"story" of the Spyder

[lisounds]

found this on the museum web

thought you might find interesting


While each sinkhole Corvette has a "story," that of the Spyder is one of the most interesting. The ZR-1 was not a convertible, but GM made only a few prototypes that were. This car was a full performance ZR-1 and was originally painted Sebring Silver with a Neutrino Yellow interior. It debuted at the 1991 North American Auto Show before being repainted black and having the interior changed to red.

"They didn't build a convertible ZR-1 to sell to the public. This is actually a car that General Motors took to different shows to show the car off," said Mike Williams, a member of the Museum's Facility team who's father helped build the car. According to a May 1991 article in Vette Magazine, "The ZR-1 Spyder represents the first time a concept car has ever been assembled on a production assembly line."

The car has many one-off features including custom billett aluminum wheels, a custom tonnau cover with waterfall (an influencer of the C5 Corvette waterfall), a chopped windshield half the normal height, lowered seats mounted directly to the floorpan allowing air to flow around your head, narrowed mirrors, side coves and a louvered hood. Mechanically, the Spyder is a stock 1990 ZR-1.

The underside of the Spyder's hood features signatures of all those involved in building the car.
"They have not been able to retrieve the hood. We are still hoping they find it, but that's one of the big problems. When we displayed the car we wanted everybody to be able to see the signatures so when the car went in the hood was up, and it just snapped the hood off," added Williams.