WI: GM Cobra rival?

Until 1964 it looked like GM would make their own Cobra rival, indeed perhaps they would even make 2 rivals!

The first path was the Corvette Grand Sport, and ultra light version of the Corvette Stingray currently being produced to the tune of about 22,00 units per year. The prototype GS was first track tested in December 1962 but word came from on high in January 1963 that all racing efforts were to be stopped and the FIA homologation application was withdrawn. However the final 3 of the 5 GS' were developed and raced by private entrants with limited support through 1963 and in October were sent back to Chev for modification including the all-alloy, quad-Weber 377 engine. With these mods the 3 GS' went to Nassau and kicked arse, again drawing the attention of the GM brass determined to shut down racing. While being prepped for an endurance race at Daytona in Feb 1964 the brass came down hard and the cars were quickly disposed of so they couldn't be destroyed.

The second path is basically the opposite of the Corvette Grand Sport. Racing identity Bill Thomas was given covert support by General Motors Performance Product Group head and connected private investors to develop the Cheetah as a concept vehicle. The support basically came in the form of major components which were installed in a custom fabricated concept car. The idea was that 100 Cheetahs would be built for homologation, but the rules changed for 1964 requiring 1000 vehicles so the design wasn't properly refined but went into limited production anyway with attendant problems. Even this effort was ruined by a fire in Thomas' shop in Sept 1965.

So is there any combination of factors that sees one or both of these cars built in homologation numbers?
 
I'd also wonder what Jim Hall could have come up with. His Chaparral cars were pretty quick in Can Am (until McLaren got in the game). A limited production sports car with the Chaparral name would have been rather interesting, I think . . .

Or - and this is a very long shot - hooking up with Lance Reventlow to develop a production Scarab.

r.e. the Cheetah: Didn't it have, should we say, a somewhat flexible chassis??

bobinleipsic
 
I'd also wonder what Jim Hall could have come up with. His Chaparral cars were pretty quick in Can Am (until McLaren got in the game). A limited production sports car with the Chaparral name would have been rather interesting, I think . . .

Or - and this is a very long shot - hooking up with Lance Reventlow to develop a production Scarab.

r.e. the Cheetah: Didn't it have, should we say, a somewhat flexible chassis??

bobinleipsic

IIRC it was Troutman and Barnes who built the Scarab and earliest Chaparrals, but these were at the very end of the era of the dual purpose sports car that you could drive to and from the track. There was nothing like the Cobra, Corvette GS or Cheetah; a GT sports car racer with over 100 units built for homologation.

According to Wiki the Cheetah was built as a concept car, the frame wasn't made strong for racing and when the 'production' deal fell over these flimsy framed cars were produced as is.
 
The Corvette Grand Sport would have been the natural contender, and would have been a more interesting promotion tool for GM than the Cobra was for Ford, since it was clearly a Corvette, while the Cobra was an AC and didn't look remotely like anything Ford built at the time. The rules allowed a lot of modifications, as demonstrated by the 64 GTO and the Shelby Daytona Coupe, so the Corvette would have needed to be extensively modified to be competitive in 1964.
Despite being promoted as GT cars with road car origins, this world Champ GT were more akin to late 70s Group 5 cars, and very expensive to run.

Corvette GS.jpg
 
I agree, I think the Cheetah was a bit of a pipe dream without the strong corporate underpinning that the Cobra had.

I wonder what would happen to the L88 if the Grand Sport was built for FIA homologation?

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