- A piece of Corvette kings was offered to the public; It was sold for 7.7 million US dollars
- The car is the first specially built General Motors Race Car
- It is unloaded by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum and is estimated for 5 million and 7 million US dollars
One of the most important corvettes in history was auctioned in February.
Part of an RM Sotheby’s Sale, which ran from February 27th to 28th in Coral Gables, Florida, was charged in 1957 Chevrolet Corvette SS project XP-64 as the one First specially built General Motors Race Car. It was also milestone in the development of the Corvette to a real performance car. It sold for $ 7,705,000 And set a record for Corvette sales.
While Corvettes had driven before the race before a class victory in the 12 hours of Sebring from 1956 – – –Corvette Chief Engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov And GM Design Chef Harley Earl I wanted a tailor -made racing version to better compete against the then dominant European car manufacturers on the track.
Earl went so far Buy a Jaguar D-Type And suggest driving it with a Chevy engine to the boss Ed Cole and other executives to become a brand boss. This gave Arkus-Duntov an opening to suggest a clean sheet, an all-GM design, and Cole approved it as part of the Codename Projekt XP-64. The car was publicly referred to as a Corvette SS for Super Sport-one of the earliest uses of this now familiar nickname.
Zora Arkus-Duntov
Two cars were actually built: a fully finished version and a rougher development mule. Neither had a lot together with a production corvette of this time.
They were built by a light frame of the chrome moly tube frame, which supposedly only weighed £ 180, whereby the magnesium body, which stretched out the current corvette styling information on the needs of aerodynamics and packaging. These measures contributed to a claimed dry weight of £ 1,850, almost £ 1,000 less than a Corvette road car of the time.
1957 Chevrolet Corvette SS project XP-64
Power came from a 283-cubic-inch-V-8 This was shown by an experimental fuel injection system in the period that paved the way for the fuel injection in later cars Corvette Road. An aluminum 4-speed manual transmission with a weight of only 65 pounds and sent the engine output of about about 300 hp on the rear wheels.
In the foreground, an independent suspension was used, with a DE -DDION setup reducing the unspray weight at the back. Vacuum -assisted drum brakes were used at the front and back, the rear brakes were installed on board.
1957 Chevrolet Corvette SS project XP-64
The XP-64 gave its competitive debut in the 12 hours of Sebring from 1957, which was driven by John Fitch and Piero Taruffi, but after only 23 rounds with mechanical problems retired. According to reports, updates, including a possible change from magnesium to fiber optic bodies such as street corvettes, were planned for the 24 hours of Le Mans. However, this ended a voluntary suspension of factory racing efforts, which were announced by GM and other large US car manufacturers on June 6, 1957.
That was the end of the XP-64 project, but still had an impact. The influence of Arkus-Duntov would continue to grow and ensure that the Corvette would remain in production as a real sports car instead of transforming into a more luxurious tour as his period rival, the Ford Thunderbird.
1957 Chevrolet Corvette SS project XP-64
In the meantime, the mule chassis was reused for the XP-87 Stingray Racer concept for the project XP-87, which has the preview of the preview Styling of the C2 corvette. The car for the auction was used by GM for advertising purposes before the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum was handed over.
The car was expected to be sold up to $ 7 million for $ 5 millionThe Corvette SS was one of several top-class cars that were auctioned because the museum wants to concentrate its collection more strongly on Indy-related cars. Some who have already sold are a Ferrari 250 lm that won the 24 hours of Le Mans from 1965 and an ultra-like Mercedes-Benz from 1954 by Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moos. A Ford GT40 MK II, which was registered in the 1966 Le Mans race, will also go under the hammer at the upcoming auction in Florida.
