A 1963 Corvette Grand Sport sold for $18,705,000 at the RM Sotheby's Monterey auction on August 15, the most ever paid for a Corvette and the third-highest price for any American car at auction. The hammer fell at $17 million before fees.
Two weeks later its sibling, chassis #001, sat in a dedicated tent at Corvettes at Carlisle in Pennsylvania, parked beside chassis #004, and drew crowds all weekend.
Five cars and a program that died
Chevrolet engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov conceived the Grand Sport as an answer to Shelby's Cobras, which were beating Corvettes on track. He took the Corvette's steel frame, lightened it heavily, cut weight everywhere else, and fitted a high-revving small-block V8. The plan was a run of homologation cars to go racing with factory backing.
General Motors' internal ban on racing killed the program after five cars were built. Not one of them ever wore a factory decal in competition. Privateers raced them instead, and #001 carried that history at tracks including Nassau and Sebring.
That is the whole reason these five are treated as untouchable as they're not just rare, they are unfinished business, the race cars Chevrolet built and then was not allowed to use.
Reputation
It also settles something about the Corvette's reputation. The mid-60s C2 is already the shape most people picture when they think of a beautiful American car. The Grand Sport is that shape with the softness taken out, and the market just said it is worth more than almost anything else built in this country.
Corvettes at Carlisle happens every August, and #001 and #004 sitting side by side in a tent, a few hundred feet from parts vendors, is about as close as most people will ever get to one.
Sources:
Chassis #001 and #004 at Corvettes at Carlisle, and the Grand Sport's history: Motor1
The $18,705,000 sale of chassis #003 at RM Sotheby's Monterey: CorvetteBlogger
Auction lot listing: RM Sotheby's
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Jeffrey Wiley has spent more time than he'd like to admit thinking about what makes a car look right. He writes about automotive design, car culture, and the opinions people have strong feelings about. He lives in north Georgia.
