In 2021, General Motors shared a peculiar image of a four-seat Corvette concept from 1962 on Instagram that had a lot of car enthusiasts sharing mixed opinions. Some commented that they would definitely want a four-door Corvette while others said it would “never work.” There were also a lot of questions, the most common being: Why wasn’t the four-door Corvette ever made?
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At the time, Chevrolet’s general manager, Ed Cole, wanted to see if a Corvette with four seats could compete Ford’s Thunderbird. The task was given to designer Larry Shinoda, the man behind the two-seat 1963 Corvette Sting Ray coupe. Could he stretch it to comfortably and stylishly fit two more? Shinoda ended up figuring it out, adding six inches to the C2 for a total length of 104 inches, raising the roof height, and increasing the size of the split-window rear glass. While some Corvette fans reacted to the 1962 images with curiosity and desire, it apparently wasn’t always that way.
There’s a few reasons that GM may have canceled the four door Corvette
Even though Shinoda was successful in creating a four-seat Corvette, the extra long sports car was met with disdain from a lot of people at Chevrolet and the project was ultimately scrapped. According to Corvette Blogger, GM vice president of design Chuck Jordan said the design staff detested it. This included Zora Rkus-Duntov, the iconic Corvette chief engineer the highly desirable ZR2 was named after. Another loud opposing voice was executive Bunkie Knudsen, who is said to have convinced VP Bud Goodman to scrap the idea completely. A few days later, Goodman canceled the four-seat Corvette stating that it would “taint the brand” and not sell well (via LS1Tech).
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While it seems like the four-seat Corvette was simply just hated as a concept by higher-ups at Chevrolet, Shinoda was interviewed later about the long-forgotten project and had a different recollection of events. He explained in the interview that it was not the car’s design but rather a wonky seat that ended the project prematurely. Shinoda recalled GM chairman Jack Gordon checking out his prototype but having issues with the seats once he climbed into the back. When Gordon tried to get out, the front-seat mechanism locked and employees had to come and essentially rescue the chairman by removing the seat. It may not have been one of the coolest Corvette designs out there, but some muscle car fans definitely want to see the four-seat Corvette come to life now that the photos have been revealed.
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