Yes, a silver-haired mechanical wizard fell in love with the young and beautiful Princess of The General, in the stylish house of Chevrolet. Her name was Corvette and under the good graces of the House of Chevrolet's Lord of Styling and Good Looks, Master Harley Earl she was the most beautiful machine in the entire kingdom of The General. Now the wizard’s name was Duntov, Zora Arkus-Duntov and he had a passion for racing like no one else in the House of Chevrolet. "Zora the Silver" focused his unbridled passion for racing on the young Corvette and before long, she was winning races all across the land!

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A 1965 Corvette Coupe hooked me at the tender age of 11. I suppose it’s like your first crush – if she happened to have long blond hair and blue eyes, you’ll always have a soft spot for blue-eyed blonds. That’s how it is for me and the C2 “Sting Ray” Corvettes. As I grew older and studied the entire lineage of Corvettes, I’ve developed a passion and understanding for all six generation Corvettes. But for me, the C2 Sting Rays are my favorite.

Of all six generations of Corvettes, the C2 Sting Rays only lasted 5 model years. Within that short period of time, we were treated to an almost continuous flow of new advancements for the Corvette. “Fully independent suspension” was something ONLY found on exotic sports cars from Europe. The Split-Window ‘63 Corvette Coupe looked like the “future” had arrived! The Z06 “racer kit” gave Corvette racers a big hand up. The L84 327 Fuel-Injection “Fuelie” was “the” hot setup for Corvettes. Then in ‘65 we were offered 4-wheel disc brakes as “standard equipment,” PLUS the optional 425-horsepower, L78 396 cubic-inch big-block engine. “HOLY HORSEPOWER & TORQUE, BATMAN!”

The following year, the L78 396 morphed into the L72 427, only to morph once again in ‘67 into the awesome and infamous L71 427/435 with its 3, 2-bbl carbs and big triangular air cleaner. And for “off road use only” customers, there was the legendary L88 427 with aluminum heads.

But standing quietly in the background of the above mentioned cars was the ultimate “could-have-been” Corvette – the Grand Sport. If GM’s upper management had just gotten out of the way, turned a blind eye, or used the Sergeant Schultz defense, “I know nothing. NOTH-ING!,” the Grand Sport Corvettes would have given the Cobras a good thrashing! Or at least, we would have seen some awesome racing between those two rivals.

Visually, the Grand Sports looked as if Duntov had them on the Charles Atlas isometrics program. They had lumps, bumps, scoops, flares, side-mounted headers, coolers, and vent holes. From every angle, the car looked like a scrapper, “Come on! I dare ya!” And behind it all was that wild, silver-haired Russian engineer, Zora Arkus-Duntov, who was planning on first building 125 Grand Sports for homologation, then building THOUSANDS of Grand Sports for Corvette racers to do battle with not only Shelby’s Cobras, but Europe’s best from Jaguar, Porsche, Aston Martin, Ferrari, and others! It could'a been SO COOL!

It has been my extreme pleasure to create this Grand Sport Corvette Legend website and most of the art prints shown here. If you have any questions about Grand Sport Corvettes or would like to share images or insights, I can be reached at lightoak@comcast.net, and will be happy to answer any questions or just do a little bench  racing.

Nuff said... Save the Wave! - KST