March 25, 1930 - November 13, 1997 
Larry Shinoda
March 25, 1930 - November 13, 1997
As a boy in California during World War II, Larry Shinoda was held in an internment camp for Japanese Americans. As a young man, he built hot rods and drag-raced them on the streets of Los Angeles. And as an adult, he designed the 1963 Corvette Stingray, widely considered one of the most beautiful and quintessentially American cars to roll off Detroit's assembly lines. -Suzanne Siegel
The Corvette Sting Ray, the Z-28 Camaro, and the BOSS 302 Mustang were all designed by Larry Shinoda. Larry, a Los Angles, California native, went to work for Ford Motor Company in 1955 after being kicked out of the Art Center College of Design in Los Angles for being in Larry's words "a malcontent". He stayed at Ford for one year, then moved to Packard in January of 1956. During his time with Packard, things were slow and the company was in financial trouble. Larry took a leave from the company and went to Indianapolis and worked on the car that won the Indy 500 that year driven by Pat Flaherty, a Watson built car, but styled by Larry. In September of 1956, Larry Shinoda went to work for General Motors. Larry worked a little on the SS racer, mostly details, but when Bill Mitchell purchased the SS mule chassis from GM, Larry went to work in Mitchell's basement, refining the design of the clay model into what would become the 1959 Sting Ray sports racer. Because GM had banned racing, the Sting Ray did not say Corvette anywhere on the vehicle. Larry was mechanic, pit crew, designer and what ever else was required on the car. Dr. Dick Thompson drove the Sting Ray racer. The Sting Ray Racer was the foundation for the 1963 Shinoda designed Corvette Sting Ray.
The Sting Ray was designed as a roadster. Later, when development began on the 1963 Corvette the Split Window was designed into the coupe. Bill Mitchell had adopted the Corvette as his own, and the ' 63 Sting Ray was his special project. Zora-Arkus Duntov had by that time established a free hand with Corvette mechanical design and power. With the combination of Mitchell, Duntov, and Shinoda, the Corvette Sting Ray 1963 to 1967 is thought by many to be the best of the Corvettes and the most desirable. Larry's involvement was to take the Sting Ray racing car, and turn it into a production car... not an easy task. Larry was for the most part the only designer in the studio. The famous "Studio X". (Studio X was located underneath the front lobby, it was a small area but with big doors to move cars and clay models in and out. A highly secret area.)
The first model Sting Ray production car was completed in fiberglass for the board of directors meeting it had the "Split Window" the split was a little narrower than on the actual production car, but there was a hatch and the whole back end opened up. The scoops that finally ended up in the front fender, were in front of the rear fenders.
The 1963 Corvette had a style that no other car had, excitement, edges, and shaped. It was a distinctly American Car in contrast to the great European cars of the time. In 1963, for the first time in it's history, Chevrolet would build over 20,000 Corvettes growing to over 27,000 in 1966. Corvette way toying with the idea of making a Corvette 10 inches longer with a back seat. Jack Gordon who was president got into the backseat of a prototype, the seat would not release when he went to get out.. they had to remove the front seat to get him out and that ended the idea of a back seat in the mid-year Corvette.
In poor health, Larry Shinoda remained active to the end. He designed the handsome "Shinoda Kit" for the C4 Corvette, was working on producing a limited run of Shinoda designed C5 Corvettes, and working with Cragar wheels on a 17", 18" and 20" Shinoda Design series. One of his last projects was the graphic design for the Mid-America traveling Corvette exhibit.
After suffering kidney failure, Larry died November 13, 1997 of a heart attack.
