63Corvette

1964 Type 911, a-Series, Chassis No. 300-128
One of the two first 911's delivered to the United States.
Brumos Porsche received the car for demonstrations. As Porsche said "anybody who wanted to drive a 911 just had to get to Brumos and they could test drive the new 911".

Jack Ryan, who was a racecar driver and owned a VW dealership in Atlanta, made a deal to buy the car from Brumos in 1965. He then had the idea to race the car at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1966. Huscke von Hanstein, the Porsche Director of Motorsport at the time, did not like this idea. He basically frowned at the idea of racing a new 911 at the Daytona 24. He didn't think the car was ready yet because Porsche would have brought one to race if they thought it was ready to compete for 24 hours. Jack Ryan said "It's my car now & I'm entering it". About half way through the race, Porsche Club of America members, Jack Ryan, Lin Coleman & Bill Bencker were leading their class. Crazy as it sounds...Huscke came down & offered them any assistance they needed.

The car went on to win its class, thus being the 1st 911 ever to win a road race...not just in America, but the world. Another 911 had won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1965, but that was a rally, not a road course.
1966: It was the 1st 911 to race at the famous Daytona racetrack, finishing 1st in class.

It was also the 1st 911 to race at Sebring, finishing 2nd in class.
It went on to win many more races in the SCCA and in Club Racing.
The car still retains its original engine and transmission and the interior (minus the headliner) is completely original too.

GM gives private Corvette racers about the same level of support.....dontcha think?

msracing

i owed chassis number 300-233 it was first race at the 66 Bahamas speed week and ran with the number 911,, this car was built buy the factory Gerhart Mitter and was sent to Miami, with Factory drive Anton Von Dory to run that event ,,, it was also driven by Diego Febles ,, yes the factory really help out the owners..

rfn026

Porsche gives the private racers a great deal of help. They also charge for it. Porsche racing is a profit center. They actually make money racing. This year they've started sending a tractor trailer around to the major vintage events. If you have the money they have the part.

GM tried doing this with the C5 kit cars. It just never worked for GM. They didn't have the patience for the program. Right now GM would rather ship a bazillion dollars to Pratt and Miller than help out the average racer. Less paper work and fewer employees involved.

The interesting number is that when Pratt and Miller began in 1998 GM was producing just over 31,000 Corvettes a year. In 2013 it was just over 13,000. Actually this was an improvement over the 11,647 in 2012.

Obviously the Corvette racing program has not helped sell Corvettes.

btw - in 1962 GM sold 14,531 Corvettes.

Richard Newton

hklvette

Marketing only works if your target audience sees it...

I think GM is more short-sighted than impatient. It takes time for a properly-executed racing program to reap measurable benefits.

indianavette

Richard, m'lad. Congent comment, as usual. While other factors weigh on recent Vette sales picture, hindsight suggests that the Cole/Piggins/Duntov model as reprized by Mclellan/Robinson/Heinricy did wonders for the marque at the grassroots. Examining the motives that weaned out privateers in the interest of out-right high-dollar factory racing would make a good read. For a look at how the Chevy racing playbook of the '60s, '70s and '80s is working today, see Mazda.

jbondfl

Two other points could be:
1) Porsche 911 had never raced at Daytona or won a road race, and
2) RYAN WAS LEADING HALF WAY THRU THE RACE.

Don't you think Porsche factory called up and said it would be a good idea for Porsche to win,,,, factory team or not???

I'm thinking that GM would offer support if they had no other cars in position to win and a privateer Corvette was leading... maybe...

63Corvette

Well ya might wanta ask Lou at LGM his opinion about that.............

yenkovette

Corvette Z06R is fully available in GT3 form and completely homologated and raced all over the world......... You just need a big check from Callaway. I believe there are about 20 of them.....Japan, China, Asia, Germany ,France, Belguim, Britian

yenkovette

Point, dozens of Corvettes are raced Worldwide ......just only 4 of them in FIA GT2. Over 20 alone in FIA GT3 and about 10 in FIA GT4. Half a dozen in Netherlands

Check it out ........there are many other pro Corvette racers not named LG or PM. Look at dozens on www.corvettemotorsport.com

yenkovette

Here's a few more GT2 and GT3...........it's a big world !!! Only Porsche and Audi have more GT3 entries than Corvette. Chevrolet has done a GREAT job of promoting and building the brand. Plenty of people watch these cars because/besides of 2 cars in ALMS. Don't be so provincial. A lot more Vettes than Astons, Mustangs, Camaros, Mercedes SLS, Ferrari 458, BMW Z4 GT3, BMW GT3, Ford GT3 even now Bentley GT run in the GT3 classes !!! In every country in the world these brands race on live TV....except here evidently.

indianavette

It's a given that road racers the world over recognize the Corvette's incredible performance value. I think Richard was addressing the inability of the current factory racing model to move the needle on domestic production Vette sales.

xevilpetex

Not sure that cherry picking the second year of a radically improved model being sold while the nations economy was roaring and the final year of a 9 year old model being sold after one of the worst downturns in our nations economy is really a fair comparison or that it is indicative of Corvette racings success or failure in helping GM sell Corvettes.

Correlation does not imply causation

I do know that I probably wouldn't own a corvette if I hadn’t spent so much time watching them race, nor would my father.