CORVETTE RACING: THE BOOK!

David Kimble, best known for his incredible automotive cutaway art, has written an outstanding book on the racing history of America’s Sports Car.

Just when you thought every book that could be written about the Corvette had already been written, along comes CORVETTE RACING, The Complete Competition History from Sebring to Le Mans. And, it’s been written by David Kimble, one of the last remaining masters in the art of precision, detailed airbrush automotive illustration. If you’ve been a reader of the top sports car magazines, chances are you’re familiar with his work.

Going on seven decades, Corvettes have bested and embarrassed some of the world’s greatest marques at top events at major racing circuits: Le Mans, Daytona, Nurburgring, Sebring and Laguna Seca to name a few. It all started with Corvette godfather Zora Arkus-Duntov and the Corvette, dubbed “The Real McCoy,” he raced in 1956 at Sebring.

No one-trick pony, Corvettes have excelled and thrilled fans for decades at hill climbs, drag strips, on the Trans-Am circuit and in GT competition worldwide. Kimble captures the essence of Corvettes at speed in words, rare photos and cutaway illustrations. He’s had access to GM’s historical photo archives and has unearthed images that even I, as the Founding Editor of VETTE magazine, had no knowledge of. Corvette Grand Sport (1963) and '60 Corvette at Le Mans, above. Many are from consummate racing photographer Richard Prince, who has covered Corvette racing for Chevrolet.

Packed with 256 pages and 155 color and 95 black & white images, Kimble takes us from 1956 at Sebring to 2012 at Le Mans, above, and the ALMS circuit; from fledgling solid-axle Corvettes to the latest, highly-sophisticated endurance racers. He has an engineering background, studying physics at Pasadena College, starting as a draftsman/artist on laser projects for the Navy in the early-1960s and did work on an Indy 500 Chaparral in 1966. Road & Track in the mid-1960s was the first magazine to publish his automotive cutaway art. Cutaways of Z06 Corvette and C7 Corvette engine cutaways, below, were done by Kimble for Chevrolet.