.

[1930s advertiser] ...all first by General Motors.

[Jeff] Harley Earl had invented the concept car,

but a follow-up would have to wait.

That's right when World War II was about to kick off.

[reporter] The German cast his fires about the globe.

And then it sort of went silent on concept cars.

[cricket chirping]

Harley Earl was a big supporter of the US military.

[Jeff] And the US military was a big supporter of victory.

[crowd cheering]

[Jeff] Meanwhile, Europe experienced a sports car explosion.

But one British car stood out of the pack.

-The Jaguar XK120. -[jaguar roars]

[Jeff] Not only did the XK120 have the looks, with a top speed

of 120 miles per hour...

This is the fastest production car in the world.

[Jeff] ...Harley wanted to throw his hat into the sports car ring,

opening the door to... -The Corvette.

[Jeff] Eh, not yet.

But Harley Earl did make his first sports car.

LeSabre, 1951.

We're at the beginning of the space race.

Harley Earl's doing cars that look like jets.

It was such a load of fun.

[Jeff] The success of the LeSabre concept car

opened the door for... -The Motorama.

[trumpet fanfare playing]

[Jeff] Designed to promote the future of General Motors,

the Motorama put their new automotive technologies

right in front of the American public.

The rest of the industry, the only way

they could communicate was through

black-and-white photos in a newspaper.

Harley Earl always said that the Motorama was the best

advertisement for GM ever conceived.

[Jeff] GM had turned marketing into showstopping entertainment.

Because at the Motorama, people got to see cars

in a whole different way.

-They also finally got to see... -[tires screeching]

The very first Corvette was shown as a concept.

[announcer] The promise of tomorrow.

This is the mood of the Motorama.

A promise made explicit by customized cars

such as this Chevrolet Corvette.

[Jeff] And thanks to the Motorama campaign...

The reaction was so strong that it went into production

shortly thereafter.

Within months, it had Corvettes available for sale.

[Jeff] And just like that, Harley Earl

had pushed General Motors into

the hyper-competitive world of sports cars.

It was a stylistic approach,

which was, of course, was Earl's background.

The two-seater, it was a convertible.

It was sort of modernized styling,

wraparound windscreen, everything.

[Jeff] The Corvette looked just as good as any European sports car

But was it faster?

I mean, it was not even in the ballpark.

[Jeff] And the difference wasn't in Corvette's favor.

The Corvette was very, very simplified to keep

the cost down. -It was a fairly primitive car.

-[rapid foot-scramble] -[cartoon vroom]

The first Corvette only had a two-speed transmission.

It had a very sort of anemic six-cylinder engine.

Those qualities that existed in the best European sports cars...

-[Jeff] Like the Jaguar XK120. -[jaguar roars]

[Peter]...were not available in the very first Corvettes.

This isn't some high-tech sports car.

To tell you the truth, it doesn't even handle that great.

[Jeff] The Corvette was only at the start line,

and it was choking.

There would be people high-level in the corporation

who wanted to cancel the Corvette.

Corvette was not a huge seller, and GM really didn't

take it seriously. -It was essentially a failure.

[Jeff] The Corvette was in trouble, but help was coming.

And as irony would have it, it would be a European

that would hold the key to saving America's sports car.

All right, let's go.

[car zooms away]

[Jeff] The Corvette's tepid sales record might have resulted

in the car being retired,

but 1957 would be the year that changed everything.

Harley Earl was retiring.

[Jeff] Harley had always protected his teams,

so his staff had good reason to express their concerns...

[sobbing]

...but no reason to fret.

Harley Earl had a succession plan.

Bill Mitchell, his right-hand man, was gonna take over

as the director of styling.

[Jeff] When it came to Harley Earl's fledgling sports car,

no one was more passionate about the Corvette than...

-Zora Duntov. -[kisses smack]

Zora was incredible.

[Jeff] The Belgium native studied engineering by day

and by night...

Duntov was a race car driver.

[Jeff] Zora would go on to race for Porsche and work as an engineer

for Allard in America, where he would see the Motorama

debut of the Corvette.

Zora saw Corvette and said, "I wanna work for a company

that builds a car like that."

[Jeff] But it wasn't blind fandom.

Zora realized what the potential was and also what

was so deficient. -He wrote GM a letter

saying that he can make a better car.

[Jeff] The result?

GM's hired Zora to change the direction and improve cars

in terms of drivability and safety and performance.

[Jeff] So basically everything, and that's exactly what he did,

working under Harley Earl to improve the Corvette.

And it quickly got manual transmissions, it got small

block Chevy V8.

[Jeff] Zora's upgrades were a step towards realizing

Harley Earl's vision for the Corvette.

The things that he wanted to do did not always align

with the corporate ideas, but there were enough people

there that understood what

he was trying to do and backed him.

[Jeff] As a result, wizard engineer Zora Duntov became

the director of high-performance vehicles,

and design guru Bill Mitchell would become the director of styling.

Harley's heirs were in place and ready to shape the future

of the Corvette.

-More specifically... -The SS Corvette.

[Jeff] The concept car was a chance for Bill to make a statement

and for Zora to bring some much needed muscle to the Corvette.

Ed Cole, who was behind the V8 engine project, put that engine

in the Corvette and completely

changed the whole idea of what the car was.

[Jeff] With Ed Cole's engine, the Corvette was finally faster

than the Jaguar XK120. -[jaguar roars]

-[Jeff] But perhaps it was too fast. -[tires screech]

General Motors were really concerned that they were going

to have legal problems. -[gavel bangs]

[Jeff] More speed meant more danger.

And they decided, "We've gotta get out.

This is the wrong way for us to go."

[Jeff] Rather than wait for government regulation,

top automakers took action.

They came in with an agreement called the American Automobile

Manufacturers Association ban on performance.

So there was no more advertising that wrote about

great performance.

No more engineering.

Cut off everything. So that was June of '57.

Right after this great car had been developed, that was almost

the end of the whole Corvette program.

[Jeff] Which meant, as the head of performance, Zora had been

benched, but at least he had more time for his hobbies.

Zora was known to drink quite a bit and also be a womanizer.

[disco music playing]

-[puppet gasps] -[Jeff] OK.

Meanwhile, Harley Earl's other protege

took the opportunity to visit Italy.

[Peter] The Turin show inspired him to come back to the United States

and say, "We're doing this Corvette program all wrong.

Let's do it more like the Europeans."

Performance, great styling.

[Jeff] Which would be hard

considering the current state of affairs.

[gavel bangs]

Bill Mitchell said, "Bull [horn honks]."

-[Jeff] Bull [horn honks]? -"Bull [horn honks],

"We're gonna do a new Corvette and we're gonna

make it a success."

[Jeff] It wasn't something Bill Mitchell could openly

work on in styling.

He needed to be discreet.

Advanced design existed literally and figuratively

in GM's basement.

And that's exactly where Bill Mitchell went.

He came downstairs and there were four young guys in there.

[Jeff] And Peter Brock should know he was one of them.

I was very, very fortunate of coming into General Motors

as a designer at 19, which was as young as anybody

had ever gone into that industry.

[Jeff] Advanced design was the place

where young talent could move up.

But on that day, GM's top designer was coming down.

[Peter] He walked in and started telling us what he'd done

over in Turin.

You could feel his enthusiasm, his desire, his passion

for the automobile.

[Jeff] Peter soon realized he wasn't having a conversation.

-He was being recruited. -[whistle blows]

We were gonna do this whole car in secret.

Bill Mitchell was leading a Corvette program completely

against management's wishes.

And we're going, "God, this is incredible."

[Jeff] Mitchell laid out his vision for the C2.

At stake, a one-way ticket out of GM's basement.

There's three or four of us in there,

and we're all competing with each other.

[Jeff] Several sketches were produced, but only one would

change the course of automotive history.

He picked out the sketch that I'd done in November of 1957

as the direction that we were going to build

for the new Corvette.

Another word got up to management that there was

something going on in this advanced concept

studio downstairs.

[Jeff] GM's bad news bears had been caught red handed.

I can't imagine how surprised they were to see this really

incredible looking car

going ahead totally against their wishes.

[Jeff] The secret alliance dedicated to saving the Corvette

had been exposed.

And though Bill Mitchell didn't have Harley Earl-level clout,

he had enough to keep the project alive

with two stipulations --

You cannot call it the Corvette

and you'll have to pay for it yourself.

[Jeff] Pay for it yourself?

I've heard of pay cuts, but an employee paying his boss

is a new one.

Obviously, Bill Mitchell told GM...

-"OK, I'll do that." -[Jeff] Wait, what?

Well, if he's paying for it, at least he'll own it.

No.

[Jeff] But he could get reimbursed?

No.

[Jeff] Either Bill Mitchell hated money or he loved the Corvette.

Consequently, we got to continue the program.

[Jeff] And when it came time to bring Peter's sketch to life,

the team needed a new hideout.

Studio X was very secret.

Hardly anyone even knew where it was.

[announcer] Because the newest designs must be kept confidential until

just the right moment, the stylists work in rooms

that are constantly locked.

[Jeff] And after two years, Bill Mitchell's not-a-Corvette

was complete.

Bill had to come up with a new name for the car.

[Jeff] For inspiration, Bill turned to his second love.

One of his pastimes was to go deep-sea fishing.

And admired all these beautiful creatures

that he'd seen, decided he was gonna call

it the Stingray. -[Jeff] Huh?

We had power, we had performance,

and most important, we had fantastic appeal

for the American market.

If you don't mind my saying so, that is a gorgeous hunk of

automobile you're driving. -Glad you like it.

The public response to that car on first seeing was that

somebody had come down from outer space.

I mean, that was how far ahead that design was.

[Jeff] The Stingray concept car was a smash hit.

[Peter] The amount of publicity that came out on that car

convinced management.

They allow Bill Mitchell to go ahead and develop the car

as a production car. -[Jeff] And about that name.

You cannot put the Corvette name on.

[Jeff] But with GM's blessing, the Stingray became

the Corvette Stingray, aka the C2.

Nearly a decade since the debut of Harley Earl's C1, no one

knew how people would react when GM

pulled back the curtain on...

[advertiser] The completely new Stingray.

Beautiful? Sunsets are beautiful.

Newborn babies are beautiful.

This, this is [horn honks] spectacular.

If you look at the sketch done from 1957 to the car that came

out in 1963, it's the same automobile.

[Jeff] Not so fast, Peter.

There was one glaring difference.

Bill Mitchell took the large rear window, which I designed,

decided to split the rear window.

[Jeff] Harley Earl fought to keep the C1 alive so

Bill Mitchell could fight to introduce the C2.

But was it worth it?

You couldn't build them fast enough for the American market.

[Jeff] Chevrolet recommitted themselves to the Corvette,

making some welcome year-two improvements.

Bill Mitchell was open to modifying any part of the C2

as long as they didn't touch... -The split window.

That's one of the high points of Corvette design

Bill Mitchell personally put into it.

[Jeff] There was just one problem --

Zora hated it.

[Jeff] The split window had created a new split

on the Corvette team.

Bill was more interested in building automobiles that were

attractive to people.

He didn't really have the engineering understanding

that Zora had, and constantly there was always

a political conflict between these two great guys

in the Corvette program.

[Jeff] In one corner, GM styling.

Their opponent? Engineering.

[bell dings]

[Jeff] Time to fight.

[Peter] And next year, in '64, it went back to the full window,

but Bill got the design for one year.

[Jeff] It was a big win for Team Zora, a decision many

on Team Bill resent to this day.

I was not a part of taking the split window off.

I would have never have done that.

[Jeff] But the dueling department heads needed to work

together as a new threat to the Corvette emerged.

Because to tell that story,

we need to go back in time to 1959,

where Bill Mitchell was once again fishing.

-Only this time... -[Tom] He reeled in a shark.

[Jeff] Does this guy ever just catch a trout?

He just loved that flowing shape of the shark.

You know, the shark is a high-performance animal, really.

[Jeff] Bill's catch of the day would go on to inspire

the 1961 concept car, the Mako Shark.

He was enamored with how the color of the shark was

graded from dark to bright silver.

He had the shark that he caught actually stuffed,

and he brought it down to the paint shop and said,

"Guys, match this color scheme."

"Yes, sir, Mr. Mitchell."

[Jeff] Once completed, Bill Mitchell rushed out to see

the finishing touch on his Mako Shark.

He came down and said, "Nope, that's not it.

Look at the shark. You guys don't have it yet."

They went at it a second time.

[Jeff] And as they say, second time is the charm.

"Nope, that's not it."

[Jeff] Well, third time's the charm.

-"Nope." -[Jeff] So, fourth.

-"Nope." -[Jeff] Finally.

"Nope."

[Jeff] Luckily, Bill Mitchell was a patient man.

Bill Mitchell was not a patient man.

[Jeff] With Bill Mitchell's patience eroding,

desperate times call for desperate measures.

Rather than repaint the car, they repainted the stuffed

shark in the transition colors.

And they invited Bill down again to review it.

"You got it this time!"

[Jeff] But in the end, it was worth it.

The excitement of General Motors was,

"Just go -- let 'em run."

[Jeff] Giving Bill Mitchell the opening he needed to take

a concept to production.

He said, "We have the Mako II.

Let's use that as the theme for the '68 Corvette."

[heavenly vocalizing]

And off we went.

[Jeff] Chevrolet had challenged head engineer Zora Duntov

and head of style Bill Mitchell

to create the next generation Corvette.

As you can imagine, if you're saying you're gonna

introduce an all-new Corvette the pressure's immense.

[Jeff] It was a make-or-break moment for the Corvette

and an opportunity for Zora and Bill to make their mark.

But what Zora wanted and what Bill wanted seldom aligned.

When Chevrolet saw the first clay models of that design,

the engineers were very much against it.

[Jeff] Zora and Bill fought over everything from fenders...

For particularly a short driver, you couldn't see over

the high-peak fenders. -[Jeff]...to engine placement.

[Chris] One of Zora's dreams had always been

to do a mid-engine version of the Corvette.

We first saw that so-called rear-engine revolution,

even though they were mid-engine,

at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in about 1964.

[Jeff] Mid-engine models spoke Zora's love language.

The idea of mid-engine was all about performance.

Mid-engine cars really made the front-engine look

like dinosaurs. -[dinosaur roars]

[Jeff] Mid-engine appeared to be

exactly what the Corvette needed.

Bill Mitchell said, "Bull [horn honks]."

[Jeff] Bill Mitchell believed

the Corvette had been firmly established

as a front-engine car.

Zora Duntov was not going to give up on his mid-engine dream

without a fight. Chevrolet's general manager...

[John Shettler] John DeLorean felt the mid-engine Corvette

was the way to go.

And he and Duntov were hand and glove on that.

[Jeff] All of General Motors had been sucked into the battle

of Mitchell versus Duntov. -[bell dings]

[Jeff] And by split decision, GM management had

declared a winner. -Bill Mitchell won out.

[Jeff] The C3 entered production with his engine up front

and party in the back.

Eh, well, the gas tank was in the back.

C3 was such a big statement when it came out.

Man, what a ride!

[Jeff] As it turned out, despite their different approaches,

Bill and Zora's end goal was the same.

They were determined to be the number-one sports car in America.

Created an incredible buzz.

[Jeff] Soon the Corvette captured Hollywood's imagination.

-Isn't it beautiful? -Oh, God.

[Jeff] And then the world, making the C3 the longest

Corvette production run. -[Gary] Came out in 1968.

The C4 didn't come out until '84.

[Jeff] Over the course of the C3's run, Zora committed himself

to maximizing the Corvette as a performance vehicle.

Thanks to its strong foundation built by Harley Earl,

Bill Mitchell, and Zora Duntov, the Corvette would live on

for generations.

Then, in 2019, the impossible happened.

It's time to go to mid-engine.

[Jeff] And that's exactly what they did.

[announcer] The engine's back here.

This is the first mid-engine Corvette.

[Jeff] Zora's dream had been realized.

That was a profound moment.

When the new design came out, it was loved.

[Jeff] It wasn't just loved. It was the car of the year.

Corvette has become a world-class sports car.

[Jeff] As to which Corvette is the best?

Obviously, I like C1.

C2 Corvette. Beautiful car.

The C3 came out. That was like, "Wow!"

My favorite Corvettes, the C2, the C5,

the C7, and the C8.

You and this car were made for each other.

[Jeff] And while there may be no clear winner,

what is clear is...

Corvette has always been the pride of America.

There's a handful of cars that make you just proud

of the red, white, and blue.

Corvette has to be at the top of that list.

And, man, is it fun. [laughs]

[Jeff] But if you think that's the end of the Corvette story...

Here for a ride?

...Bill and Zora would surely agree that's...

Bull [horn honks].

...bull [horn honks].

[Achmed the Dead Terrorist] I kill you!