The 1963 Corvette Grand Sport Was Zora's Best Kept Secret

Zora Kept "Project Lightweight" A Secret Until GM Found It

Zora Arkus-Duntov, a Belgian-born American engineer often hailed as the "Father of the Corvette," played a pivotal role in bringing the Corvette Grand Sport 1963 to life.

Drawing inspiration from the success of European sports cars and driven by a desire to challenge the dominance of Carroll Shelby's Cobras, Duntov embarked on a mission to create a lightweight, high-performance masterpiece.

The project titled "Lightweight" was kept under wraps even after it was green lit by the Chevy head honcho Bunkie Knudson. Likely due to the 1957 AMA ban on big companies taking part in racing activities.

Although 125 were intended for production, GM Chairman Frederic Donnersoon found out about Zora's Sebring track test and imposed a stop order. Only 5 were over built and all are still roadworthy.

1963 Corvette GS Weighed Less Than A Miata

The current ND Miata is, around 2330 lb for reference. The Grand Sport's lightweight design set it apart from its contemporaries.

Crafted with meticulous attention to detail, it featured an innovative chassis extensively using aluminum, the inner structure made from aluminum as opposed to the usual steel, coupled with a body made of paper-thin, hand-laid fiberglass.

The wheels were made from magnesium, while the differential and transmission cases were made from Aluminum.

This ingenious construction resulted in a staggering 1,000-pound reduction compared to the production Sting Ray. The weight-saving measures were not just for the sake of performance, but were crucial for the Grand Sport to meet homologation requirements for GT-class racing.

1973 Corvette GS Raced In Bahamas!

While most of us associate the 1983 Corvette Grand Sport with the mighty 377 V8, initially it was tested with a modified 327. But as the official word was to scrap the program, GM was officially out of the race.

Until the development team decided to loan it to SCCA racers Dick Doane and Grady Davis. Their input was later implemented on the remaining Corvette GS chassis. They now had more openings in bodywork for cooling, bigger brakes and 9-inch wide tires.

Later in 1963 three Corvette GS took part in Nassau Tourist trophy. They were aided by several engineers who were on "holiday" and one of them even carried some spare differential coolers in his suitcase, as one does while travelling to tropical paradise, LOL.

Duntov and his team were met with success as far as keeping the Shelby at bay was concerned. Later, the team decided to go for Daytona and chopped off the coupe's roof and opened up the engine bay via some louvers to reduce the front end pressure and lift.

GM was once again was notified of Zora's unapproved racing side hustle, and once again they decided to stop him by scraping all the 1963 Corvette Grand Sports. Luckily, they were rescued by engineers and hidden out of sight until things calmed down.

What about the 377?

The 377 had four 58mm Weber carburetors, connected via an aluminum cross-ram manifold. It made 485 horsepower at 6000 rpm.

Today they are worth millions. A car collector named Harry Yeaggy got one for about $4.2 million back in the day. Today they are not for sale but expect to pay around $10 million upwards, gulp.

Image Source- Writegeist, CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia