His Name is Jake

I got an email back from Corvette regarding the Skull logo on the ZR-1 and I have to say that that the story behind it IS actually quite interesting.

Short story is this. It is an homage to the ZR1 Corvette’s racing heritage. It is the official logo of Corvette Racing. Long story is as follows.

The smirking skull is called “Jake.” The Corvette Racing team had been using various ’skull’ iconography for a while in various ways, but the guys at BadBoyVettes.com felt that there was a need for a proper logo. This is a scan of the original napkin design from that came from a night at the bar after the 2004 LeMans drawn up by Bad Boy Vettes while sitting with the Corvette Racing team. Since then the logo has been on the C6.R b-pillar as the official “mascot.”

According to BadBoyVettes, Chief Engineer Tom Wallace, “saw the crossed flags on the ZR1’s supercharger along with the conventionally placed ones on the nose and the intake snorkel he balked at the 3x arrangement. His solution? Honor the ZR1 connection to its racing roots and replace one set of flags with the embossed Corvette Racing skull.”

What is really cool is that later they invited the guys from BadBoyVettes to see a preview of the production ZR1 and popped the hood to show them their logo on the air intake. The full story can be found here. Congrats guys. Very cool to find your design inside of the fastest production American muscle car ever.

Interior and Header photo courtesy and © General Motors
The napkin is © BadBoyVettes.com
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