[1]With the introduction of the all new C7, Chevrolet decided to bring back the moniquer “Stingray” from the original Corvette Stingray of 1963-1967.
[2]The German made Amphicar, produced from 1961 to 1965 was designed to be half car, half boat (unlike the C7 Stingray).
The Stingray name was used originally in part because one of the C2 Corvette designers (Bill Mitchell) recieved design inspiration from a 1959 factory racing car called “The Mitchell Stingray” [3]. Whether you own a C2 or a C7 Stingray, one thing is for sure: the stingray that lives in tropical and coastal waters known for its large barbed stingers can swim very well, and your Chevrolet-made Stingray cannot.
One recently surfaced picture on CorvetteBlogger [4] shows one Corvette Stingray that took the name too literally and tried to go for a swim. Judging by the picture, it appears as though the driver was trying to forge a lightly flooded section of roadway and misjudged how deep the water actually was. As they say in drivers ed, if you approach a flooded section of road, you absolutely must know its depth before trying to cross it. If you have stood next to a C7, you know just how low they are and as such, it would not take much depth at all before water started to creep into the interior and get sucked into the motor.
It goes without saying, but the Corvette is not designed for crossing deep water and will not float. Hopefully the owner was able to have insurance cover the damage.
[5][6]
The Corvette powered Python used many Corvette parts (including driveline and styling cues) and was designed to be a modern day Amphicar.