The Corvette survived 2 run-ins with DeLorean

Did John DeLorean want to kill the Corvette? He never said so. But twice in his career as a fast-rising General Motors executive he began projects that would have damaged — maybe destroyed — GM's hallowed sports car.

DeLorean and the Corvette first crossed paths in 1964. The dispute centered on a Pontiac concept car called the Banshee.

As a top Pontiac engineering executive, DeLorean had breathed life into the stuffy Pontiac Division with the GTO version of the Tempest, a small vehicle with a high-output engine that is considered by many to be the first muscle car.

DeLorean wanted a Ford Mustang fighter, and the Banshee was it.

The Banshee was slick — a long-hood/short-deck two-seater with fenders that bulged up and over the wheels and a hood line that sloped to a sharp point. Under the hood was a Pontiac V-8 teamed with a four-speed manual transmission. Two prototypes, a coupe and convertible, were built.

Maybe it was too slick.

GM insiders knew that many of the Banshee's styling cues were in place for the next-generation Corvette scheduled to debut in 1967 (later delayed to 1968). And DeLorean wanted to sell the Banshee for $2,500, just a few hundred dollars less than a base Corvette.

With Corvette sales running around 22,000 units a year in the mid-1960s, the program already was a high-cost/low-volume project for GM. Anything that would cut Corvette sales would threaten the business case for the car.

GM executives told DeLorean to drop the Banshee. All that survived were the taillights, which appeared later on the Pontiac Firebird.

DeLorean's second brush with the Corvette came in the early 1970s when he was running Chevrolet. With the economy hurt by inflation and GM and other carmakers struggling to meet safety and emissions rules, there was heavy pressure to cut costs.

One way to boost volume and bring down the Corvette's costs, DeLorean thought, would be to have it share a platform with the Chevrolet Camaro.

DeLorean gave Dave McLellan the job of making it happen. McLellan was the Camaro's chief engineer and later succeeded Zora Arkus-Duntov as chief engineer for the Corvette.

"In the end it didn't work. ... It all came down to the engine placement," McLellan wrote in his book, Corvette from the Inside.

The Corvette's engine was mounted lower and farther back in the chassis than the Camaro's engine, McLellan said. His conclusion: Combining the designs would have ruined the looks of both models — and perhaps delivered a fatal wound to Chevy's halo car.

"That truly was the biggest threat to the Corvette's existence," said Jerry Burton, editor of Corvette Quarterly magazine.

The Corvette finally did share its platform. The Cadillac XLR has been built on the Corvette platform since its introduction in 2003. The XLR is built in the Corvette plant in Bowling Green, Ky.