- A chunk of Corvette royalty will quickly be provided to the general public
- The automotive is taken into account the primary purpose-built Normal Motors race automotive
- It’s being offloaded by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, and is estimated to promote for between $5 million and $7 million
One of the crucial vital Corvettes in historical past shall be auctioned off this February.
A part of an RM Sotheby’s sale operating Feb. 27-28 in Coral Gables, Florida, the 1957 Chevrolet Corvette SS Challenge XP-64 is billed because the first purpose-built Normal Motors race automotive. It additionally marked milestone within the improvement of the Corvette into a real efficiency automotive.
Whereas Corvettes had raced earlier than—netting a category win on the 1956 12 Hours of Sebring—Corvette chief engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov and GM design boss Harley Earl needed a bespoke racing model to higher compete in opposition to the then-dominant European automakers on the observe.
Earl went as far as to buy a Jaguar D-Kind and suggest racing it with a Chevy engine to model boss Ed Cole and different executives. That gave Arkus-Duntov a gap to suggest a clean-sheet, all-GM design, and Cole permitted it underneath the codename Challenge XP-64. Publicly, the automotive was known as a Corvette SS, for Tremendous Sport—one of many earliest makes use of of that now-familiar moniker.
Zora Arkus-Duntov
Two vehicles had been truly constructed: a totally completed model and a rougher improvement mule. Neither had a lot in widespread with a manufacturing Corvette of the interval.
They had been constructed round a light-weight chrome-moly tubular body that allegedly weighed simply 180 kilos, with magnesium bodywork that stretched then-current Corvette styling cues across the wants of aerodynamics and packaging. These measures contributed to a claimed dry weight of 1,850 kilos, practically 1,000 kilos lower than a Corvette street automotive of the time.
1957 Chevrolet Corvette SS Challenge XP-64
Energy got here from a 283-cubic-inch V-8 that featured an experimental fuel-injection system in-period, paving the best way for gas injection in later Corvette street vehicles. An aluminum 4-speed handbook transmission, weighing simply 65 kilos, despatched the engine’s output of about 300 hp to the rear wheels.
Unbiased suspension was used up entrance, with a De Dion setup on the rear to scale back unsprung weight. Vacuum-assisted drum brakes had been used entrance and rear, with the rear brakes mounted inboard.
1957 Chevrolet Corvette SS Challenge XP-64
The XP-64 made its competitors debut on the 1957 12 Hours of Sebring, pushed by John Fitch and Piero Taruffi, however retired with mechanical issues after simply 23 laps. Updates, together with a doable change from magnesium to fiberglass bodywork like road-going Corvettes, had been reportedly deliberate forward of an try on the 24 Hours of Le Mans. However a voluntary suspension of factory-backed racing efforts introduced by GM and different main U.S. automakers on June 6, 1957, put an finish to that.
That marked the top of Challenge XP-64, nevertheless it had nonetheless made an impression. Arkus-Duntov’s affect would proceed to develop, making certain that the Corvette would stay in manufacturing as a correct sports activities automotive as an alternative of morphing right into a extra luxurious tourer like its interval rival, the Ford Thunderbird.
1957 Chevrolet Corvette SS Challenge XP-64
In the meantime, the mule chassis languished earlier than being reused for the Challenge XP-87 Stingray Racer idea that previewed the styling of the C2 Corvette. The automotive up for public sale was utilized by GM for promotional functions earlier than being given to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.
Anticipated to promote for $5 million-$7 million, the Corvette SS is one among a number of high-profile vehicles being auctioned off because the museum appears to be like to extra tightly focus its assortment on Indy-related vehicles. Some which have already offered embody a Ferrari 250 LM that gained the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans and an ultra-rare 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196 pushed by Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss. A Ford GT40 Mk II that was entered within the 1966 Le Mans race will even go underneath the hammer on the upcoming Florida public sale.