A lil GM history

[TFord]

we all know that the camaro is my hands down favirote car. the corvette is my dream car and in my opinion it has been the best buy for a sports/muscle/super car since the first year the stingray. that year the 375hp 5.7L vette won the 24hrs of lemans(the one, mickey thompsom bought and drove cause GM prohinited racing). beating the shelby cobra (also in its first year) from then on shelby and corvette were rivals (shelby cobras, and GT 500's). In 1963, Zora Duntov the grandfater of corvette launched the Grand Sport program. The original idea captured the interest and imagination of Corvette fans all over the world and race it on an international circuit against not only Cobras and other GT-Class cars, but also racing only prototypes from Ferrari, Ford and Porsche. Power for the Grand Sport was to come from an 1800lb aluminum version of the small block V8, equipped with special twin-plug cylinder heads. At 377ci, it pushed 550hp and had 500 foot pounds of torque. unfortunately GM policy prohibited Zora from racing, but he managed to get five Grand Sports built. GM was gonna scrap them but Zora cut a deal and got them sold instead for the price of 5000 dollars.


could you imagine buying a vette that weighed 1800 pounds, and had 550horses, 500 foot pounds of torque, IRS, vented 4 wheel disc brakes and just paying 5000 dollars for it. man what happened to those days

[Mr. Wyndham]

No...I wish I could get a Camaro for 5000 dollars... nice find. Really! I love learning about all stuff GM.

[AirGoya]

Yea very interesting TFord. What is the difference between the petit lemans and the actual lemans?

[Kyle.Gilmour]

Has everyone heard how William Durant came up with the Chevy Bowtie logo?

Its not extremely exciting, but might satisfy Dragon's curiosity a bit.

http://home.earthlink.net/~scrippsbo...iehistory.html

Enjoy

[Mr. Wyndham]

I had heard that "French Hotel" version a few times...I hadn't heard those other ones! Cool. Thanks for "satisfing my curiostiy a bit", Kyle :thumsup:

I don't know if this is true or not, but I've heard it several places...GM actually Started as Oldsmobile, before they started using multiple brands?

[TFord]

Originally Posted by AirGoya

Yea very interesting TFord. What is the difference between the petit lemans and the actual lemans?

the petit lemans is a 1000 mile endurance race with a 10hr time limit. uses the same rules as the 24 hour lemans. thats why its call petit its the smaller version of the 24 hour lemans. its held in atlanta GA every year, around labor day. (dont quote me on that).