Grand Sport Corvette
 

I’ve always been fascinated by performance cars, and for me the Grand Sport Corvette always intrigued me. It was purpose built race car that was never meant to be in the eyes of GM brass, due to the corporate racing ban. I was fortunate to live close to the Penske Race shop during that period and unbeknownst to me at the time, I actually saw the Penske Grand Sport Corvette. I was probably 7 years old and with my father walking to our fishing spot at the Springton Reservoir dam on Rt 252. I heard this thundering rumble that echoed off the stone walls, and as I turned this corvette with huge wheels and tires blasted past us. Later I recounted my recollection to Bill Scott a member of the Penske race team and chief mechanic on the Grand Sport Corvette who confirmed that was a road they would travel and test. As they say… those were the days. Imagine what might have been if Zora Duntov and his engineering group had carte blanche on racing and performance production projects.

Interesting read...

Here's a video of Roger Penske driving the Grand Sport at Elkhart Lake Track in with a camera inside and narrating as he's driving-1964.

Very cool!

Steve, these are amazing cars. It would have been great if they had built the 100 they had planned for. Here's a D & D Grand Sport I owned in the 90's. It was a pretty good replica.

----Steve,,,You bring up something close to my heart. While I worked at Classic Motors in Hinsdale, my boss found out a GS roadster in Texas. A friend of his that worked at the GM Tech Center had tracked it down and it turned out to be NO.1. The story is long but Classic bought the car with no engine and no nose and in generally bad condition. The GM friend rebuilt the complete chassis and brought it back to us to reinstall the body and build the nose. He also brought a 377cube aluminum headed small block with a set of cross ram 54cc side draft Webers among other special stuff.
----The car was restored back close to original with one major difference. The boss really only had one customer for it and he wanted it red. The car was finished in June of 1979 and went directly to Bloomington Gold. Made quite a splash, I can tell you. In the meantime I had met Bob Patterson who owned NO.3 and was campaigning it at vintage races. Bob was the only guy that ever spent enough time setting up the chassis of a Grand Sport to actually realize it's full potential. NO.1 went to another well known owner a while later and was redone back to its original beauty. If anyone has a collection of Corvette News, NO.1 was on the cover of the Feb/March issue.
----Years later after I had returned to live in Massachusetts. A friend asked if I could find him a nice 67 435 Corvette. Shortly after I found him a beautiful coupe in Maine. When I went to pick it up I discovered that this 67 had been bought new by none other than Bob Patterson. Small world!
----Every one of the GS's is a treasure, and I think at least two of them still hit the track. Long before all this I saw NO.1 race at Sebring at the age of 15-16. You just can't imagine the sight of it running down the back straight into the tight curve just before the pits. Ill never forget it......Bill S

Friggin' ANIMALS ... :flag::flag::flag:

Bill, GS 1 was right here in Austin, TX owned by Richard Seiver. This was before I moved to Austin in 1982, but the Austin Corvette guys used to visit the car parked under a tree and sit in it. Richard wanted something like $16,000 for it and good old Tom Moore who was a local Corvette slalom racer wanted to buy it. Everyone thought Tom was crazy to consider the car and talked him out of it. I remember the car from Bloomington Gold in red, it was stunning.

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Photos taken prior to prep for Nassau races

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1963 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport Reunion - A Reunion Of The Rarest

http://www.superchevy.com/events/vem...-sport-reunion

"Imagine what might have been if Zora Duntov and his engineering group had carte blanche on racing and performance production projects..."

Certain kit car owners would be less obnoxious. At the local level the Cobra would not have enjoyed the success it had if GM would have backed Corvette racers at a corporate level, as Ford did. The GS was light enough to compete and then some, and the money would have been there as well.