The Chevrolet Corvette and racing are synonymous now, but this wasn’t always the case. The C1 Corvette had already been in production for a couple of years before someone decided to turn one into a race car. That “someone” would be General Motors legends Harley Earl and Zora Arkus-Duntov. And the physical manifestation of that Corvette motorsports origin story, the 1957 Chevrolet Corvette SS, is up for grabs via RM Sotheby’s.
The Corvette (and its racing heritage) has two dads: GM head of design Earl and engineer Arkus-Duntov. Earl was responsible for the ideation of the Corvette, transferring a paper dream into a concrete reality. It was Arkus-Duntov, however, who really gave the Corvette life by making its heart a small-block V8 engine. According to the GM Archives, this literal power move saved the sales-struggling C1 and propelled Arkus-Duntov to the role of director of high-performance vehicles. But racing? Totally Earl’s idea.
The National Corvette Museum says the race car project was Earl’s idea but his plan was to drop a Chevy engine into a Jaguar D-type and take the makeshift racecar to Sebring in 1957. Arkus-Duntov got wind of the setup, didn’t like it from an engineering standpoint, and proposed to Earl that if he designed a dedicated race car, he would build it from the ground up.
That race car became known internally as Project XP-64, but later as the ’57 Corvette Super Sport (SS). The purpose-built Corvette SS was equipped with a 283-cubic-inch V8, a four-speed manual, a high-performance camshaft, aluminum cylinder heads, and Ramjet fuel injection similar to the German racers. The SS powertrain produced 300 horsepower, while the vehicle had a curb weight of just 1,850 pounds. Pretty spry for the new guy.
Arkus-Duntov engineered the Corvette SS to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. However, its first test was the 12 Hours of Sebring. Entered into the 1957 race and driven by John Fitch and Piero Taruffi, Corvette’s debut racecar had a stronghold on 6th place but was eventually forced to retire after 23 laps. But the vehicle’s impressive design and engineering were on full display.
As the fates would allow, this proved to be the only race the Corvette SS would compete in. Nevertheless, everyone had seen more than enough to be impressed—including Stirling Moss, who set a Sebring lap record in an SS prototype mule. The rest, as they say, is history.
According to the RM Sotheby’s listing, following some corporate cat-and-mouse by Arkus-Duntov to keep the racer from destruction, the 1957 Corvette SS was received by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) Museum in 1967. The vehicle had since been part of exclusive photoshoots and was on loan for special exhibits and presentations but remained in the IMS Museum collection.
Being offered as part of the ModaMiami auction slated for the end of February, the Corvette SS has a valuation of $5 million and $7 million. The IMS Museum has been slowly cleaning house to refocus its collection on exhibits and vehicles more closely connected to the IMS and Indianapolis 500. An auction batch last fall included the rare Mercedes-Benz W196 Streamliner ‘Monza’. Estimated to fetch more than $55 million, the vehicle is now featured in a standalone sale slated for February 1.
Have you seen any other Corvettes from these early days? Drop us a line at tips@thedrive.com.
