CLICK HERE TO GO TO OUR WEBSITERebirth Of A DreamWhen Steve Tate arrived home with his new acquisition, heimmediately surveyed what he had purchased. He discovered a curiousassortment of stock Corvette parts, but also lots of things that were obviously hand-made just for the XP-819. Trim items like window moldings, front turn signals, rear taillights, door handles, wiper arms, and some controls were pure Corvette. Even the grills on the rear deck were taken from the '65 stock Corvette big block hood. But a lot of the parts looked strange to him. Aluminum brake calipers. Funny two-speed automatic transaxle (it turned out to be Pontiac's). Fixed seats with a specially made, adjustable pedal setup. The good news was that almost everything was there. The original wheels, tires, engine, upholstery, and most chassis parts. The bad news was that it was in a zillion pieces. The XP came into Steve Tate's life at a time when, for personal reasons, he couldn't tackle the restoration by himself. He entrusted the bulk of the work to Delmar Hines, a former drag racer, Corvette enthusiast, and general Mr. Fix-anything type of guy. Hines did what you'd expect. He spent long hours studying the whole mess, reasoned as best he could how it all went back together, then put it back together. In this regard, General Motors was of little help. Chuck Jordan in Styling came through with some color glossies of the XP-819. But the engineering file, which Tate and Hines desperately needed for a 100% accurate restoration, was at first "lost" then "unavailable." Whatever transpired behind the scenes at General Motors regarding the XP-819 and Tate's acquisition of it isn't known. Officially, the Corporation appeared to just wish Tate and his car would go away. Certainly no assistance was forthcoming. However, certain individuals within GM were delighted that the car had miraculously survived and was being resurrected. Count Duntov among them.Because of the lack of success in getting adequate information from GM, Tate and Hines had to guess about some things. The exhaust system is, for instance, their own creation and surely different from that designed for the XP-819 by R&D. That bothers Tate, though nobody is likely to point to it and say its wrong. Who's to know? But authenticity is a big deal to people like Tate. The same line of thinking has resulted in a restoration that is not top show quality. Most of the components of the XP-819, especially body and interior, were in good enough condition to recognize the degree of quality originally attained by Chevrolet. This car was designed as an engineering test-bed, not a glittering show piece. Tate and Hines tried to restore the car to its original condition: no better, no worse. The XP-819, as photographed today, still wears its original wheels, tires, and upholstery. Some chassis pieces had to be fabricated, but nearly everything visible is original. In some ways, Chevrolet never finished the job. Headlights, for instance, were never fitted to the pop-up mountings, nor are they now. The public unveiling of XP-819 in its re-born state came at the big 1978 Bloomington Corvette Corral in Bloomington, Illinois. Did it draw a gigantic crowd of enthusiastic admirers? No. According to Tate, most spectators thought it was a Volkswagen kit car. (Come to think of it, it does sort of look like one.) This is a car that, for the most part, was unknown. It didn't get the magazine bally-hoo. At Bloomington, thousands of people walked by one of the few dream Corvettes ever to escape the grasp of General Motors…and kept on walking. You can't blame them. it took a very astute Corvette enthusiast to realize what he was viewing. It was at the 25th anniversary meet staged in Flint by the National Corvette Restorers Society that Duntov saw Tate's XP-819. Tate allowed it to be displayed for one week. Duntov said, "I was told it had been destroyed…how can this be?"Later Steve Tate got together with Zora Duntov to talk about the XP-819. Though it wasn't one of his personal pet projects, Zora remembered it well. It is probably safe to say that not much happened around Chevrolet related to the Corvette that Zora didn't get into sooner or later. He remembered driving the XP-819, and he remembered its problems. He also re-membered that the XP-819 was in a sense the lead off of a number of fierce mid-engined Corvettes that Duntov put his heart and soul into. At some point in his twenty-two year Corvette career, Duntov came to the realization that his cherished dream of building the ultimate Cor-vette, the Corvette that would out-perform every other production sports car in the world, would never be. Viewing a car like the XP-819 had to be a mixture of pain and pleasure. Pain in the
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Rebirth Of A Dream
When Steve Tate arrived home with his new acquisition, he
immediately surveyed what he had purchased. He discovered a curious
assortment of stock Corvette parts, but also lots of things that were
obviously hand-made just for the XP-819. Trim items like window
moldings, front turn signals, rear taillights, door handles, wiper arms,
and some controls were pure Corvette. Even the grills on the rear
deck were taken from the '65 stock Corvette big block hood. But a lot
of the parts looked strange to him. Aluminum brake calipers. Funny
two-speed automatic transaxle (it turned out to be Pontiac's). Fixed
seats with a specially made, adjustable pedal setup. The good news
was that almost everything was there. The original wheels, tires, engine,
upholstery, and most chassis parts. The bad news was that it was in a
zillion pieces. The XP came into Steve Tate's life at a time when, for personal reasons, he
couldn't tackle the restoration by himself. He entrusted the bulk of the work to Delmar Hines, a
former drag racer, Corvette enthusiast, and general Mr. Fix-anything type of guy. Hines did
what you'd expect. He spent long hours studying the whole mess, reasoned as best he could
how it all went back together, then put it back together. In this regard, General Motors was of
little help. Chuck Jordan in Styling came through with some color glossies of the XP-819. But
the engineering file, which Tate and Hines desperately needed for a 100% accurate restoration,
was at first "lost" then "unavailable."
Whatever transpired behind the scenes at General Motors regarding the XP-819 and
Tate's acquisition of it isn't known. Officially, the Corporation appeared to just wish Tate and his
car would go away. Certainly no assistance was forthcoming. However, certain individuals
within GM were delighted that the car had miraculously survived and was being resurrected.
Count Duntov among them.
Because of the lack of success in getting adequate information from GM, Tate and Hines
had to guess about some things. The exhaust system is, for instance, their own creation and
surely different from that designed for the XP-819 by R&D. That bothers Tate, though nobody is
likely to point to it and say its wrong. Who's to know? But authenticity is a big deal to people
like Tate. The same line of thinking has resulted in a restoration that is not top show quality.
Most of the components of the XP-819, especially body and interior, were in good enough
condition to recognize the degree of quality originally attained by Chevrolet. This car was
designed as an engineering test-bed, not a glittering show piece. Tate and Hines tried to
restore the car to its original condition: no better, no worse. The XP-819, as photographed
today, still wears its original wheels, tires, and upholstery. Some chassis pieces had to be
fabricated, but nearly everything visible is original. In some ways, Chevrolet never finished the
job. Headlights, for instance, were never fitted to the pop-up mountings, nor are they now.
The public unveiling of XP-819 in its re-born state came at the big 1978 Bloomington
Corvette Corral in Bloomington, Illinois. Did it draw a gigantic crowd of enthusiastic admirers?
No. According to Tate, most spectators thought it was a Volkswagen kit car. (Come to think of
it, it does sort of look like one.) This is a car that, for the most part, was unknown. It didn't get
the magazine bally-hoo. At Bloomington, thousands of people walked by one of the few dream
Corvettes ever to escape the grasp of General Motors…and kept on walking. You can't blame
them. it took a very astute Corvette enthusiast to realize what he was viewing. It was at the
25th anniversary meet staged in Flint by the National Corvette Restorers Society that Duntov
saw Tate's XP-819. Tate allowed it to be displayed for one week. Duntov said, "I was told it had
been destroyed…how can this be?"
Later Steve Tate got together with Zora Duntov to talk about the XP-819. Though it wasn't
one of his personal pet projects, Zora remembered it well. It is probably safe to say that not
much happened around Chevrolet related to the Corvette that Zora didn't get into sooner or
later. He remembered driving the XP-819, and he remembered its problems. He also re-
membered that the XP-819 was in a sense the lead off of a number of fierce mid-engined
Corvettes that Duntov put his heart and soul into. At some point in his twenty-two year Corvette
career, Duntov came to the realization that his cherished dream of building the ultimate Cor-
vette, the Corvette that would out-perform every other production sports car in the world, would
never be. Viewing a car like the XP-819 had to be a mixture of pain and pleasure. Pain in the
