Is It Just The Body That Makes a Corvette a Successful Sports Car/Racer?

[Joe L.]

Since almost the beginning of its existence the Corvette has been considered the only real American sports car. As we all know, during that time it's achieved a lot of successes in racing. However, for a lot of the years it's been around I've always wondered how it managed to achieve this. The C1 Corvette was, basically, a slightly modified 1949-54 passenger car chassis with a Corvette body.

The 1963-82 Corvettes used, basically, a 1958-64 Chevrolet passenger car front end and suspension albeit in combination with a unique independent rear suspension and that chassis soldiered on for 20 years with, basically, only minor changes. It was not until the C4 era that the Corvette received a real sports car chassis.

It's always been a bit hard for me to understand just how a car with, basically, passenger car underpinnings became such a successful sports car and racer. Of course, I'm at the top of the list of folks that are glad it did and I'm glad that it survived long enough in this form to finally get its own, unique and sophisticated sports car chassis in 1984.

[Jerry G.]

Re: Is It Just The Body That Makes a Corvette a Successful Sports Car/Racer?

From a racing standpoint, it was an inexpensive car that lots of 'Hot Rod" factory and aftermarket parts for the drivetrain were available for. Corvettes still are cheap by comparison for vintage racing. Bang for buck. Jerry

[Tom B.]

Re: Is It Just The Body That Makes a Corvette a Successful Sports Car/Racer?

It also shows how good these old GM chassis were once you got rid of the tall heavy bodywork and got the CG down low.

Tom

[Clem Z.]

Re: Is It Just The Body That Makes a Corvette a Successful Sports Car/Racer?

From a racing standpoint, it was an inexpensive car that lots of 'Hot Rod" factory and aftermarket parts for the drivetrain were available for. Corvettes still are cheap by comparison for vintage racing. Bang for buck. Jerry

you got that right it was a poor mans racecar and V-8 engine is still being raced today. the reason the SBC became the race engine of choice was because GM never changed it and the aftermarket liked that. fords could not even keep the same bell housing bolt pattern for their V-8s

[Duke W.]

Re: Is It Just The Body That Makes a Corvette a Successful Sports Car/Racer?

Upper/lower control arms are still the norm, today. Duntov used the passenger car front A-arms, but located them differently to achieve a higher roll center. For the day, and skinny tires, it was a pretty state-of-the-art suspension layout.

Beyond that the Corvette was relatively light and had an excellent engine that responded very well to power tuning.

The '62-'64 Ferrari 250 GTO was just a ligher/more aerodynamic body on a standard 250GT solid axle frame with a souped-up Columbo three-liter V-12. The only really "new" technology it had was solid rotor disk brakes. Everything else dated back to the early to mid-fifties, but it was a world-beater even though it was a cheater as Ferrari produced less than half the 100 examples he promised to the FIA to get it homologated as a GT car.

Of course, Duntov tried to execute the same strategy, and them some, with the Grand Sport until management shut the program down, and since only six cars were built instead of Duntov's planned 125, it had to race as a prototype instead of a GT. Had enough been produced to gain GT homologation, the record books would be a lot different!

You can see today, and since 1999, that if management supports Corvette racing, Corvette is a world-beater!

Duke

[Bill H.]

Re: Is It Just The Body That Makes a Corvette a Successful Sports Car/Racer?

What Duke said.
Though I think if Zorra really had his way, the C2's would have been very different from what they were.

And there's a huge difference between "sports car" and "race car".

The 63 was built as a sports car and was heavy @ around 3,150. The 250 GTO race car was around 2,100 to 2,300 which is why the new disc brakes really performed and why it accelerated so fast (same thing for a Cobra). There was a mention that Zorra had a target weight for the Grand Sport @ 1,800.

The C2 race cars back then actually had decent handling (with modification by the guys who built them).

I just came back from 3 days on the racetrack with my grocery getter (1992, base suspension) and can say it's a wonderful sportscar......but, it's not a racecar.

And the new Corvettes are closer to a race car than any others were (with the exception of active handling computers that are just dangerous on a racetrack).
I got to do a couple laps in this one:

[Joe L.]

Re: Is It Just The Body That Makes a Corvette a Successful Sports Car/Racer?

And there's a huge difference between "sports car" and "race car".

Bill-----


Yes, there's a big difference but the Corvette became a very successful STREET sports car and also had successful racing careers, sometimes with very limited modifications. And, for 53-82, they did it with, basically, a passenger car chassis.

[Bill H.]

Re: Is It Just The Body That Makes a Corvette a Successful Sports Car/Racer?

Bill-----


Yes, there's a big difference but the Corvette became a very successful STREET sports car and also had successful racing careers, sometimes with very limited modifications. And, for 53-82, they did it with, basically, a passenger car chassis.

Agreed Joe. That's why the only street cars I've owned since 1970 have been Corvettes.

[Michael D.]

Re: Is It Just The Body That Makes a Corvette a Successful Sports Car/Racer?

The mouse that roared.

[Steven B.]

Re: Is It Just The Body That Makes a Corvette a Successful Sports Car/Racer?

'Remember ZAD said something like "You cannot mix these two purposes, a street car and a race car."????? He sure did a pretty good job of it with all of the constraints he had. Just think what could have been if he had been unconstrained or if GM would have accepted Shelby's early idea of using a Chebby engine.