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Tag: lemans

March 23, 1957 – Chevrolet Corvette SS makes only racing appearance
This Day

March 23, 1957 – Chevrolet Corvette SS makes only racing appearance

Although Chevrolet Corvette sales began to climb after the introduction of a V8 option in 1955, GM engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov saw a way to convince more buyers the Corvette was a true sports car: race it. He loaded up two stock Corvettes and a modified one and headed for the 1956 Daytona Speedweeks. The results were more than favorable. Race car driver John Fitch won the Sports Car division in one of the stock Corvettes, followed by Betty Skelton who took second place in the other. Duntov himself drove the modified Corvette in the Modified Sports Car division, which he won. The success led to the entrance of four modified Corvettes in the 1956 12 hours of Sebring. Ed Cole, General Manager of Chevrolet, watched the action. To his dismay, the cars his team brought did not do well a...
April 18, 1964 – Ford GT40 makes its public track debut
This Day

April 18, 1964 – Ford GT40 makes its public track debut

GT40 101 recreation The American powered, British bodied, Ford GT40 had one job: outperform Ferrari in endurance races. Introduced a few weeks earlier at the New York Auto Show, the first of the GT40s, Mk1 chassis 101 and 102, made their first public appearance on a track on this day in 1964. Jaws dropped as they ripped around Le Mans during a test weekend, in part because of one spectacular crash. The vehicles suffered from aerodynamic issues, a problem that caused 101 to become airborne and crash on the Mulsanne straight. The second prototype ended up in the wall that weekend as well. The remains of both vehicles earned a date with the crusher. Some 50 years later, Claude Nahum, a known Ford collector, decided to recreate chassis 101. His replica remained so true to the original...

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