6. 1963 Corvette Grand Sport
In the early ’60s, Chevrolet was successful in motorsports. And with Zora Arkus Duntov and Ed Cole as the head engineers for Corvette, the racing version of the Corvette Stingray was a logical next step in its development. The Corvette has already proven itself on the market, and now it was time to prove itself on the racetrack. Back in the day, the Shelby Cobra was sponsored by Ford and dominated at the racetracks, so the Corvette team wanted to beat it.
So, Zora and his team prepared five Grand Sport Corvettes with modified bodies, special suspensions, fully loaded race engines and a host of other specially built components. The Grand Sport Corvette produced over 550 HP so it was capable of a brutal performance. The Corvette team had big plans, so they entered the Grand Sport Corvette in several races with mixed success until the decision from top of General Motors stopped all racing activities.
For some reason, GM decided to stop investing in all forms of racing in early 1963, which killed the fantastic Grand Sport program before it could prove its worth. And that made the Corvette Grand Sport one of the greatest “what if” stories of the racing world. Thankfully, all five cars survived and are accounted for.