jim lockwood

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around this.....

So, what you are saying is the only thing about the car that will actually resemble a Grand Sport will be the shape of the body?

Jim

Dan Hampton

There is talk of a SB Ford V-8 but it will have 7 fin Corvette valve covers. In all seriousness, though, the good folks at SPF might want to rethink the DC chassis. That may be a non starter with the Corvette group.

jim lockwood

Too much coffee for you today, Dan!


It certainly is for me.


On a related, and depressing, note, out here on the left coast is a late model Corvette that is just smoking fast on the road courses. I've seen it pitted against a flock of retired cup cars, gridded last, finishing first, and nearly lapping the field.

So what's depressing about that? It runs a 429 F*rd engine.


But back to the subject at hand.... Andrei, if GM licenses the building of car, and if Superformance actually builds it, in what way does Duntov Motors participate?

Jim

n1kon

Daytona chassis? That has to be wrong. It would we horrendous!

I thought they were partnering with Duntov Motors and that Duntov would provide the chassis for the GS. Which is not exact but extremely close to the original chassis. On Duntov site they advertise the GM license.

53 Blue Flame Brett

Jim , I sure hope that the info is incorrect. That would seem to be pretty bad marketing, IMO.

Tintin

I had a SuperFormance car and it had a 427 FE in it, but you are right - it ain't cheap to do. I believe the engine was worth about $30K - shelby heads, LeMans cam solid lifter 1964 block.. fun and powerful.

Here I am at Thunderhill in it from the SuperFormance website:



Continuation car is just pure horse puckey, if it wasn't built in the day it's a fake so what difference does it make what the chassis is? Why not use an FE in the Grand Sport, there are no Chevrolet parts in the car anyway. It will be fun to have but no one will see it as anything but a kit car which is okay - but cut the hype...

gilbybarr

I have looked at some Superformance products....look like very good quality. Drove one of the Daytona Coupe's and it scared the hell out of me.....awesome power. I'd like to one.....the GS replicas I have looked at while attending Carlisle were somewhat rough on the interiors. Will be interesting to see what Superformance does with it.

jim lockwood

Andrei???

Dan Hampton

Nice SPF. One of the rare ones with an FE motor. They are expensive, though, and I can well understand the average guy wanting to maintain a budget under $50K. One of the best used car buys out there are the SPF Cobras. There are a lot of unused, low mile cars that can be had at a price considerably less than a new build.

For those on this Forum who have not been exposed to the Club Cobra Forum, the issue of originality and replication has been beat to death within Cobra circles. This problem has been exacerbated by Shelby's building of CSX 4000 cars and anything else he wishes to attach his name. The question: "Is it real" has been beat to death and I think that is what Tintin is referring to in his post. If it wasn't built in the 60s, it doesn't make much difference where the components come from--it is just a replication

DH
CSX2189

jim lockwood

Does Shelby replicate the original frame and suspension (to include the transverse leaf spring/upper control arm) on his CSX4000 cars?

Jim

Dan Hampton

The transverse leaf spring was used in the original SB 260/289 cars and not the 427. The CSX 4000 cars are the 427 bodied cars. He does build a 289 FIA car (CSX 7000) and a street, slab side car (CSX 8000) but I do not recall that they employed the transverse leaf spring.

Tintin

If they have metal bodies, they may have the transverse spring as those are the re-badged Kirkhams and you can get them with the original set up. It is quite difficult to tell the Kirkham from an authentic Cobra , they even use the twin batteries in the 427. They make a slab side and a 289 FIA car, very nice. They are fairly pricey by the standards of this forum, about $110-130K out the door. My SPF was #136 and was over $105K when it was built in 1996. I bought it from a Dot Gonner in 2001 for about 40% of that with 1300 miles on it.

There are a lot of low mileage Cobras for sale because many owners take their wives for a ride and scare them witless , so they will never get in again. The car in the picture was pretty quick - I went up the straight with my race partner at Thundehill and was careful not to spook any of the HPDE 1 students, so I backed off completely before the flag stand and had passed the pit wall before accelerating - still hit 135.. a lot of guys take one ride and never get back in either!

The current Shelby CSX cars are made by Superformance in South Africa.

DH , now I know you - Cal Metal?

Dan Hampton

Tintin:

Guilty.

DH

bertbrown

Regarding the transverse leaf spring question, Shelby has turned out a number of 289 cars. When they started they used a shortened transverse leaf in front with a goofy arrangement on the top of the upright to allow them to adjust camber. What you don't want on a 289 is a shorter spring, it sends the spring rate even higher. I don't know if they are continuing to use this arrangement.

Ditto the comment about "wives", Tintin. My wife has gone for a ride in my Kirkham exactly one time.

m5extc

Jim,

GM licensed it, if they didn't it would result in a lawsuit. SPF is building it. Duntov Motors partnered with Superformance in the design and development of the GS. They agreed to partner in a "continuation/tribute" car. This is no different than a clone Hemi Cuda or a Restomod Camaro. It is a car that we all wanted, that ACTUALLY drives well for a normal person.

That being said, I am not trying to sell anyone of the idea of NOT doing an original style car. I am merely suggesting a newly availble alternative.

I personally love cars and unique cars. I do tend to keep cars analy clean, but when I drive them, it is hard. I track everything I own, short of my wife's SUV. I embrace fakes, replicas, tributes of whatever. It gives you the opportunity to actually drive the car like it was intended, without panic over what may happen to it. Just my 2 cents.

Andrei

vettefred

Dan, I totally agree......it is "outside the circle".

Fred

6S1534

n1kon

Here is the race car I really want to see what the street cars look like.http://www.autoblog.com/gallery/supe...e-grand-sport/

CGS63

Hey guys,

Here is a picture of the Superformance chassis. It is coilover front and transverse leaf rear.

This picture however doesn't depict the steering rack currently being used.

This chassis is based solely on that of the original specifications of the Corvette Grand Sports. All of Superformance's chassis are independently designed to be suited for their particular needs and performance requirements.

So to set the record strait, The Corvette is its own entity and will in no way use anything remotely close to that of a Cobra.

Just a heads up!

redvetracr

a Corvette Grand Sport on a replica Cobra chassis?...so much for GM licensing having ANYTHING to do with originality...I wonder where that big mouth who said this is "The suspension design will be based off of the original" or this "The fact is General Motors broke with tradition by issuing an exclusive contract to manufacture the authentic 1963 Corvette Grand Sport. They provided access to their archives and provided us with blueprints and other vital information to allow us to faithfully reproduce this famous car. but that does not imply that GM doesn't care about 'quality, accuracy or country of origin'. Pay the fee and get the tag may apply to coffee cups, but not authentic automobiles. For that, General Motors is keenly interested in every aspect of the finished product"


really? I guess if it looks like a coffee cup and walks like a coffee cup it must be a coffee cup....at least it`s an authentic coffee cup....oh wait.

redvetracr

you might want to ask your friends at Superformance how their recent "vacation" to Detroit went.....