The Corvette Grand Sport was truly an unfulfilled dream of Zora Arkus-Duntov . The plan was to build 125 Grand Sport Corvettes (enough for homologation). Because of a ban on factory supported racing agreed to by the “Big Three” automakers, the Grand Sport project was killed after only five copies were produced.
Although the Grand Sport looked like a typical Corvette, it was, in fact a pure bred race car built from the ground up. It featured a light weight ladder frame topped by a very light weight fiberglass body and interior. Over its short history it was powered by various versions of the small block Chevy engine and later by big blocks. Although the car had some success, it could have completely dominated GT racing had development been allowed to continue.
If you are interested in learning more about this machine, I have provided the following links.
http://slotblog.net/...-sport-history/
https://www.motortre...rand-sport-003/
Several years ago, I put together a Corvette Gran Sport featuring a Hanna built Econo chassis. This chassis is rather simple in design where the side pans are allowed to move from side to side (or rattle). No hinges are employed. The plastic model body was produced by Accurate Miniatures. Ron was kind enough to produce the “decals” of the Nassau Speed Week Trophy Race winning car driven by Roger Penske. Below are images of the chassis and finished slot car.
As a slot car, my Grand Sport is a handful. It has the inherent disadvantage of having a relatively short wheelbase further hampered by the fact that the front of the body rolls under. The distance from the guide flag to the rear axle is quite short resulting in less than optimum handling. The car is also relatively tall and narrow compared to other cars in the class. Sorry, those are just the facts. I sure do like the way it looks.
I will post a link to a You Tube video featuring my Grand Sport running some solo laps as the first response to this post. (It may take some time to post the link, so if it is not yet visible, check back later)
