I agree, Barry! I often say in my Garage Queens pieces that these beautiful ‘Vettes need to be driven! On each brand new C5 I owned, I usually put close to 25k per year. It’s great that you are getting your ’67 out on the road and thanks for being a CorvSport reader, Douglas B.

Mr. Rehling, I would welcome the opportunity to speak with you about your great-grandfather and to share more of his story with the Corvette community. I wrote a book on the history of the Corvette called “Corvette Concept Cars: Developing America’s Favorite Sports Car” and sadly, even in my research, your great-grandfather’s name was not listed in the information I found. So…let’s set history straight. You can reach me by emailing me at scott@a07online.com or scottkolecki@gmail.com (both email addresses reach me directly). Let’s start a conversation and see if we can’t finally shed some light on your family’s legacy.

Also, knowing that Harley Earl developed the original Corvette in secret, and was not overly forthcoming about who did what on the project, this will be an excellent opportunity for us to add some valuable texture to a story that is still shrouded in a bit of mystery. I hope I hear from you soon!

Scott

Corvette isn’t Porsche (or Ferrari or Lamborghini or Aston Martin). Prosche is a manufacturer. Corvette is a model within a brand within a manufacturer. Your continued attempts to compare the two is a false equivalence, even if Corvette becomes a sub-brand. The only things that a Corvette minivan will do (and if you don’t think there will be one, you need to look at GM as a whole) is water down the name and cannibalize sales from Chevy and Cadillac.
This isn’t 1992. Corvette is not about to die due to mismanagement of GM as a whole (probably). The car has never been more popular or desirable and is hardly likely to be on the chopping block as a model. It does not need saving. If anything, the current state of affairs argues very strongly against diluting the name. The team has grown Corvette into a literal world beater. Spread that talent to an SUV and a sedan and a truck and a minivan and you get less talent on all models. You get lower performing sports cars that are built using GM sedan logic, which is what nearly killed the car between C4 and C5.
The thing is, people will rush to buy these thing when they couldn’t buy the sports car and then attempt to bask in the aura of the name. You like to use the Prosche example. OK. Used to be that Prosches were special and rarely seen. When you did see one, it was likely to be a 911 or maybe a 944. Either way, you watched and wished. You had a 911 turbo poster on your wall and you wanted a Porsche more than anything. Same with the Corvette. Yes, the 911 and Cayman are awesome, but now Porsche is literally just another manufacturer. Corvette isn’t Porsche, Chevy is Porsche. And kids will never put a “Corvette” SUV or sedan on their walls.

Hey James, thanks for reading the article and your question. You brought up a good point and I revised the DIY part of the title. Hopefully, this guide will be of use to someone doing the job. Douglas B.