- A piece of Corvette royalty will soon be offered to the public
- The car is considered the first purpose-built General Motors race car
- It is being offloaded by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, and is estimated to sell for between $5 million and $7 million
One of the most significant Corvettes in history will be auctioned off this February.
Part of an RM Sotheby’s sale running Feb. 27-28 in Coral Gables, Florida, the 1957 Chevrolet Corvette SS Project XP-64 is billed as the first purpose-built General Motors race car. It also marked milestone in the development of the Corvette into a true performance car.
While Corvettes had raced before—netting a class win at the 1956 12 Hours of Sebring—Corvette chief engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov and GM design boss Harley Earl wanted a bespoke racing version to better compete against the then-dominant European automakers on the track.
Earl went so far as to purchase a Jaguar D-Type and propose racing it with a Chevy engine to brand boss Ed Cole and other executives. That gave Arkus-Duntov an opening to propose a clean-sheet, all-GM design, and Cole approved it under the codename Project XP-64. Publicly, the car was referred to as a Corvette SS, for Super Sport—one of the earliest uses of that now-familiar moniker.
Zora Arkus-Duntov
Two cars were actually built: a fully finished version and a rougher development mule. Neither had much in common with a production Corvette of the period.
They were built around a lightweight chrome-moly tubular frame that allegedly weighed just 180 pounds, with magnesium bodywork that stretched then-current Corvette styling cues around the needs of aerodynamics and packaging. These measures contributed to a claimed dry weight of 1,850 pounds, nearly 1,000 pounds less than a Corvette road car of the time.
1957 Chevrolet Corvette SS Project XP-64
Power came from a 283-cubic-inch V-8 that featured an experimental fuel-injection system in-period, paving the way for fuel injection in later Corvette road cars. An aluminum 4-speed manual transmission, weighing just 65 pounds, sent the engine’s output of about 300 hp to the rear wheels.
Independent suspension was used up front, with a De Dion setup at the rear to reduce unsprung weight. Vacuum-assisted drum brakes were used front and rear, with the rear brakes mounted inboard.
1957 Chevrolet Corvette SS Project XP-64
The XP-64 made its competition debut at the 1957 12 Hours of Sebring, driven by John Fitch and Piero Taruffi, but retired with mechanical problems after just 23 laps. Updates, including a possible switch from magnesium to fiberglass bodywork like road-going Corvettes, were reportedly planned ahead of an attempt at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. But a voluntary suspension of factory-backed racing efforts announced by GM and other major U.S. automakers on June 6, 1957, put an end to that.
That marked the end of Project XP-64, but it had still made an impact. Arkus-Duntov’s influence would continue to grow, ensuring that the Corvette would remain in production as a proper sports car instead of morphing into a more luxurious tourer like its period rival, the Ford Thunderbird.
1957 Chevrolet Corvette SS Project XP-64
Meanwhile, the mule chassis languished before being reused for the Project XP-87 Stingray Racer concept that previewed the styling of the C2 Corvette. The car up for auction was used by GM for promotional purposes before being given to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.
Expected to sell for $5 million-$7 million, the Corvette SS is one of several high-profile cars being auctioned off as the museum looks to more tightly focus its collection on Indy-related cars. Some that have already sold include a Ferrari 250 LM that won the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans and an ultra-rare 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196 driven by Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss. A Ford GT40 Mk II that was entered in the 1966 Le Mans race will also go under the hammer at the upcoming Florida auction.