vetteguy75

I've heard many times that the C3 has a "Coke Bottle" shape....what does that mean exactly? How did that description originate? Etc Etc Etc....

T Rush

"coke bottle shape" refers to that wide hips, narrow waist, large breast type of hour glass figure, but then with the long bottle-nose


I think with the Corvette 3 it mostly relates to the overhead view

...tho it limits passenger space, its sexy


oh, and I just read that Coke introduced that iconic bottle shape in 1968

same year we got that 'shark shape' with the Corvette

Tally Ho

Look at a C3 picture from the top and place it next to a Coke bottle. You will then see what everyone is talking about. It has to do with the wide nose then the taper at the doors and then the wide rear and flat bottom.

PRNDL

vettekid333

Now that's a stretch of the imagination! LOL

MrJlr

I thought they were called coke bottle because that's all you can fit behind the seats....

PRNDL

is this better?

U17

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question...cs/q0104.shtml

Alan 71

Hi,
I believe the shape of the bottle goes all the way back to 1915.
I think the curve is just right... for a woman, a car, or a bottle!
Regards,
Alan

LancePearson

From my sailing days the speed of a non planing sailboat is limited even with big sails to the length of the waterline at the hull due to wave and fluid dynamics as well. The car shapes today all have been wind tunnel tested for low resistance and they all come out not to be coke bottle with big butts to get the effect but wedges with tall butts and uniform shapes in width going back to them.

I heard, maybe here, that Zora Duntov had a vette fixed up with a big really powerful engine to see what it would do in terms of max speed and when they were driving it above 150 mph the air pressure from beneath the hood was so strong that it literally blew the hood off, all the while trying to lift the front end off the ground rather than push it down to hold onto the ground!

In sailing, my past life or one of them, going from winds of ten mph on the sails to winds of 20 miles per hour on the sails is not doubling the force but geometrically increasing it. 10 x 10 = 100. 20 x 20 = 400 or the force is four times as much and so on. 30 mph is nine times what 10 mph is.

sailing a tender boat with 30 knot winds and 40 knot gusts is about all you can possibly manage in a keel boat even if you know what you are doing and you've shortened sail...stuff starts to break.

Thanks for sharing the physics in your note.

Lance

bkvette3

It's the shape that a Corvette should have - if GM would put a retro C3 "coke bottle" shape Vette in the showrooms - in my opinion, they would sell a $hit load of them. I would buy one. Todays Vette body style doesn't do any thing for me. Blends in with every other car out there. Just my $0.02

U17

I'm no aero engineer, but I stayed in a LOT of Holiday Inn's,but I've grown up,kinda,hearing about the area rule and coke bottle design in the 100 series jets ect... 'Bout the same time the Vettes came out.... "I report , you decide "

mar

It has the same meaning to the 'vette as it does to an airplane...

vettes555

thatcorvetteguy

C-3's look sexy to me but the coke bottle does not, how ever wowan are.

Milton Fox

Timsride

Can You do that again with a nice figured woman and remove the bottle. Thats what I see when I look at my vette.

RagTop69

The 100 series jet fighters were a hot in the late fifties and early sixties. Some of them sported a "coke bottle" fuselage design that basically wrapped around the jet engine. Chevy borrowed that design for the Vette. Unfortunately, a General Electric jet engine doesn't have a set of golf clubs or a wife with luggage to accomodate. The lovely coke bottle shape took a lot of the interior space from the Corvette, which was one of the biggest complaints by the automotive press back in late 1967 when the new body was introduced. These cars, prior to 1978, have absolutely NO room inside for anything beyond two adult passengers. But they sure do have sexy lines and, after all, isn't that what a true sports car is about?

bagpipes

SRQStingray

C7 sales are doing well without the coke bottle shape. I seriously doubt many people would agree with you about C7s blending in with every other car out there. Corvettes have never blended in with every other car out there.