Before Roger Penske became a legendary race-team owner, he was a driver. On March 21, 1964, Penske and racing legend Jim Hall took the checkered flag at the Twelve Hours of Sebring, securing a Prototype GT class victory in their Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport.
This year, Penske, a longtime collaborator with General Motors and Chevrolet, celebrates his 60th year as a team owner and served as Grand Marshall for the 74th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring IMSA race as part of those celebrations. The race, held at a venue that played a key role in the development of the original, offered a perfect opportunity to bring together the Grand Sport lineage, including a new member.
“It is an incredible opportunity to be reunited with the Corvette Grand Sport C2 here at the Twelve Hours of Sebring – an event and a track that has always carried special meaning for me and for our race teams over the years,” Penske said. “Congratulations to Chevrolet on launching the new era of the Grand Sport program. It is truly special to see the C2 and the other generations of the Corvette Grand Sport, including the new C8, here at Sebring.”
The #4 Corvette Grand Sport of Roger Penske and Jim Hall en route to class victory at Sebring in 1964.
C2 Grand Sport (1963)
The Grand Sport story started with a pure race car. An effort led by legendary Corvette engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov, the C2 Grand Sport was a lightweight purpose-built to challenge the best sports cars around the world. With prodigious horsepower from a 377-cubic-inch V8, the Grand Sport put its competitors on edge. Chevrolet built just five.
“It’s incredible to think that 62 years ago, Jim Hall and I drove the Corvette Grand Sport to a class victory at the Twelve Hours of Sebring,” Penske said. “I have great memories of driving the Grand Sport as we were fortunate to earn three wins across five races in the car during the 1963 and 1964 seasons”.
C4 Grand Sport (1996)
A farewell to the beloved fourth-generation Corvette, the C4 Grand Sport was a one-year special that combined a more powerful version of the naturally aspirated 5.7-liter LT4 Small-Block V8 with chassis upgrades from the ZR1. Just 1,000 were built, each in the heritage livery of Admiral Blue with a white stripe running the length of the car and Torch Red hashmarks on the driver’s side fender.
C6 Grand Sport (2010-2013)
The sixth-generation Corvette saw the model range expand with many performance variants and special editions. The C6 Grand Sport brought together the base model’s legendary naturally aspirated 6.2-liter LS3 V8 with the wider bodywork, larger brakes, and other upgrades from the C6 Z06. Manual-transmission C6 Grand Sports had unique gear ratios and a dry-sump oiling system for the V8.
C7 Grand Sport (2017-2019)
Like its predecessors, the C7 Grand Sport mated the base engine – in this case, the 460-horsepower naturally aspirated 6.2-liter LT1 V8 from the Stingray – with wider bodywork and other components from the Z06. It represented a sweet spot between daily drivability and track performance, and it also resurrected the red, white, and Admiral Blue livery of the C4.
C8 Grand Sport (2027- )
Following in the footsteps of its predecessors, the latest Corvette Grand Sport is for the purist and will be a high-volume model. Featuring the next generation of GM V8 technology, the C8 Grand Sport is built by and for enthusiasts.
The Grand Sport will be revealed on March 26. Stay tuned for more details.
