Granny's Place

Celebrating 50 Years of Corvette

The Chevrolet Corvette is one of America’s most recognized and loved automobiles, and many consider it America’s only true sports car. The 50th-anniversary celebration of Corvette began at the National Corvette Museum in June and will culminate with the official Corvette 50th Anniversary Celebration in Nashville, Tenn., June 26-28, 2003.

Although this yearlong birthday party is far from over, the 2002 Rolex Monterey Historic Races will undoubtedly be remembered by Vette fans as a highlight of the year—where the finest examples of the marque ran side by side, from race-prepped beasts down to the very first models.

The Original Corvette

Corvette was first displayed as a GM “Dream Car�?during the January 1953 Motorama in New York at the Waldorf Astoria, and proved to be so popular it was in production six months later. Chevrolet built 300 fiberglass-bodied Corvettes in 1953, all of which were Polo White with a Sportsman Red vinyl interior.

The two-seat roadster was powered by the 150-horsepower “Blue Flame Six�?with a two-speed Powerglide transmission. Corvette owners began racing their cars almost immediately, although with limited success. By 1955 the Corvette was available with V8 power and a manual transmission, which improved the car’s racing results.

One of the early successes came in 1956 when Zora Arkus-Duntov, a Chevrolet engineer, set a new record for the flying mile on the sand at Daytona Beach, Florida, with an average speed of 150.583 mph. Duntov is credited with boosting the Corvette’s performance image and turning it into a high-performance sports car.

“The Corvette was popularized by two watershed events in 1960—the debut of the Route 66 television show and Briggs Cunningham’s eighth place finish in the 24 Hours of Le Mans,�?explained Steven Earle, president of General Racing and organizer of the Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races.

This year during the Monterey Historics on August 17-18th at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca a huge contingent of Corvette owners filled a special paddock to capacity with hundreds of Corvettes, representing nearly every year of the marque.

On the track, two special Vette tributes ran during the noon hour. One featured a complete history of Corvette street cars, with a parade representing every generation of Corvette taking two tours of the track, allowing the spectators to see a rolling history of the marque.

The next group was the most significant Corvette race cars and prototypes, led by the famous 1956 SR-2, the 1957 Corvette SS that debuted at Sebring in 1957, the 1959 Sting Ray driven by General Motors vice chairman Bob Lutz, and the Le Mans GTS class-winning C5-R.

The Historics commemorated Corvette’s racing legacy, which continues in sports car endurance racing to this day. Most recently, two Corvette C5-Rs placed first and second in the GTS class at the 2002 24 Hours of Le Mans, and a Corvette C5-R took the overall victory in the 2001 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. The Le Mans-winning C5-R delighted the Monterey Historics crowd with a number of demonstration laps throughout the weekend.

This year’s Historics featured the largest field of vintage race cars in the history of the event—including more than 60 Corvette race cars. Thousands of Corvette fans flocked to Monterey for the weekend, to participate in one of the largest Corvette events of the year.

Rare Corvettes

A number of the rarest Corvette race cars were at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, including the 1956 Corvette SR-2 that was specially prepared by Duntov, as well as three of the five lightweight 1963 Corvette Grand Sports.

The SR-2 sports a 310-horsepower engine, a shortened windshield and special aerodynamic bodywork behind the driver.

Tom Armstrong of Issaquah, WA, is a Corvette enthusiast, historic racer and owner of one of the extremely rare 1963 Corvette Grand Sports that had been secretly produced by Duntov, who was at that time chief engineer of Corvette.

Although Armstrong owns and races a number of different historic race cars, he and his family are Corvette racers at heart. In addition to the Grand Sport piloted by Armstrong, both his wife, Susan, and his son-in-law, Steve Anderson, were also racing Corvettes as well. Susan Armstrong was in a 1963 Corvette Z06 coupe, and Anderson in a 1963 Corvette coupe; both battled other Corvettes and their nemesis Cobra on the challenging Laguna Seca course.

Also in a Z06 was Vic Edelbrock, who races one of the first six Z06s produced. Edelbrock told Carpoint that Duntov produced the Z06 package to make the all-new 1963 Corvette a competitive race car. The package included a larger gas tank, larger brakes and tuned suspension.

Edelbrock explained that the first six Z06s were completed just prior to the 1963 race at Riverside, and three of the four drivers—including Bob Bondurant, who originally raced Edelbrock’s car—drove the cars from St. Louis to California, arriving just in time for the race. At that race, Ken Miles showed up with the first AC Cobra. Although Carroll Shelby’s creation did not win the race, Duntov saw the writing on the wall and immediately began working on the Grand Sport.

The Z06 returned to production in 2001, featuring a 385-horsepower LS6 5.7-liter engine (405 horsepower and 400 lb-ft of torque for 2002), suspension upgrades and braking upgrades.

Grand Sports Flex Corvette Muscle

The five Corvette Grand Sports that were produced in secret by Duntov to compete with the Ford-backed Shelby Cobras began experiencing racing success in the early �?0s.

Designed to look like the second-generation Corvette coupe that debuted in 1963, the Grand Sport was pure race car from the ground up. Beginning with a tube-frame chassis, virtually every part on the car was engineered for lighter weight—the resulting car weighed only 2,000 pounds, compared to 3,200 pounds for the production car. Armstrong told Carpoint that Duntov referred to the car as the “lightweight�?and rarely ever as the Grand Sport.

The Grand Sport engine is an all-alloy 377-cubic-inch V8 with four side-draft Weber carburetors and a new-head design, producing more than 500 horsepower—a tremendous number for its day. The engine, like the Grand Sport itself, never made it into production.

“The Grand Sport has incredible acceleration and it’s hard to keep the front wheels on the ground, much like a drag car,�?Armstrong told Carpoint. “But it is tremendous fun with excellent braking because of the light weight.�?

Armstrong has owned the Grand Sport since 1988 and races it about six times each year in historic events such as the Monterey Historics and the Pacific Northwest Historics in Seattle. In spite of the tremendous historic value of the car, Armstrong enjoys racing the car as it was designed to do, and giving others an opportunity to see one of the rarest Corvettes in action.

Production of the Grand Sport Corvettes was directly in conflict with the Automobile Manufacturers Association 1957 ban on racing. According to Armstrong, when General Motors management learned of the project, it was immediately cancelled and Arkus-Duntov sent the five cars out to private racers.

Armstrong’s car, serial number 003 of five, was delivered to John Mecum, a racer from Houston. It was subsequently raced by such famous drivers as A.J Foyt, Roger Penske, Jim Hall and Augie Pabst.

Corvette Racing Featured

Featured races at the 2002 Rolex Monterey Historics included a race group with 23 Corvettes battling each other and their rivals of the day. During the afternoon on Saturday August 17th, late �?0s and early �?0s Corvettes competed against the likes of Aston Martin, Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz, while mid-�?0s Corvettes ran against Cobras, Ferraris and Shelby GT-350s. On Sunday the three Corvette Grand Sports battled Cobra 427s, Porsche 911s and other Corvettes.

In addition to the SR-2 and the Grand Sports, other significant cars highlighted Corvette’s racing success throughout the marque’s 50-year history. The third-generation Corvette that began in 1968 enjoyed racing success at Daytona and Sebring, and it secured many SCCA A-production and B-production class titles.

In the late �?0s and early �?0s Corvettes campaigned successfully in the SCCA Trans-Am series and IMSA GTO class. In the late �?0s, the IMSA GTP Corvette was one of the most powerful cars of the GTP prototype era, with engines that produced 1200 horsepower.

Production Corvettes raced throughout the late �?0s and early �?0s in the Corvette Challenge and the SCCA World Challenge Series.

Five different generations of Corvette production cars span the first 50 years of the Corvette, leading up to the current Corvette C5. Offered in coupe, convertible, and hardtop version, the C5 is truly a world-class sports car.

The first race for the C5-R, which is based on the fifth-generation C5, was the Rolex 24 at Daytona in 1999, resulting in a third-place finish in the GT2 class. In 2000 the C5-R Corvettes finished third and fourth in the GTS class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans—their first appearance at that race. The C5-R Corvettes claimed the overall victory at the 2001 Rolex 24 at Daytona before going on to claim first and second in the GTS class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in both 2001 and 2002.

Those were the days, My Friend, we thought they'ed never end....Looks like they didn't..hehehe

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