Own A '63 Corvette Grand Sport Without Paying Millions

  

Summary

Born to race: Zora Arkus-Duntov designed the Corvette Grand Sport to be a lightweight racing weapon capable of taking on Ford GTs and the competition at Sebring and Le Mans.

Only five were built: Duntov originally wanted 1,000, but only five Grand Sports actually made it out the door in the early ’60s.

Good luck buying the real thing: These cars are now multimillion-dollar collectibles. The #002 Grand Sport once attracted a $4.9 million bid—and still didn't sell.

Yeah, that's a little outside most budgets: Unless you've got several million dollars burning a hole in your pocket, owning an original isn't exactly realistic.

Enter Superformance: The company received licensing to build replicas of the legendary Grand Sport, giving regular(ish) people a chance to own one.

They went deep: Superformance even got access to the original #002 build sheets, allowing them to build extremely accurate replicas.

But you don't have to go full museum piece: Buyers can customize their Grand Sport with modern goodies like power steering, four-wheel disc brakes, power windows, A/C, and independent suspension.

Want some serious horsepower?: There are seven engine choices, including an LS9 supercharged V8 for those who apparently don't believe enough horsepower is a thing.

Coupe or roadster: Choose the more comfortable, feature-packed coupe or go with the roadster for a more stripped-down, old-school race-car experience.

The best part: You get the look and attitude of one of the most legendary Corvettes ever built for a fraction of the price of an original.

Bottom line: You can't afford the five real Grand Sports? Neither can most of us. But with a Superformance replica, you can get damn close—and actually drive the thing.

Rare Corvettes for Less

Some of the rarest sports cars of all time are a group of five early-’60s Corvette Grand Sports built with one purpose in mind: racing. These lightweight monsters were designed to compete in the GT classes at the Sebring 12 Hours and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The Godfather of Corvettes, Zora Arkus-Duntov, led the crusade to build lightweight, race-ready Corvettes capable of going toe-to-toe with the dominant Ford GTs and the rest of the field.

Duntov originally planned to build 1,000 of these Corvettes, but only five Corvette Grand Sports were ultimately built in the ’60s.

Two of the Corvettes, #001 and #002, were put aside, while the other three were sent to John Mecom of Houston, Texas. Mecom eventually passed them along to three other prominent names in the racing world.

Purchasing One of These Rare Beauties

So, let's say you weren't lucky enough to be one of the people who received one of those five Corvettes, but now you'd like to see if you can purchase one today.

Well, although these Corvettes aren't tearing around the 24 Hours of Le Mans or other major races anymore, there's about a fat chance of getting your hands on one for under five million dollars.

A few years back, the #002 Corvette Grand Sport found its way onto the auction block. Although the high bid reached $4.9 million, it still wasn't enough to take the beautiful blue race car home.

If you're like most car guys, you probably don't have $4.9 million sitting around for a sports car you wouldn't even want to drive that much anyway.

But getting something similar—and in many cases, much more modern, comfortable, and drivable—with a somewhat more affordable price tag?

Now we're talking.

A Grand Sport You Can Actually Own

Superformance, a car-building company in Southern California, pushed to obtain licensing to build replicas of Zora Duntov's famed Corvette Grand Sport. That made it possible for people to own something very close to the legendary race car—well, at least a replica of one.

Superformance was even granted access to the original build sheets for the #002 Grand Sport Corvette. According to the company, if you wanted a replica nearly identical to the original, they could build one so accurate that only experts would be able to tell it wasn't the real #002.

That's pretty damn cool.

But let's be honest. Not everybody needs a museum-quality replica that has to be treated like the automotive equivalent of the Hope Diamond.

Maybe you just want the look of the legendary Corvette, along with the performance, comfort, and drivability of a newer car.

And that's perfectly fine.

Superformance is also dedicated to building Grand Sports that can actually be enjoyed on the road.

Customize Your Own Corvette Grand Sport

Superformance will build you a vintage Corvette Grand Sport to your liking. Want power steering? Check.

Four-wheel disc brakes? Yep.

Power windows? Absolutely.

A/C? You bet.

Fully independent front and rear suspension with Bilstein components? You can have that, too.

There are roadster versions available as well. They'll look and drive more like the race Corvettes of the past, but many of the features and options available on the coupe are limited.

And then we get to the fun part: the engines.

Superformance offers a variety of powerplants, including an LS9 supercharged monster that can turn these cars from cool-looking replicas into seriously nasty street machines.

There are seven engines to choose from, giving you plenty of ways to decide just how much trouble you want to get yourself into.

All engines come with a 2-year/50,000-mile warranty that can be serviced at an authorized dealer.

Let's Go Cruising

The greatest thing about the Superformance Corvette Grand Sport replica isn't just that it looks like one of the most legendary Corvettes ever built.

It's that you can actually drive the damn thing.

The original Grand Sports are multimillion-dollar pieces of Corvette racing history. They're rare, valuable, and about as likely to be driven to the local cruise night as a Picasso is to be used as a garage drop cloth.

A Superformance Grand Sport gives you the chance to have the looks, attitude, and performance inspiration of Zora Duntov's legendary racer without needing five or six million dollars sitting in the bank.

It's not the real thing.

But it might be about as close as most of us are ever going to get—and that's not a bad consolation prize.