The National Corvette Museum has announced the following inductees to be recognized as part of the 12th Annual Corvette Hall of Fame Ceremony in 2009. Production/ Automotive GM Designer, Duane “Sparky” Bohnstedt, Corvette Racing Legend Duo, Anthony J. (Tony) De Lorenzo and Gerald D. (Jer) Thompson, and Corvette Historian/Enthusiast, John P. Hinckley will be recognized with the highest honor bestowed by the Museum for their contributions to the past, present and future of Corvette.
Corvette Hall of Fame Inductee John P. Hinckley is a name Corvette enthusiasts world-wide recognize for achievements that span over 40 years in technical contributions to Corvette, engineering and ingenuity as an expert historian and writer. John began with Chevrolet in the early 60’s as a production foreman supervising the build of the Chevy II and Corvair at Willow Run, and moved on in 1966 to the Chevrolet Pilot Line in Flint, Michigan as Senior Process Engineer - Passenger Cars. During 1966-1968, John was assigned to Chevrolet Production Engineering in Warren as a Liaison Engineer – responsible for future passenger car assembly processing, including the Corvette. John spent a great deal of time at Chevrolet assembly plants and participated in the build out of the ’67 Corvette and launch of the ‘68 at St. Louis; hence, John’s love and passion for Corvette and his never ending endeavors to preserve and share Corvette knowledge with fellow enthusiasts. John’s work with friend, former mentor and GM Vice President/Group Executive, Alex Mair and team, resulted in a collaboration that offered improvements in precision manufacturing through a patented “Net Design and Build” concept. This concept, slow to be accepted in the 60’s but in wide use today, brought the manufacturing and assembly process requirements back into design of the parts, dies and assembly tooling from the beginning, minimizing or eliminating traditional gaps, shims and dimensional variations.
John has published hundreds of Corvette technical articles in industry respected magazines such as “Corvette Enthusiast” and has been a frequent contributor to the NCRS “Corvette Restorer” magazine, which achieved the Golden Quill award. He is a 200-level NCRS Master Judge, veteran Bloomington Gold Certification Judge and Corvette Restoration Workshop Instructor, and member of the Solid Axle Corvette Club. He has also penned numerous technical articles for internal GM publications, trade journals, and is a daily on-line technical contributor on the C1/C2 section on Corvetteforum.com, on the NCRS Technical Discussion Board, and on the Corvette Restoration and Preservation List. John was named Vintage Technical Editor in 2003 by “Corvette Enthusiast” magazine.
Well deserved!
