August 2022 Featured Car

The 1963 Corvette Grand Sport

The original 1963 Corvette Grand Sport is so rare that it is universally recognized as the most valuable and most collectible Corvette of all time. Only five of the 125 Corvette Grand Sports were built and three of these cars were transported to Nassau to compete against the Shelby Cobra. The 1963 Grand Sport Corvettes succeeded in beating their competition, and made a decisive showing throughout the event. The car was also developed as GM’s response to the Shelby Cobra, which had proven itself time and again as an “unstoppable” competitor on the world racing stage.

John Mecom and Roger Penske arriving at Nassau for the Bahamas Speed Week

So begins the story of the 1963 Corvette Grand Sport, a Zora Arkus-Duntov designed rendition of the C2 that was staged for track domination, both at home and abroad. Duntov knew that to succeed in competing against stiff foreign competition, as well as Carroll Shelby’s Cobra, the Grand Sport would have to shed some major weight and pack a significant punch under the hood. With ambitions of debuting the Grand Sport at Le Mans in 1963, the race was on to build a car that would dominate on any track, with no exceptions. Through these efforts, a weight reduction of approximately 1,000 pounds was achieved over the Grand Sport’s Z06 counterpart.

It was during the Nassau Speed Week that the Grand Sport finally was given the opportunity to prove its merit on the track. The most notable event of the week was the 252-mile Nassau Trophy Run, which served as the true proving ground for all of the field’s competitors. When the dust settled, Duntov’s line-up of Grand Sport Corvettes had performed in a manner much to his liking, taking 4th and 8th place in the final standings. This served as confirmation to the Grand Sport’s rightful place among the top performance cars of its day.

With a significantly lighter chassis prepared, Duntov’s design team got down to the business of preparing an equally deserving power plant. What arose from these efforts was a 377 cubic-inch, V8 engine that featured aluminum heads, and was capable of turning out 550 HP at 6,400 RPMs.

With a significant increase in power to accompany the car’s lightweight chassis, it seemed that nothing was stopping the Grand Sport from the racing domination for which it was designed. When the first Grand Sport was officially completed in November of 1962, it was immediately sent to Sebring for testing, and a full-scale plan was set forth to produce the 150-unit minimum run that was necessary to adhere to homologation standards set forth for entry into the GT production class.

However, with only five cars completed, and a sixth chassis waiting in the wings, word came down from top GM brass that all production of cars for the intent of racing was to cease immediately. This came as a doubling down in enforcement of the AMA racing ban of the day. This dealt a death-blow to the continuation of Arkus-Duntov’s Grand Sport program, and all production was halted.

Though continued enforcement of the AMA racing ban soon forced the Grand sport from the track and into relative obscurity, these five iconic cars are revered even today as a testament to the performance-minded prowess of Arkus-Duntov. Of the five original Grand Sport Corvettes, two were eventually modified into roadsters, but all still survive today.

The Grand Sport Corvette forged a legacy, as perhaps the greatest production race car that never was. Though Duntov’s vision was never allowed the opportunity to fully blossom into what it could have been, much of the innovation found in these five-storied racers can be seen in subsequent generational designs of the Corvette throughout the years.