what exactly do the GS hash marks mean?
or is it merely cosmetic?

 

got em!!!

On the 1996 Grand Sport, and the 1963 Grand Sport they had 2 hashh marks o nthe drivers side fender to Identify the cars on the track.

The ones availible from Midamerica are merely cosmetic pains in the butt to put on. But look reat B/A! :steering:

 

i have them on my 86 :yesnod:

 

I think I read somewhere that there was some meaning behind them, but it could have just been someone BS'ing. If there is some mystical story behind them, I'd find it interesting to know.

 

During some races of the original 1963 Grand Sports, the teams placed strips of tape (rumor says duct tape) on the fenders instead of numbers to identify the cars

http://www.grandsportregistry.com/faq.htm#2

 

Coupe 89 is Correct. Hashmarks = Skidmarks :steering:

 

I believe they are just for show.
tony
:flag

 

The rest of the story, as I understand it...

Back in the 30s, international autoracing was established with countries being assigned colours for their cars.

England was British Racing Green; Italy, Italian Red; Germany, white, but they didn't like it, and used silver; French, French Blue; USA, Blue w/White stripe; Denmark or one of the other Nordic cuontries used white w/blue stripes.

Hash marks... that's an interesting thing too... they were used to designate rookie drivers. Why GM used them on the Vette? I donno. But you don't see them later on. The later GS's, or, more accurately, the GS's that raced later (they only made 6, more on that in a minute), were sans stripes.

Now... 6 GS's. That's a facinating story that is still being uncovered. There were actually 6 made. The 5 we know about, and a 6th, that was being finished at the time GM halted the program. That car was distroyed by GM on the proving grounds. Burnt to a crisp. :cry

Again, understanding of the politics of the day... GM was close to anti-trust. They were concerned that they were going to get broken up. Everything they sold and sold well. If GM had any larger slice of the sales pie, they were going to get broken into 2 companies. The internal plan was to split Chevy off as it's own company, and keep the rest under GM.

However, successfull racing would sell more cars... that would cause a problem or 2... referring back to the above comment.

Duntov had built a very capable race car in the GS. It was his dream Vette... 1000lbs lighter with an all aluminium small block. Fast... but not fully developed.

Because so few were built, the car was raced as a prototype... it never raced against the Cobra with enough regularity to be a competitor. Such a shame.

The 5 GS's fell into race car obscurity in the late 60s to early 80s, only to start popping up and getting some rather large money in the auction biz.

Today, each car is worth well over $500,000.00. The 5 together would be worth more than 5x's each car's value. There is no way to really peg the sales value of these... none have been publically traded in YEARS. I can't wait to see one go across the block at Barrett-Jackson.

:cheers:

 

:cheers:

 

Bogus, Thanks for the history lesson - very cool story!! :cool: :thumbs:

 

As I have read in numerous books, including one on the legendary Grand Sports (not the 96 GS's), the story I read about the Grand Sport "hash marks" was this:
During the race season the pit crews with the teams were having difficulty distinguishing which GS was coming in to pit. Their solution was to mark the fenders with the striping so they knew which GS was coming in to pit. I believe there were 3 GS's racing, one wore no stripes, one had 2 stripes and the 3rd had 3 stripes. I will look up the story again and make sure I have everything correct on this story.

GM decided to re-create the GS in 96 and added these stripes to pay homage to the stripes that were added to one of the GS's.

:cheers:

 

Here is a partial quote of my message in another thread about "hash marks"


Agreed that the "hash marks" on the 1996 Grand Sport were a styling exercise by Chevrolet. Probably more because exactly duplicating the 63 Grand Sport didn't look as good.

The original identifying stripe used on the 1963 Grand Sports at Nassau in 1963 was a single stripe aprox 6-7 inches wide and on the nose of the Grand Sport just to the right of center. It was straight and ran parallel to the length of the car. It ran from the leading edge of the hood forward and wrapped around the nose under to the grille opening. And it was used to identify the car as a Grand Sport and which Grand Sport when approaching the crew from a distance. The single stripe varied in color on each different Grand Sport of the three entered. Example, the Roger Penske driven 1963 #004 Grand Sport at Nassau had a (single) white 6-7" stripe on the nose. While I don't know the material used, I doubt if it was duct tape given the width and the different colors.

Also note that these Nassau 63 Grand Sports didn't have the full length stripe (17-20" wide) as the 1996 Grand Sport does. That came later. So the 1996 Grand Sport styling was more of a styling exercise or concept by the designers. A tribute using Grand Sport lore in the styling process.


:steering:

 

Say what you want about the GS, but its the ultimate Vette in terms of image, and design planning.

Admiral Blue
Arctic White Stripe that varies in width
Bright Red hash marks on one fender...always keeps em guessing!
Black 5 spoke rims...some had red guts...RARE IN VERTS!!!

whats not to like... :party: :party: :party:

 

I don't know what is not too like about them?? :D :D

 

:iagree: :iagree: :iagree:

:seeya

:steering:

 

Great info Bogus! I have read some of this same stuff before, but I did not realize that the reason GM stopped racing was due to anti-trust conflicts. Wow. :eek:

 

There was even more to that... in 1957, the AMA, Automobile Manufacturers of America, entered into an agreement to halt all racing activities. This was to make themselves look more responsable to the average American Joe on the street. And, I assume, to lower legal responsibility incase of accidents.

It was the last throws of that ban that also halted the racing activities of the Corvette...

That ban put American automotive technology back 20 years. It's amazing to me that Ford even put the GT40 together so quick. Think about it, modern fuel injection, multivalve/cam heads, small capacity, high output engines... all got their starts in Europe. Where racing went ahead, unabated.

However, that ban lasted until about 1965... First Chrysler, then Ford, and finally, GM, started to ignore the ban. And that was that. The ban was poorly thought out... it was so restrictive. And so ignorant. It was on a par with prohibition of the 20s.

Additionally, GM had been under fire for their sales volume for some time. There had already been one successful anti-trust suit against them, in a way... In the 1920's, GM was floundering, another, well established chemical company from Delaware, duPont, came in and bought up a large number of shares to help float GM. By the late-50s, GM was more than a little rich and the duPont's were forced to unload their stock. It was bad when the same family controlled the destiny of the two largest corporations in the country!

Those sales concerns also effected the creation of the GTO. GM had a rule, no engine over a certian size within a body family. Basically put, the 389 was not permitted in the Tempest. But they snuck it by the bean counters by making it an OPTION. The GTO didn't become it's own car until later.

There is a great book, "Glory Days", by Jim Wangers. He was the marketing guru behind the GTO. Talk about an inside story on how GM really worked in the mid-50s through the early 70s. Facinating read. It is available from http://www.robertbentley.com.

Glad you all liked it!!! :cheers: