The 1971 Trans Am and the 1973 Corvette Stingray both appear in the 1978 film Corvette Summer, and the chase sequence featuring both earned a four-star rating from Car Chase Wonderland 2 — a channel that applies that standard carefully. Two of the more significant American GT cars of their era, on real locations, at real speed. For anyone who takes 1970s movie car chases seriously, this one belongs in the conversation.
Corvette Summer came out in 1978 and did something relatively rare in Hollywood car films — it treated a specific American car as a genuine character rather than a prop, and the machines it featured were real enough to earn the respect of enthusiasts who have been watching muscle car movies since the beginning. Car Chase Wonderland 2’s preservation of the chase sequence featuring the 1971 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am and the 1973 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray C3 captures two of the more iconic American GT cars of their respective generations, doing what they were built to do, in real locations, with the cameras rolling. The four-star rating the channel assigned to this sequence is not given out lightly.
The 1971 Trans Am represents one of the last expressions of the second-generation Firebird before the platform hit its stride with later performance offerings. The 455 HO available in 1971 produced 335 horsepower under increasingly strict detuning pressures from emissions regulations — a number that, by contemporary standards, represented a genuine retreat from the peak power figures of just two years earlier, but that still delivered enough thrust to make the Trans Am a legitimate performance car on the street and one with considerable screen presence.
The 1973 C3 Corvette occupied a complicated position in Corvette history. Federal bumper standards mandated the addition of large urethane bumper caps that year, altering the car’s appearance significantly and generating criticism from enthusiasts who preferred the cleaner lines of the earlier C3 cars. But the platform’s fundamental character — fiberglass body, independent rear suspension, available big-block power — remained intact, and in the right color and configuration these cars age better than their contemporary reputation sometimes suggests.
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Movie car chases of the 1970s exist in a specific golden era of practical automotive filmmaking, before CGI changed what was possible and before insurance considerations changed what studios were willing to do with real hardware on real roads. This sequence earns its four-star designation.
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That’s got to be one of the ugliest Corvettes I’ve ever seen
Corvette Summer it’s s classic,
Corvette Summer, ugly dam car!
Awesome
Silliest Vette ever.
That Vette is so ugly!
Corvette summer. George Barris did the corvette for this movie.
Corvette Summer
That Trans am is the best year made.
I’m sorry but that’s just lame