by Mike Gulett –
One of the most interesting chapters in Chevrolet Corvette history is the brief story of the Corvette Grand Sport—a project driven by Zora Arkus-Duntov and his determination to beat the best sports cars in the world at racing.
In the early 1960s Arkus-Duntov wanted the Chevrolet Corvette to compete head-to-head with the European racing cars of the era, especially those from Ferrari. His plan was to build a lightweight Corvette that could challenge them in international endurance racing.
The result was the 1963 Corvette Grand Sport.
Compared to the standard Corvette Sting Ray, the Grand Sport was more of a race car. Weight was reduced to around 1,900 pounds, hundreds of pounds lighter than the production car. The chassis was strengthened, the body panels were thinner, and the cars were fitted with powerful racing versions of Chevrolet’s V8 engine producing over 500 horsepower.
Arkus-Duntov’s plan called for 125 cars, the minimum number required to homologate the model for international GT racing.
But corporate reality got involved at that point.
Then General Motors had an official policy prohibiting factory racing involvement. When GM executives discovered the Grand Sport project in 1963, they ordered it shut down.
By then five cars had already been completed. They were quietly sold to private racing teams, where they went on to compete successfully against some of the fastest sports cars of the time—including Ferraris.
Today the original Grand Sports are among the most valuable of Corvettes. More importantly, they represent something deeper: the moment when Zora Arkus-Duntov tried to turn America’s sports car into a world-beating race car.
Even if Detroit Management wasn’t ready for it.
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
Zora Arkus-Duntov and a Corvette
Research, some text and some images by ChatGPT 5.2.
I wonder what was the relationship between this car and the Cheetah, at least from a high-level corpoate standpoint.
Rex: I know there are from two issues of Automobile Quarterly ( defunct hardcover book) that covered the Cheetah. One is volume 19,, number 3, 3rd quarter 1981 and the other is volume 50, number2, 2nd quarter 2010. These can be purchased used in various condition thru Amazon sellers as I have done myself. I had a replica Cheetah once from an early kit car powered by a 350 cubic inch Chevy mated to a Powerglide automatic transmission transmission. It was pretty “hairy” anyway but quite reliable at the same time. I drove it round trip from Brooklyn,NY to Washington,DC and back with no problem at all. You can read about it in the My Car Quest archives. Either look under Cheetah or Bob Wachtel.
Mike: Nice piece But two things to note: The frame was a completely different tubular ladder, much different from the standard fare. The front suspension control arms were patterned after the Corvette SS of 1957 and not production items. And the projected motor was a push rod hemi head, two pugs per cylinder all aluminum small block V8. And with modified Ram Jet fuel injection. The body was different than the production model (cowled headlights, a real trunk with a spare tire, etc.). It did boast a production driver’s dash.
The five cars that did get produced were faster than Ferrari 250 GTOs and Cobras. Forget about the Aston DP215 and the lightweight E Types. Wickedly fast, actually (see Ludvigsen’s book Corvette: America’s Star Spangled Sports Car). Journalist Bernard Cahier actually had a chance to drive one and 1) couldn’t believe how docile the car was at low speed and 2) stated it was faster and better handling that the Ferrari.
To Rex O’Steen: The Cheetah was an interesting Bill Thomas project. Actually, just an idea that was never fully developed and hoping for Chevy involvement and support, which it never got. The frames were too flexible and that affected handling. But with proper development (and a production run of 100+) it would have been a world beater.
Duntov’s Grand Sport was created independently with an eye towards meeting the 100 production quantity to qualify for a production GT (which was the FIA sports car world championship at the time). But Frederic Donner (CEO) was dead set against GM breaking its commitment to the AMA’s1957 ban on racing and high performance. Duntov then provided back door support to private teams (including Jim Hall and the Chaparral).
As a kid, I lusted after the Cheetah (and built several Cox 1:24 scall slot cars!). Wish I had a real one today!