Delaware Valley NCRS Chapter Newsletter - Clubs

It’s The Year Of The 1961!
by John Mulhern III
! 1961 was the
rst of two years for the
“ducktail” solid axle
Corvette, an effective
updating by Bill Mitchell
and his designers of Harley Earl’s now aging mid-1950s
design. e new model year also introduced the nowiconic
four rounded taillights (currently in their 51st
year) and removed the heavy teeth from the grill. 1961
was the nal year for the availability of contrasting
coves and wide whitewall tires. It’s interesting to see
four of these styling touches included on the cover of
the 1961 brochure at the right.
Other changes for 1961 included more
standard equipment — an oft-seen Chevrolet strategy
near the end of a Corvette generation life cycle. All
Corvettes now included courtesy and parking brake
warning lights, sun shades, windshield washers, and a
temperature-controlled radiator fan (ah; the raw,
unadulterated luxury of it all!).
Base price for 1961 was $3,934 (up $62 from
1960) or about $28,900 in today’s dollars. Commonly
ordered optional equipment included heater (98% of
new Corvette buyers paid $102.25 for this option),
whitewall tires (89% paid $31.55), signal-seeking AM
radio (85% paid $137.75), 4-speed manual
transmission (64% paid $188.30 for an upgrade over
the standard 3-speed manual), Positraction (63% paid
$43.05 for this manual transmission-only option), and
auxiliary hardtop (52% at $236.75). Getting all this
equipment brought the price to $4,674 or about
$34,400 in today’s dollars.
e most popular exterior color was once again
Ermine White (29% of production) with the most
popular interior color once again Red (41% of
production). New exterior colors included Fawn Beige
(fairly successful at 12% of production) and Jewel Blue
(one year only at 8% of
production). e most
popular contrasting cove
color combination was
Roman Red (itself the
second most popular exterior color) and white.
FEBRUARY 2011
Either fuel injected engine (regular cam or high
lift cam) was the most expensive option, at $484.20.
More than half of the buyers elected to remain with the
base single 4-barrel 230 bhp engine, which would still
get a Corvette from 0-60 in a little over 8 seconds.
Moving to the top of the line fuel-injected engine (up
25 horsepower to 315 bhp gross for 1961) would cut
about two seconds off that time.
Rare options for 1961 included the regular cam
275 bhp fuel-injected engine (about 1% of
production), the heavy duty brakes and special steering
(2%), “wide” 5.5-inch wheels (3%), power top (4%),
and power windows (6%). It is not known how many
buyers ordered the 24 gallon fuel tank, the nylon
blackwall tires, or the positive crankcase ventilation (in
its rst year of availability).
Corvette production was up 7% over 1960 to
10,939. Some of this increase may have been due to the
premier of “Route 66” as a weekly series on CBS on
October 7, 1960.
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