Dose11

I am sure this has been brought up...but...are all C3's considered stingrays?

68's didn't say Stingray but they were advertised as Stingrays
69-76 Had Stingray on on the fenders
77's Same general body as the previous yrs...but no Stingray emblems
78-82 had the fastback rear window...But pretty much the same body as the rest of the generation

So are all C3's stingrays...or do you just say C3 is the generation of the sharks...or what? Just wondering what the general consensus was.

24695bob

Everyone has his own opinions.... as an owner of a Sting Ray and two Stingrays ( Mid year) and a 72 and 76) and a 79 I honestly do not refer or think of my 79 as a Stingray..Nor do I call a 68 a Sting Ray...

That is my opinion...if the emblem was not on the car from the factory it was never one or the other...

That said... who really cares...

Bob G
64 72 & 98 Verts
76 79 and 88 (anc) Coupes

gq82

It really didn't mean anything.... it was just a marketing term used from 63 through 67 "Sting Ray" and 69 through 76 "Stingray"....most folks use the term for all C2s and C3s.

7T1vette

You're asking whether all C3's are of the Stingray design, even though some of them do not have the "Stingray" badges on them. Well, I think of all C3's being in the same design family, so they are all Stingrays. Other folks think that only the ones that have "Stingray" badges can be legitimately called Stingrays. Since GM never elaborated on it, I guess you can choose which way you want to look at it.

blueray72

The only real Stingray is the 72..All other C3's are just humps of metal and glass.

MCMLXI

If I am talking cars to someone at a graduation party, wedding .. etc - .... and mention that I have an old restored car .... and then say that it is a Stingray - that always seems to always bring a smile to the guy that I am chatting with .....

LancePearson

I've heard three terms for years: Corvette or Vette; Stingray; and Sharks for the 3's. I never really quite got the Stingray which in my mind was associated with the C2's more than the C3's even though some C3's do have Stingray names on them.

Here's how I distilled it in my mind, right wrong or indifferent:

Corvettes are all of 'em.

Stingrays comes from the view from the passenger compartment forward from C2 through C3's where the front fenders look like the wings of a giant Stingray flapping through the water.

Shark: the C3's were designed in body shape after the lines of the fast ocean going Mako shark which is nowadays considered a big time sport fish.

I'm not sure the general public from talking with them about my 76 know's the Shark origin but it is in fact what the style design model approximated from what I've read. Anybody with a C3 sure has heard the term Shark.

I really don't associate the name Stingray with C3's no matter what the emblems say and I doubt that I'm alone. I think of them as the Mako Shark story more. When driving mine on VIR's road track and accelerating up the straight to the roller coaster section that day each lap as I pushed through the gears at max rpms up to the crest I did think of the front end as a Stingray!

Lance

PRNDL

I dont refer to my 68 as a Stingray or a Sting Ray, even though Chevrolet did.

TheSkunkWorks

Nothing against the OP for asking, but IMHO this is perhaps the most over-debated and inconsequential of topics regarding our hobby...

+

7T1vette

Actually, I didn't find any "debates" in this thread....just a bunch of nice folks presenting their opinions in a pleasant and friendly way. I could get used to this...

vettebuyer6369

No. Not complicated. Next question.

LancePearson

I call mine a Corvette to anyone outside the fraternity...they all know that versus Ferrari, Porche, etc. Works quite well and is how I think of it until I see it then I call think of it as sculpture....which its body is.

lance

scottyp99

I have a 1980 Corvette, and at some point I intend to install stingray emblems. I think that Chevy just stopped bothering to install them in '77, and I'm just fixing that mistake.


Scott

daanbc

I believed they dropped the "stingray" emblem due to the designer retiering that year from GM. It was done I guess to honor him...... Since he was the one of the one's who came up with the name.

milo30

If you own a '76 or earlier, then the answer is usually an emphatic NO! How dare you try to compare your car to their rare beast.

If you own a '77 or later then the answer is probably 50-50.

If you are a non corvette owner admiring a C3 then the answer is yes.

It isn't like "stingray" ever meant anything. It wasn't like a mustang or some other model where that designation represented something unique to the car such as a higher HP engine. It was simply an emblem that every one of them had that year.

To my knowledge, nobody has ever produced any documentation from GM showing that it was actually considered anything different. Considering that the '68 had no emblem but was definitely considered one by GM, one could argue that they were just cleaning some of the bling off of the car in the later years.

I personally never call any year a stingray. I call them either a corvette or a C3 when I talk about them. Call them what you want.

RagTop69

You need at least two more dead horse beatings. This is like the Mustang crowd arguing over whether the first cars were 64 1/2 or 65 Mustangs. WHO CARES!

scottyp99

Yeah, let's change the subject........so......what kind of spark plugs do you run in your C3?


Scott

daanbc

And what kind of oil do you use???????????

Dose11

Hmm...The question came to mind because I was at McDonalds getting a bacon biscuit and a large OJ and the guy inside said..."hey that's nice...stingray right?" And I looked at him for a moment and was like "Umm yeah...same body style"

Oh well...I always considered this Generation Stingrays so...I will keep considering them that

For now on...I have a 1981 Corvette Stingray....C3 for short

Vette-kid

This has pretty much always summed it up for me. No special equipment to distinguish a "Stingray" (such as a Z06, etc etc), and GM marketing went so far as to call a '68 a stingray even though it did not carry the badge...so to me, any C3 is a Stingray. Add to that the fact that most people see any C3 as a stingray as well...just go with it.