Racecar Lust--Chevrolet Corvette GTP
Again, we're continuing the almost incredibly obtuse series remembering the forgotten IMSA GTP heroes.
On Monday, we discussed the Nissan GTP-ZX--a car that started its life fast but fragile, and was eventually honed by Nissan into one of the all-time sports racers. Like that Nissan, the Chevrolet Corvette GTP debuted with enormous speed but never held together long enough to win. The two cars even used similar Lola chassis upon their debut.
The difference is that while Nissan stuck with it and honed its blunt object into a weapon, Chevy just gave up and threw the Corvette GTP on the trash heap. That's a shame. As Nissan proved, the dominant Porsches were ripe for the plucking in 1988, and the Corvette's speed right out of the box indicated enormous potential yesterday's Mazda never reached.
Beyond all this, the Corvette looked and sounded cool, and its sheer unpredictability--would it win or explode?--gave it a sinister gravitas that most otherwise unsuccessful race cars never earn.
The image is from VetteWeb.com.
--Chris H.
Mochi Mochi on June 11, 2008 at 05:47 PM
"would it win or explode" in an age when so much is computer modeled to death and designed for immediate success, it is refreshing to encounter designs that are completely unpredictable and dangerous. The real failing here was the lack of effort. The just walking away and dropping the project. How incredibly uninspired. Racing is always a hole into which money is poured. Aside from advertising (think 200mph bill board) there is nothing but a complete loss financially speaking. But we accept that from racing.
Racing should be about some level of heroism in the face of loss. I'm not a big corvette fan, but they could have won my interest if they had continued to try. The best possible situation would have been season after season with a mixture of thrilling victories, massive explosions, and stunning failures. I can think of nothing better to weld the corvette into the hearts of race fans.
Formula Fox on February 09, 2009 at 01:45 PM
I love this car - I consider it to be the perfect example of the real spirit of racing. It never really did much, but for much of its life it was able to give the big guys some notable headaches. If GM had stuck with it, it could've been as good as the current(soon to be former) Corvette GT1 program.