Something fishy is going on over at Chevrolet. A long obsession with naming its sports car after aquatic creatures lay dormant until the C7 debuted in 2013 with the resuscitated Stingray suffix. Well, get ready for more “fish cars” as Chevy has trademarked the name “Manta Ray,” as well as “Corvette Manta Ray.”
For youngsters and those who don’t remember, the Manta Ray first debuted in 1969 as a reworked version of the Mako Shark II show car. Both concepts shared gradient paint jobs with a blue upper body transitioning to white just below the beltline.
Look carefully and these Bill Mitchell show cars really do look like menacing sharks. Folklore has it that Mitchell had a stuffed Marlin in his office and ordered the styling department to transfer the shape and coloring to a car body design. Mitchell was a trendsetter, but was he the first proponent of “Biomimicry?”
What this means for the modern day Chevrolet Corvette is unclear. Remember when the C5 Z06 used to be a stripped down, factory hot rod? It crept up to the top of the Vette food chain and maybe the Manta Ray could be an entry level model? Or maybe a top end model above Z06.
Whatever model the name lands on, these old fish names are steeped in Corvette history and it’s great news that they’re being dusted off. What do you think? Should a Manta Ray Corvette anchor the top or bottom of the C7 range? Or a trim package like the old C6 Grand Sport?