Corvette Museum Fostering ’69 Big Block and ’63 Grand Sport II Replica

By Tony Markovich - August 30, 2016

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The National Corvette Museum is a great example of Corvette fans making something special. Though National Corvette Museum would still be good without any help, the reason it constantly has new and fresh cars rotating in and out is because of people who believe in the Corvette brand, and are willing to loan out their vehicles for display. The most recent heroes are Kent Hussey and Michael and Jeannie Bell.

The Bells were nice enough to temporarily allow their 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport II replica to spend some time with some of the world’s finest ‘Vettes. This car has a bit of an interestingly backward story. The car uses the original ’63 body and chassis, but in 2002, it underwent a Grand Sport conversion in order to pay respects to the 1996 GS model (according to the NCM). Thus the Admiral Blue paint job with the white center racing stripe and red hashes.

This car is anything but stock. In fact, it was completely gutted and built back up to the way it looks today. It now has a Dart small block stroker 427 and a T-56 6-speed transmission, a custom Holley induction system, a side-draft EFI, an MSD Digital 6-Plus computer system, a four-inch tube frame, suspension from a 1989 Corvette Z51, Alden coilovers in front, and VBP monoleaf in the rear.

And it has 770 horsepower. Just listen to this titillating exhaust:

The second car, No. 969 in the Registry of Corvette Race Cars, is a 1969 Corvette with the big block, and its history is longer than one of those grocery store receipts with 800 coupons on the bottom. It’s competed in such races as the SCCA AP class, the IMSA 12 Hours of Sebring, Bilstein SCCA National race, 24 Hours of Daytona, and the HRS enduro. Behind the wheel at these races were legends like Dr. Richard Bostyan, Don Yenko, and Jerry Thompson. And that’s just a small sample of what this thing has been through.

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Hussey is the one who restored it and built it back to what the C3 looks like now, with the help of Kevin Mackay. And warning on the video below, because the sound of this thing’s exhaust may scare you silly.