The 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport, one of only five built, is back in the spotlight as a reminder of how far Zora Arkus-Duntov was willing to push America’s sports car in its battle with Carroll Shelby’s Cobra. Conceived as a secret, ultra-lightweight Sting Ray based racer, the Grand Sport was engineered to take on Europe and Shelby on their own terms.
Developed against General Motors’ official ban on factory racing, the Grand Sport swapped the standard Corvette’s heavy frame and body for a tubular steel chassis and one-piece fiberglass shell. The result was a dramatic weight drop from about 3,200 pounds to roughly 1,900 pounds, paired with big V8 power and competition hardware aimed squarely at international endurance events.
View Price on AmazonZora Arkus-Duntov, a Le Mans class winner who joined Chevrolet in 1953, had already forced through the small-block V8 for the 1955 Corvette and built experimental racers like the SR1, SR2, and Corvette SS. When Shelby’s Cobra exposed the Sting Ray Z06’s weight disadvantage, he moved to build a clean-sheet, competition-only Corvette with quiet support from Chevrolet General Manager S.E. "Bunkie" Knudsen.
The Grand Sport kept the basic Sting Ray silhouette but shared little else. A lightweight tubular frame with aluminum cockpit bracing sat under an ultra-thin, hand-laid fiberglass body with wider fenders, fixed headlamps, and Plexiglas side and rear windows.
Girling disc brakes with aluminum calipers, reinforced suspension parts, lightweight radius arms, a relocated fuel tank, and competition-tuned geometry turned the car into a purpose-built sports racer. Only five Grand Sport chassis were completed before GM Chairman Frederic Donner ordered the lightweight program shut down.
Source: motor1.com
