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.

Want to see one at the drag strip? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOcav6ZwZ7c

Thanks for posting!! Lot of good running Chevelles as well!!:3gears: :biggthumpup:

This is some old footage of Jon Thon's Grand Sport Corvette and his Blue/Black vinyl top 66 375hp M22 Chevelle drag racing at Albany Ga. The m22 in the 1966 Chevelle was a rare bird in its own right. I believe he took the TRACO 427 engine out of the GS and put in the Chevelle in the early 70's Jon McGee, my dads dirt track racing partner, said Jon Thorn took him for a ride after the engine swap into the Chevelle. He passed a log truck cresting a hill at about 120 mph. Jon M said he was done riding with him after that.

Some very interesting cars passed thru the hands of Jon Thorne including the ex-Bob Tucker 1963 Z-11 Impala.

The 004 Grand Sport Corvette was loaned to Yenko in 1963 for the Yenko Gulf Corvette Racing team. They ran it with a FI 327 in C/Modified class

In 1963 they were still using a narrow tire and the GS looked more like a stock Corvette

Chevy took it back and rebuilt for 1964 and it had wider tires and fender flares
Don Yenko drove it in at least one race in 64

Yenko saved a 327 FI alu head engine for it for many years. It was sold at the Yenko estate sale in the 1990's

some cool pics of it at VIR 1963

Great information and fantastic pictures Joe. Notice they recessed door handle for aerodynamics. The door handles were made of aluminum for weight reduction as well.

Dad took a picture of the VIN when it was there.......

----Aluminum door hinges!.....Bill S

Tim did I get that GS from you or did you get it from me ? That thing was a roller skate but head above the windshield sucked.

We traded and you got the Grand Sport. I got the yellow 1968 L89 Corvette that John Gardner had Tim Thorpe restore.

3824059 winters SBC aluminum water pump
 

Hi Gang, great stories!

Speaking of Grand Sport Corvettes, I have what I think is a leftover from that program - it's dated 1966, so I'm sure it was an OTC replacement or support for some racer programs maybe? It's aluminum and features the Winters foundry snowflake logo... it's been very used, likely on a series of racecars I would assume... anyway, thought it was interesting. Maybe off an OTC 377?

Cheers all, Happy New Year everyone!
Anthony

I have been enamored with the Grand Sports, Zora, and Corvette Racing since approx 1980 when at about 10 years old I learned of the program.
Here are some photos which are not shown here which I have collected.
The SALE AD(which I removed the phone number from) was in the back of one of my dad's HOT ROD magazines from 1967.
The ones in Vette Vues from the 70's are really good photos of the EARLY construction of the cars at Chevrolet.
REVS has a lot of photos as well - and of course the Colliers own one of the cars.
IF you find yourself down in South Florida the Collier museum is one place YOU SHOULD VISIT! The collection historical race cars there is UNBELIEVEABLE!!!

The shop was just off Rt 252(also known as Newtown St). The building still stands today. I attached a picture and the actual location, which was on winding way.

Don Kelley owned a local Mobile Station, and had a thriving repair business and purchased the building around 1980.

Bill Scott had mentioned he had a chance to buy a GS very cheap, but don't recall the price. By the mid 70's he was kicking himself for not stepping up. Wintersteen Racing Inc was located in the original Penske Race shop on Rt 252 just south of Rt3. It's been Niemeyers Lawn Equipment since the 70's. Wintersteen's car was #2, which he campaigned in SCCA events, the last of which was at Mosport in June of 66. Wintersteen sold the car to John Thorn for the $6700 according to his recollection.

First pic is original 1965 Penske Race shop 15 S Newtown st Rd. The next picture is the second shop alsi in Newtown Sq., which was much larger.

Here is the Grand Sport 004 in the Revs Institute Miles Collier Collections

Miles Collier bought the GS 327 engine and parts from the Yenko estate sale

looks like a great museum at
Revs Institute, 2500 S. Horseshoe Drive, Naples, Florida 34104 USA

https://revsinstitute.org/the-collec...e-grand-sport/

Photo taken by Canadian road racer Craig Fisher of a Grand Sport engine compartment. The black cap on the top of the driver's fender is to add brake fluid to the master cylinder. The booster and master cylinder had to be mounted at 90 degrees to the firewall because there was no clearance with the Weber carbs.

This photo of a restored car shows it a little better.

If you look at the hard cover book about the Grand Sport program you would think that they did build 100 of them. The cars were updated, changed, refined and converted so many times it's hard to keep up with their evolution.

16-plug small block Chevy engine in development for the Grand Sport is just one example of where Chevy was headed for performance before the 1963 GM racing ban snuffed it all out.

The first two photos are of a PDF article I saved some time in the past.
The rest are SOME of the photos I referenced in my earlier post - FROM:
BEST OF VETTE VUES
Volume 1-9
Hard cover edition
MAY 1981

Is the red car above 001 when you guys had it, Bill ...?

It looks great in red.

My buddy Tommy built this car, and raced it at Loudon (NHIS) in the 90s. He just restored it back to its former glory.

GS
 

Rear View

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----Yup! That's as it appeared on the cover of Corvette news. It sat way too high initially as we didn't have time to adjust it. The 1st showing was at that years B-Gold and the car was finished the night before. You could almost stick your whole hand down one of the Weber's throats....Bill S

there are some youtube vids showing Grand Sports

1964 Road America 500 Part 2
drivers Jim Hall and Roger Penske GS-005


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp6AuDcu6Ec

hard to find pictures of the Grand Sport from 1963 when the Yenko Gulf team had it

The Corvette #1 is Don's "light weight" 57 that he built to run in B/P