Not all Corvettes were built to race, but this one was. The 1957 Chevrolet Corvette SS Project XP-64 was General Motors’ first real attempt at making a race car from scratch. Now, it’s heading to RM Sotheby’s auction on February 27-28 in Coral Gables, Florida. Corvettes had been on the track before, even snagging a class win at the 1956 12 Hours of Sebring. But GM’s top engineers knew they needed a machine built for racing, not just a modified street car. Zora Arkus-Duntov and Harley Earl pushed for it. Earl, in fact, tried to sell executives on the idea of racing a Jaguar D-Type with a Chevy engine. That didn’t stick, but it opened the door for Arkus-Duntov to pitch an all-GM race car. GM’s Ed Cole gave the go-ahead, and Project XP-64 was born. They called it the Corvette SS (Super Sport), a name that would later become a staple in GM’s lineup. Now, decades later, it’s back in the spotlight, ready for a new owner. Read More One-Off Pagani Huayra with 2,000 Miles and Pacific-Inspired Colors Hits the Market A Race Car in Name and Design General Motors built two versions of the 1957 Corvette SS—one for testing, one for the track. Neither looked or drove like the production models. These were stripped-down machines built for one purpose: speed. The chrome-moly frame reportedly weighed just 180 pounds, and the magnesium bodywork kept things as light as possible. The result was a 1,850-pound car, nearly 1,000 pounds lighter than the Corvettes sitting in showrooms. Under the hood, a 283-cubic-inch V-8 with an experimental fuel-injection system pumped out 300 horsepower. A 4-speed aluminum manual transmission, weighing only 65 pounds, sent power to the rear wheels. The independent front suspension and De Dion rear axle kept the car planted, while vacuum-assisted drum brakes—with the rear brakes mounted inboard—helped with weight distribution. A Short-Lived Racing Career The Corvette SS was built for endurance racing, but it barely got a chance to prove itself. Its debut at the 1957 12 Hours of Sebring ended in disappointment—John Fitch and Piero Taruffi had to retire after just 23 laps due to mechanical issues. That was supposed to be a test run. The real goal was Le Mans, with talk of replacing the lightweight magnesium body with fiberglass. Then everything changed. On June 6, 1957, General Motors pulled the plug. A voluntary ban on factory-backed racing forced the company—and other U.S. automakers—off the track. The Corvette SS project was done before it really started. But Zora Arkus-Duntov wasn’t done with Corvette. He fought to keep it from turning into a soft grand tourer like the Ford Thunderbird, pushing for it to stay a true performance car. His efforts shaped the Corvette’s future, long after the SS was shelved. Read More This Le Mans-Winning Ferrari 250 LM Just Sold for $36 Million The unused mule chassis found a second life in Project XP-87, the Stingray Racer concept that helped define the look of the C2 Corvette. The fully built Corvette SS, meanwhile, stuck around for GM promotions before ending up at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. Now it’s back on the market. RM Sotheby’s expects the Corvette SS to fetch between $5 million and $7 million as part of the museum’s effort to refocus its collection on Indy-related cars. It joins a lineup of past auction stars, including a Ferrari 250 LM that won Le Mans in 1965, a 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196 driven by Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss, and an upcoming sale of a Ford GT40 Mk II that raced at Le Mans in 1966. Source: RM Sotheby's
