Historic 1969 Corvette

A Vette with the Right Stuff

Text and Photos by David W. Temple except as noted

Cor·vette (kôr-vµt“) n. 1. A fast, lightly armed warship, smaller than a destroyer, often armed for antisubmarine operations. Perhaps a second definition should be, “The car with the ‘Right Stuff.” The official definition seems very appropriate, though, because the car shown on these pages was one of three virtually identical 1969 Corvettes loaned by General Motors to the all-Navy crew of Apollo 12 who flew the second lunar landing mission in November of 1969. The crew – Charles Conrad, Jr., Richard Gordon, and Alan Bean – drove their Stingrays while training for the mission.

Apollo 12 crew - Conrad, Gordon, Bean (NASA photo)

Their training routine meant much time was spent traveling between the Manned Spacecraft Center, or MSC (later renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center), in Houston and to the Kennedy Space Center (or KSC) at Cape Canaveral, Florida.  They flew T-38s for those trips, but their cars were often driven for them to the respective sites by NASA personnel. During a telephone interview with the author, Alan Bean said, “After long hours of training, it was nice to jump in and drive the car.” Most of the driving, though, took place between the Cape and the Cocoa Beach hotel where they stayed while training in Florida, or from home near Houston to the MSC. One would expect a few drag races between the crew members especially considering Conrad participated in SCCA racing, but Capt. Bean stated, “There was not much opportunity for that since we were too busy training for the mission.” He noted he, “... had to be careful when driving in the rain ... with those wide tires the car would easily hydroplane and I had to anticipate when the car might be ready to slide.”

The Stingray model débuted in 1963 (but was then spelled Sting Ray) with good reviews. The Corvette got a redesign (but no Stingray name) for 1968, however, it was not well received by the motoring press; almost all press reports complained of the car’s styling. Perhaps the worst criticism came from Car and Driver which declared it “... unfit to road test.” On the contrary, Car Life found its appearance to be “exciting in the extreme” and had mostly good things to say about the coupe and convertible they tested. The general public apparently agreed with the latter viewpoint because sales soared about 25 percent to a record level for the time. In a move that could be interpreted as meaning, “To heck with the press,” Chevrolet’s ‘69 Corvette was only slightly changed from its predecessor; however, the Stingray name was back. Sales set another record with production reaching a total of 38,762 which exceeded the 1968 totals by more than one-third.

This success was in stark contrast to Corvette’s beginning. The Vette program was almost canceled after a few short years due to low sales. Not many liked the car, but there was one driving enthusiast who loved Vettes and would also fly into the history books. The late Alan Shepard, one of the original seven astronauts and fifth man to walk on the moon, bought a 1953 model during 1954, partly because he felt it “gave me the right image as a Navy test pilot.” He owned a 1957 model when selected to be an astronaut by NASA in 1959. His fame and love of Corvettes soon led to Shepard meeting Zora Arkus-Duntov, GM’s chief engineer for the Corvette. Eventually, the relationship led to GM giving Shepard a new Corvette. The idea met with some resistance at first because General Motors had no program to give free cars to any VIPs; this reluctance disappeared after Shepard’s sub-orbital space flight in May of ‘61. However, the astronauts were forbidden to do product endorsements, so the car was sent to America’s newest hero without any publicity.

At about this time, Jim Rathmann, a successful race car driver who had won the 1960 Indianapolis 500 and owner of a Chevrolet-Cadillac dealership in Melbourne, Florida, decided to offer the other six astronauts Corvettes through an executive lease program. Rathmann asked Ed Cole, the general manager for Chevrolet at that time, if a “brass hat package” could be arranged for the astronauts; this was approved. The price of leasing a Chevy was $1.00 per year. At the end of the year the car was returned to the dealer and a new one chosen.

Of the seven original astronauts, only John Glenn and Scott Carpenter did not participate in the program. Glenn was more conservative preferring to drive a Prinz which he referred to as a “clunker” (but he did get a speeding ticket to the amusement of Shepard and Donald “Deke” Slayton who witnessed the event while driving by in their Vettes). Carpenter drove a Shelby Cobra. Schirra had a preference for Austin Healeys and Masserrattis though he did have at least a couple of Corvettes.

Alan Bean (NASA photo)

The astronaut corps grew larger with the group of nine selected in 1962; fourteen more were added the following year and others followed in 1965, 1966, 1967, and 1969. The program of loaning cars to the astronauts not only included the option of driving a Corvette, but any Chevrolet. As many as two cars could be selected at any one time. Some opted for a station wagon for a second car while others did not select a Corvette at all. Jack Lousma – who flew aboard Skylab with Alan Bean – chose a family car because as he explained during an interview for this article, “I had a big family.” He elaborated, “It was nice to get a new Chevy since we received military pay and not the big dollars most people think we got as astronauts.” He said he did take advantage of Bean’s offer to let him drive his ‘69 Vette on one occasion, though.

General Motors’ loan program continued into 1971, until the government began receiving complaints about GM getting free advertising from the space program. The Apollo 15 crew was among the last to receive Vettes through the GM program.

The featured car is currently owned by Danny Reed of Austin, Texas, and is the Stingray which was driven by Alan Bean for about one year while training as the lunar module pilot (LMP) for Apollo 12. He and crewmates Charles “Pete” Conrad the Apollo 12 commander (now deceased) and command module pilot Richard Gordon decided as a group to get matching Corvettes when their opportunity to obtain new vehicles came around again. They each specified riverside gold cars equipped with the 390 horsepower 427, four-speed manual transmission, positraction, AM/FM, and air conditioning.

Rare crew-signed photo of the "Astro Vettes" (Danny Reed collection)

Furthermore, the crew decided a distinctive paint scheme was needed; since Alan was the artist among the three he was put in charge of that project. Bean explained during an interview that, “Pete probably came up with the idea. Due to the heavy training schedule there was little time to give much thought to it, but I did present three or four ideas to Jim Rathmann.” Rathmann took it from there. As Bean recalled, “Jim painted one of the cars. The first paint job may have had more black – the hood may have been black. We did not really like it, but Jim was patient and repainted the car perhaps two more times.” The last presentation resulted in thin white pinstripes being added to divide the black from the gold. Some of the finer details of the project have been forgotten, though, over the last three decades; Capt. Bean could not recall why black was chosen since blue and gold are Navy colors.

A distinguishing characteristic of the three cars was the red, white, and blue decal mounted above the Stingray script on each fender. The colors were more than just patriotic; they served as color codes for the respective crew members. Red was the commander’s color, white represented the command module pilot, and blue was used to designate the lunar module pilot. These colors were used to mark the personal belongings (i.e., utensils) of each crew member during a mission. The decals for the Vettes had the official abbreviation of the crew position written over the appropriate color code. In the case of the subject car, LMP for lunar module pilot was written over the blue portion of the emblem. Other than the addition of black paint and the identifying decal, the cars received no modifications.

Sometime in early 1970, Conrad, Bean, and Gordon returned the cars to a Houston Chevy dealer and were subsequently sold. The dealer was probably not shy about mentioning the history of the cars to prospective buyers. The story of where the “CDR” and “CMP” cars went is not known, but the “LMP” Vette went to G. A. Smith, a friend of Danny’s, who kept the car about one year before being called to duty by “Uncle Sam.” Mr. Smith returned the car as a “voluntary repossession” and it was in turn sent to the GMAC office in Austin. Prior to that Smith had shown the car to Danny shortly after buying it; Reed immediately recognized it from a photo he had seen in the December 1969 issue of Life. Later, and by chance, Danny was driving by GMAC when he noticed the Corvette sitting on the lot. He was very surprised to find it there because he had been unaware of his friend being drafted. A quick call to GMAC revealed the car was going to be sold by sealed bid. Danny’s bid was the second highest, however, after two weeks the high bidder had failed to produce the funds. Danny then received a call from GMAC asking if he was still interested in obtaining the car at his original offer. That was in 1971, and he has owned the Vette ever since; evidently he was still very interested!

Alan Bean has seen the car since Danny restored it and was quite impressed, saying that, “It looked better than when I had it.” The restoration included a repaint plus the help, guidance, and knowledge of Ray Repczynski of “Corvettes by Ray” located in Houston at the time. Any part that needed replacing was removed and saved. In the final restoration the original parts were rebuilt and reinstalled on the car at Ray's Shop. Reed is a member of the National Corvette Restorers Society (NCRS) and their standards are high. His awards include “Top Flight” honors – a status which did not come easily. For instance, the “Astro Vette” was delivered new without a jack which is how Ray and Danny displayed it at an NCRS event. The judge was ready to deduct points for the omission when Ray explained the situation – "We are showing the car as it was delivered” and pointed out that Alan Bean had documented the details on the back of the original owner's manual; he had written the car was “delivered without jack & tools.” Danny further explained he did have a jack for the car which the judge promptly inspected, but found it had a later date code than the Vette’s production date. Danny explained naturally that was the case since it was the one Bean got from the dealer shortly after getting the car. To avoid a similar debate in the future, Danny purchased a properly date-coded jack. Danny said of the incident, “The judges are good and, yes, they go by the book. But every once in a while, it's fun to ‘jack’ with the judges."

 He also notes his Stingray will likely never receive a 100-point score because the judges will insist the black paint be removed to make the car match with the trim code on the data plate to prevent point deductions. In his opinion, "They came off the line gold, were specially trimmed out in black for the astronauts, and delivered." He further stated that removing the black paint “... is not worth it.” Most agree the car is a piece of history; therefore it should be preserved as it is and Danny has done a 100-point job at doing that! 

NCRS Awards - 1969 "Apollo 12" Corvette

February 2001	Regional	Baton Rouge, LA	Top Flight
July 2002	National	Houston, TX	Top Flight
November 2002	Regional	Waco, TX	Performance Verification
July 2003	National	Hershey, PA	Top Flight
July 2003	National	Hershey, PA	Duntov Award of Excellence
October 2005	Regional	Waco, TX	Duntov Display
October 2007	Regional	Waco, TX	Duntov Display
July 2008	National	St. Charles, MO	American Heritage

The “Right Stuff?”

Shepard (center) receiving a Corvette with Bill Mitchell (left) and Ed Cole (Author's files)

   The “Original 7” astronauts enjoyed playing pranks on each other they called “gotchas.” Naturally gotchas sometimes included some gags involving Corvettes. They often drag raced on long stretches of road that went past the numerous rocket gantries along “missile row” at the Cape. Shepard often did well in these races, so something had to be done about it and the solution involved one of their best “gotchas.” Gordon Cooper beat Alan by a wide margin in one of their races – something which Shepard could not understand. He asked Virgil “Gus” Grissom, “What’s going on,” and Gus really rubbed it in with his reply – “You lost, Al.” The already fuming Shepard fumed more. Gus rubbed it in even more by suggesting to Shepard, “Maybe you forgot to eat your Wheaties today.” That was enough for Alan; he sent his car to Rathmann’s shop explaining that something was wrong with the car and to fix it. Rathmann said he would check it out. Unfortunately for Shepard, Jim Rathmann was in on the gag and he made the problem worse. Shepard was losing all the races by greater margins. Finally, the group let their victim in on the joke. They had arranged for the differential gearing in Shepard’s car to get switched to a lower numerical ratio so that acceleration would be relatively poor. They did point out to Al that at least he got a higher top speed with the setup. They all got a good laugh out of that. The conservative John Glenn had fun with Shepard’s preference for fast cars, too; he placed a cartoon on Alan’s office door that was captioned, “Definition of a sports car – A hedge against male menopause.” 

Gordon Cooper with his '63 Corvette (Author's files)

Not all the gags were on Shepard. Jim Rathmann became a “gotcha” victim as well. One day Rathmann was driving Grissom’s car with Gus as his passenger. Grissom “innocently” pointed out that Wally (Walter Schirra) could take the curve ahead of them at 80mph in his Italian car. Most drivers could manage 65mph on that particular curve. Rathmann did just what Gus expected – the Indy 500 champion tried to prove he was as good a driver in any car as Wally Schirra. They entered the turn at about 80; by the time the Vette stopped sliding, they were 200 feet off the road and needed a tow truck to get out of the mud.
 On a related note, see my earlier posting to this blog, "The Red Stuff: Late NASA Engineer's 1962 Corvette."