In early 1961, Chevrolet’s general manager, Ed Cole, approved development of a four-seater Corvette. He believed it would be an appealing competitor to Ford’s Thunderbird.

Cole was pushing the project despite many senior GM executives having doubts about it being necessary. They pointed out that GM had been working on a T-Bird equivalent since October 1958, when styling proposals were first reviewed, and the 1962 Pontiac Grand Prix and 1963 Buick Riviera were in the pipeline. There were also initial proposals for what would become the 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado and 1967 Cadillac Eldorado taking shape in the styling studios.

What was also concerning GM’s product planners, sales managers and the biggest Corvette dealers, was that Cole’s high priced ultra-low volume new project would damage the mystique of the Corvette as a high-performance sports car. Most believed it was the wrong car aimed at the wrong market.

But as it turned out, it was the right time for a compact, sporty four-seater with plenty of power. More on that later.

According to Michael Lamm, writing in the December 1980 edition of Special Interest Autos, GM design boss, Bill Mitchell, reluctantly went along with the project. Mitchell considered the Corvette to be his personal design territory and cannot have been pleased with Cole’s intrusion. But he had no choice, really. Cole was the boss of Chevrolet and he had the power, rank and responsibility to develop new models. After all, that was Cole’s job!

In August 1961 Cole gained even more corporate clout. He was promoted to manage all of GM’s US car and truck divisions. He was followed into the Chevrolet role by Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen, who had been Pontiac’s general manager since 1956. Knudsen had turned around the staid “old man” brand, creating the “wide-track” performance image and setting Pontiac on a path to sales success. Knudsen was not a fan of the four-seater either.

The four-seater was not the first time Cole and Knudsen had disagreed. Cole had wanted Pontiac, Buick and Oldsmobile to sell clones of his Corvair. Knudsen said no. He reckoned the car was unsafe. Plus, without a V8 it did not align with Pontiac’s performance image. His counterparts at Buick and Oldsmobile agreed, and they went their own way. There is a link to my Retroautos story about the secret Corvair clones at the end of this story.

Four Seats Starts With Two.

The program has its origins with the development of the two-seater 1963 Corvette, coded XP720. This styling was instigated by Mitchell on 28^th July, 1959.

The XP720’s overall styling theme was based on elements from a 1957 design study called the “Q”, Mitchell’s 1959 Sting Ray race car and the 1961 Mako Shark concept.

Clay proposals were developed during 1960 and approved for production by GM’s senior executives, including Cole, on 22^nd December.

In early 1961 Mitchell gave Larry Shinoda, who had helped shape the 1963 Corvette, the task of styling the four-seater. A clay model was completed by April.

To accommodate the two extra passengers, Shinoda stretched the wheelbase six inches/152mm to 104 inches/2642mm. The roof height was raised, the doors reshaped and lengthened and the split rear window made longer.

Cole must have been pleased with the result because on 11^th August, 1961 the decision was made to construct a full-sized fibreglass model, including a fully trimmed interior and working doors. It was to be completed by the end of January 1962, in time for a review on 19^th February by Chevrolet’s top management, now headed by Knudsen, and other senior GM executives. Prior to the review, photos were taken of the car next to a Ford Thunderbird and with passengers in the rear seats.

A previously secret GM document reveals that the review did not go well. A summary of the meeting says that:

“A 4-passenger Coupe fibreglass model was completed in January 1962 and was used by styling and Chevrolet division in an unsuccessful presentation to Corporation Management.”

Clearly, Cole had more work to do to convince his colleagues of the project’s variability. Meanwhile, the main focus was on ensuring the 1963 Corvette would be ready for its debut in August 1962. This was a crucial time for Mitchell because it was the first Corvette styled on his watch as design boss. The four-place car went onto the back burner.

In September 1962 the car was back on the priority list and given its own code, XP796. It seems that Cole would not let the idea fade away. The documents indicate that two design directions were established with a launch date in 1965:

“Design #1 (Mr Cole’s) is to carryover as many 1963 Corvette parts as possible. Design #2 (Mr Knudsen’s) is for an all-new Corvette”

No doubt about it. More arm wrestling between Cole and Knudsen!

Writing in the December 2007 edition of Corvette Fever magazine, Ronald Ahrens noted that Knudsen believed that if a four-seater was to be successful it had to be bigger than a “2+2 Ferrari”. Mitchell agreed. Knudsen authorised the styling department to buy a Ferrari to use as a comparison. That probably explains the reference to Design #2. It also suggests a tactic to delay the project and create discussion about its priority and feasibility.

The next major decision was on 18^th October, when the GM Board reviewed the project. There’s almost no information about what was discussed at that review. However, the documents record that on 22^nd October:

“Mr Mitchell rang from Europe to have(the) program stopped temporarily.”

On 31^st December 1962 a file note summarises the final outcome, without using the word “cancelled”:

“The program became inactive in October 1962.”

Usually when a project is cancelled the fibreglass model is destroyed. But not this car. On 18^th September 1963, a directive was issued not to scrap it. The car’s situation was again reviewed on 10^th December, 1965 and it remained in storage. Not for long, however. The file notes that on 4^th May, 1966:

“Letter issued to scrap this car. Mr Mitchell has approved scrapping the four-passenger fibreglass model (int-ext).”

And so it was that the four-seater Corvette passed into history.

Four-seater project: opportunities missed.

Although a four-seater Corvette is an interesting idea, I do not believe it would have been a success. It would have sold in very limited numbers to those with plenty of money. But as for being a mass seller? No way. Let’s face it, this car was only an elongated Corvette. And not all that roomy, either. The bigger Buick Riviera, Oldsmobile Toronado and Pontiac Grand Prix were the real T-Bird contenders.

But, if I step back from the tussle over the project, a bigger picture emerges, and highlights a lost opportunity for GM.

You see, while Cole was busy agitating for his bigger Corvette he missed, and so did almost everyone else at GM, what was really important. A team at Ford, led by Lee Iacocca, had already identified the size and demographics of an emerging and lucrative market and the type of car that would satisfy pent up demand. The demographic was known as “baby boomer”. They had cash to spend and wanted a smallish, affordable, sporty, powerful, four-seater that was nothing like what their parents drove. You and I have a name for such a car: Mustang.

Furthermore, while Cole was mucking about with the Corvette, he actually had the basis of a Mustang equivalent right in front of him. These were the 1961 Chevrolet Corvair Monza coupe, and later convertible, and the 1962 Chevy II/Nova.

The Monza was a sporty version of the Corvair that had been rushed onto the market to support the sedan, which was not doing well against the Falcon. By the end of 1962, it had sold 150,000 units, more than half of Corvair’s sales.

The Chevy II/Nova was a similarly hurried project because GM had realised very quickly that Cole’s Corvair was never going to achieve its objectives. A staggering 326,600 buyers opted for the Chevy II/Nova in 1962. Of these, 84,000 chose the sporty hardtop coupe and convertible models.

So, here’s what that means. Chevrolet sold 234,000 compact sporty cars in 1962 and almost no one at GM tumbled onto what that signified. Meanwhile, the folks at Ford were ahead of the curve. Wrote Iacocca in his Mustang submission to the Ford Board in late 1962:

“The Ford Division believes that the compact sporty car market segment, now dominated by Monza, requires more aggressive counteraction than we can provide with the Falcon…This segment is a unique market. It is important beyond its size due to the apparent opportunity for conquest sales, first new car sales and the potential for re-establishing a favourable Ford image with the younger age groups who dominate this market area.”

There is a link to the Mustang design history feature story at the end of this story.

Irv Rybicki, then the chief designer for Chevrolet, was one of the few who recognised the market for such a car. He believed that the Chevy II/Nova hardtop could have been re-shaped into a four-seater sports coupe and launched in 1965.

In a 1985 interview with the Benson Ford Research Centre, Rybicki said that in 1963 he tasked a small team with creating a sports coupe. Mitchell liked the proposal and they showed it to Knudsen. Rybicki recalled that:

“Bunkie walked around the car, and he said, ‘Damned exciting’ But he said, ‘I want to tell you something, fellows. The last thing Chevrolet needs is another car.’ And that ended that four-place (coupe) what would have been the Camaro program, and that was about a year before Ford announced the Mustang.”

There it is. Opportunity lost.

In April 1964, GM proudly unveiled a concept car called the Chevrolet Super Nova at the Worlds’ Fair in New York. It reflected the styling of Rybicki’s coupe which Knudsen had rejected. It was completely overshadowed by the launch of the Mustang and quickly forgotten.

In hindsight it is easy to question the actions of Cole and Knudsen, but in many ways, Cole had the right idea about a smallish, sporty four-seater coupe. It was the right time, too. He just put his energies into the wrong car and the wrong market segment.

And Knudsen? Well, we can’t forget that during his tenure as Chevrolet’s boss he signed off on the stylish Chevelle, which achieved sales of close to 750,000 in 1964 and 1965. It outsold Ford’s Fairlane by 50%. He also approved the magnificent 1965 full-sized Chevrolet range, which ended up selling 1.7 million units. By comparison, Ford’s 1965 big cars convinced only 980,000 buyers to part with their money.

Cole went on to become president of GM. He retired in 1974 and died in 1977 when the plane he was piloting crashed during a storm. Knudsen resigned from GM to go to the presidency of Ford in February 1968. Henry Ford II fired Knudsen on 11^th September, 1969, telling the media that:

“Things did not work out as I had hoped they might. It is unfortunate, but I don't want to say anything more than that.”.

I wonder if Ed Cole ever thought the same about the fates of the four-seater Corvette and Corvair?

Here are the links: Corvair Clones. Mustang Design to Driveway.

A special thanks to John Kyros, at GM’s Heritage Centre in Michigan, who searched the Centre’s extensive archives for the photos and information used in this story.

Retroautos is written and published with passion and with pride by David Burrell. Retroautos stories and images are copyrighted. Reproducing them in any format is prohibited. Retroautos is a registered trademark. Reproducing it in any format is prohibited.