1963 Grand Sport vs 1988 Trans-Am Corvette Free E-Book
Two old warriors slug it out at Sebring!
To read the pdf version of the Corvette Quarterly, Spring 1990 cover story, “Time Machines”, CLICK HERE.
From the perspective of 1989/1990 when Corvette Quarterly published “Time Machines – Grand Sport versus Trans-Am Corvette” in the Spring 1990 issue, the Mobil 1 Corvette was cutting-edge. But the 1963 Grand Sport wasn’t just another small-block iteration of Duntov’s five 1963 Grand Sport Lightweights.
Grand Sport #002 began its life in 1962 as one of five of what Zora hoped would be customer race cars. (think, Pratt & Miller C8 Z06 GT3.R customer cars) The Lightweight Grand Sport program was axed, not just because GM suddenly decided to abide by the 1957 AMA Racing Ban.
No, General Motors was on the edge of being sacked with Anti-Trust violations for becoming a monopoly. If the Grand Sports were to get a lot of racing success, it would have attracted a lot more government attention.
Three of the five Grand Sport cars built were raced as unofficial backdoor race cars that were fast but not durable. In 1965 the remaining two Grand Sport Coupes were converted to open roadsters. Roger Penske got the two roadsters (#004 and #005), then sold #002 to George Wintersteen in late 1965, early 1966. The all-aluminum 377 small-block was ditched for the, then baddest big-block available, the 427 L88.
But by 1966 the Grand Sport was already four years old with marginal development, and was hopelessly outdated. But George sure had a good time!
Looking for a great gift for your favorite Corvette person?
Shirts, Mugs, Caps, Hoodies & More
Like the rest of the Grand Sports, #002 was bought and sold over and over. In the late 1980s Corvette Quarterly arranged for the #002 Grand Sport and the 1989 Trans-Am Corvette to get some track time to see just how far a state-of-the-art Corvette race car compared to Zora’s dream of building and selling Corvette customer race cars.
To read the pdf version of the Corvette Quarterly Spring 1990 cover story, “Time Machines”, CLICK HERE.
It wasn’t even close! But it must have been awesome to have been there!
Looking for great art for a Corvette Cave or Room?
Posters and Canvas Wraps from K. Scott Teeters.
The Wintersteen Grand Sport #002 is part of the Simeone Museum Collection and is the LOUDEST car in the building!
Enjoy – Scott
PS – Check out my collection of 1963 Grand Sport Corvette art print collection, HERE.
