A rare brochure showing the development of the Aerovette. It was first known as the Four-Rotor Corvette because it was designed to have a four-rotor rotary engine. Because of emissions and fuel economy issues, GM scrapped the rotary engine, and they replaced with a 350 V8 in the Aerovette. It was also known as the Paris Corvette. The entire brochure is presented here. The appearance is muted because in the original piece the photos were posterized, and the brochure was printed in muted tones on colored stock.
That’s a Tom Semple rendering in the upper left corner. Photo top center shows Bill Mitchell and Chuck Jordan. Designers pictured are Randy Wittine and John Quincy Adams.
Ron Simms is in the photo in the upper left. Upper right on the right is Jerry Palmer.
Great article, thank you for posting this. I spent an hour reading about the fate of the various mid-engine corvette prototypes as a result of this posting. Very interesting story about one that ended up in UK onthe roof of an office building (rescued, thankfully), The Delorean that Never Was.
Also, notice how the wheel design (different on front/rear on proto) eventually became the production alloy wheel for late 70s/early 80s vettes.
Sincerely, Joe G.
I look at photos of this car and doubt a more beautiful automobile will ever be made , its got it all (for me)