Team Corvette to race in Europe !!!

[kingkai]

I reckon P&M will not race Europe themself, outside LM. They might do GT2 project. So P&M in Europe, would mean backing up LAA.

Hope they don't come themselfs. (not as a fan of GT1, but for the long run, for GT1's sake) If they come, AM prodrive might come aswell, ruining GT1 as they did in ALMS. The races are to short to tackle the big guys (they can bring the car to the max for 4 or 6 hours and build all new components in for the next, which smaller teams don't have the money for)

[dxk1]

Originally Posted by HORNDAWG

Not exactly. You might try D.Palmeter's index , and this might help farther with the Gran Sports . Also here is a little piece from the Corvette Museum on most of the cars you are referencing.

And yes Hendrick Motorsports ran the Corvette GTP.

But that does not really factor into the current Corvette Racing going (or not) to Europe and racing in the LMS.

L.P.

I'm not sure what you're disagreeing with here. Corvettes Gran Sports did run as prototypes as far back as 1964 at Sebring. There were three of them entered in the Prototype (3.0 liter plus) class that year with Roger Penske (yes, that guy) and Jim Hall finishing 18th in Chasis-005 for McKean Chevrolet and another one driven by AJ Foyt (yes, that guy) and Cannon (003) finishing 23rd for Mecom Racing. There was a third that didn't finish. I do read D Palmeter's web site often as well as the Corvette Museum site.

I was commenting on an earlier comment where on poster had indicated that GT1 and LMP1 might be merged and the result would be an LMP with Corvette styling. I was only commenting that this has been done before, ala the Corvette GTP of which there was a V6 and V8 version. There was a rear engined Gran Sport in the planning stages that never came to fruition and did have some input from Jim Hall just as the Chevy Engineers provided him with some advice on his Chaparrals.

DK

[jhansen]

Originally Posted by dxk1

I'm not sure what you're disagreeing with here.

It was a reference to the thread going off topic a bit. We already have a few threads involving the potential future of GT1 and LMP1, etc.

[Bob Riebe]

Originally Posted by dxk1

I guess that's the car I was talking about. I was just pointing out that GM already tried the ploy of using the Corvette name on a prototype car. It actually goes much further back than that. In the 1960s there were Corvette Gran Sports that raced at Daytona and Sebring in the Prototype Class that were modified Sting Rays with big 427 engines. There was also one rear engined model that was developed that was never raced that was a collaboration with Jim Hall and looked very much like a Chaparral. I don't know if they ever built a running model of the car.

The one that came later was the Hendricks car that your talking about. This is the same Hendricks group that now runs the NASCAR Team that runs Chevys and wins most of the races this year. Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon drive for that team.
DK

General Motors has ZERO to do with the Grand Sport Corvette; the only connecton the GM corporation had to do with it, was to kill it, when they found out it existed.
The Grand Sport was a Chevrolet, NOT GM, car. Actually it was Chevrolet Research and Developement helping Zora Duntov with his special light weight Corvette.
GM killed it before he could build the required 100 so it had to run as a prototype, which it was, but by then the rear-engine cars ruled.
It was not a modified Corvette, it was a smaller lighter car with the Stingray body and a special frame.
The GS ran an aluminum small-black Chevy until the last years when some teams put in the new Mk.IV Porcupine BB engine which later gained the name Rat.

The rear-engined Chaparral was a direct developement by Jim Hall off of the GS RE Corvette.
He recieved back-door assistance.

Too many of you do not know or have forgotten that until Roger Smith took control of GM and started the same crap, same pile edict that still infects GM, each division was a separate make.
Interchange was as slight at the engineers could get away with, in most important areas being zero.
Not until the mid to late sixties did GM reallyh start to FORCE more sharing onto the separate companies.
Then came Roger Smith, and the forty point sales market loss.
Bob

[David]

Originally Posted by Bob Riebe

It was not a modified Corvette, it was a smaller, lighter car with the Stingray body and a special frame.

Bob

Definitely lighter but I have never found any numbers that showed it was smaller. The "looks like, but 10% smaller than, a Sting Ray" story is part of the Grand Sport legend but my information shows it to be a dimensional duplicate of the 1963 production car in every feasible measure. Have you seen any verified numbers to the contrary?

The other persistent legend is the "Missing 6th Grand Sport". I have seen no credible evidence to support that one, either.



Amelia Island, 2003. Above is the only gathering of all five Grand Sports since they left the factory.



Above - It is very unfortunate, in my opinion, that none is restored as a Nassau, 1963 version. An incredible event in Corvette racing history!

[dxk1]

I guess the point I was trying to make was that Chevy (or their surrogates) has run Corvettes in the prototype classes before (Gran Sports in 60s, GTPs in 80s) and there is no reason they can't do it again if it becomes necessary and there is no more GT classes in which they can run their cars.

In keeping with this thread and based on the posts here at ten-tenths, there is a huge Corvette fan base in Europe and it would not hurt Corvette Racing to bring their GT1s or future prototypes (if ever built) to Europe to race. In fact, it would be a great marketing tool for future sales, especially if the same effort is shown as has been exhibited in the present GT1 racing program, which has performed admirably at Le Mans and in the ALMS series since it was introduced in 1999.

DK

[dxk1]

Originally Posted by Bob Riebe

General Motors has ZERO to do with the Grand Sport Corvette; the only connecton the GM corporation had to do with it, was to kill it, when they found out it existed.
The Grand Sport was a Chevrolet, NOT GM, car. Actually it was Chevrolet Research and Developement helping Zora Duntov with his special light weight Corvette.
GM killed it before he could build the required 100 so it had to run as a prototype, which it was, but by then the rear-engine cars ruled.
It was not a modified Corvette, it was a smaller lighter car with the Stingray body and a special frame.
The GS ran an aluminum small-black Chevy until the last years when some teams put in the new Mk.IV Porcupine BB engine which later gained the name Rat.

The rear-engined Chaparral was a direct developement by Jim Hall off of the GS RE Corvette.
He recieved back-door assistance.

Too many of you do not know or have forgotten that until Roger Smith took control of GM and started the same crap, same pile edict that still infects GM, each division was a separate make.
Interchange was as slight at the engineers could get away with, in most important areas being zero.
Not until the mid to late sixties did GM reallyh start to FORCE more sharing onto the separate companies.
Then came Roger Smith, and the forty point sales market loss.
Bob

Personally, I don't really care if you want to discuss GM and Chevy separately or not. I was basing my comment on GMs involvement with the Gran Sport on the following interview with Larry Shinoda a former GM/Chevy Engineer: http://corvetteactioncenter.com/spec...ypes/gs2b.html

Make whatever you want of it. It confirms the existence of a rear engined Grand Sport, involvement of GM with Jim Hall and of GMs considering racing the rear-engined Grand Sport. Who knows, maybe they would have raced it in Europe.

DK

[Adam43]

Please feel free to start another thread on Corvette racing in Europe, if required.

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=98774

Thanks, thread closed.