corvetteinfocenterch.jpg

1964 GS-II Concept
Home
2012 Carlisle Blue Concept
2011 Jake Edition Concept
2011 Z06-X Concept
2009 Stingray Concept
2005 SEMA Z51 Concept
2005 SEMA Street Concept
2002 Moray Concept
2002 White Shark Concept
2001 Tiger Shark Concept
1993 CERV IV b Concept
1992 CERV IV a Concept
1992 Sting Ray III Concept
1991 ZR-1 Spyder
1991 ZR-1 Snake Skinner Concept
1990 Cerv III Concept
1990 Bertone Nivola Concept
1990 ZR-12 Concept
1989 ZR-2 Concept
1989 DR-1 Concept
1986 EX-4607
1986 Indy Concept
1984 Bertone Ramarro Concept
1984 C4 Concepts
1980 Tubro Concept
1979 Turbo Concept
1977 Aero-Vette Concept
1973 XP-895 Concept
1973 XP-897 Concept
1973 XP-898 Concept
1973 XP-882 4-Rotor Concept
1970 XP-882 Mid-Engined Concept
1970 Scirocco Showcar
1969 Manta Ray Concept
1969 Astro III Concept
1968 Astro-Vette Concept
1968 Astro II Concept
1967 Astro I Concept
1966 Mid Engine Concept
1965 Mako Shark II Concept
1964 XP-833 Banshee Concept
1964 XP-819 Rear Engine Concept
1964 GS-II Concept
1964 CERV II Concept
1964 Update Concept
1964 World's Fair Concept
1963 Corvette Rodine Concept
1963 Wedge Concept
1962 XP-720 Concept
1962 XP-720 2+2 Concept
1961 Mako Shark Concept
1959 CERV I Concept
1959 Sting Ray Concept
1958 XP-700 Concept
1957 Corvette SS Show Car Concept
1957 XP-64 Corvette SS Concept
1957 XP-84 Q Concept
1956 Impalla Concept
1956 SR2 Lookalike
1956 SR-2 Concept
1955 Biscayne Concept
1955 LeSalle II Concept
1955 EX-87
1954 Corvette Corvair Concept
1954 Hardtop Concept
1954 Styling Concept
1954 Nomad Concept
1952 XP-122 Concept
1951 Buick LeSabre Concept

63gsii.jpg

Grand Sport II(b) was a research project started by Frank Winchell. This car often gets confused with CERV II, even inside GM. They are not the same car at all. “II” suggests an improvement over the original Grand Sport car.
The original Grand Sport was a bit of a funny story, in design terms. In fact, there really wasn't a lot of design group input because, at the time, Zora and Bill Mitchell were having a fairly good argument. Bill told the designers not to have anything to do with Zora so, as a result, the engineers only got a few sketches and ideas from the design department. It was Gib Hufstader who did a lot of the translation of our sketches into the real product. They did a pretty good job considering that it was an "engineers" interpretation of a functional product. The way they treated the FIA-required luggage compartment and the oil coolers, for example, were not the way that design would have done it.
 
Larry Shinoda’s involvement in GS II(b) started when Jim Hall brought in his first version of the second series of Chaparrals. His Chaparral II(a) was the first of his mid-engined cars and GM was going to help him. Bill Mitchell agreed to Shinoda's involvement in the project, but he didn't have anything to do with it personally.

Jim Hall had already talked with Bob McLean and one of his engineers, Ed Heinzman. These were the people who originally had the idea of using the inverted air foil idea to generate downforce. For the Chaparral II(a) the concept included the high nose and the heavily cambered sides. This was the same idea that we had incorporated into the 1963, together with the high belt line and wheel bumps that Mitchell wanted. It hadn't really worked with the '63 or with the original Grand Sports. For the '63 model they had tried the grilles on top of the hood to vent air and reduce lift but that idea didn't really work very well either. To counteract the lift, Jim Hall's group had added a very large front spoiler. That design had proved good enough to win at Riverside but with the same size tires front and rear the whole car really didn't work as well as it might have.
 
The Chevrolet R&D group's GS II(a) had been a thin gauge steel monocoque. Decided was to move to a new aluminum monocoque chassis with thin fibreglass body for GS II(b).
 
In fact, the car was actually manufactured right in GM design. These cars were really GM’s very first effort at a vacuum-bagged casting for fiberglass. The fiberglass shell was so thin that it was translucent. The end result was a chassis that came in at 1450 pounds, wet. It did 198 MPH at the proving grounds on one run. Jim Musser was driving with Tom Goada sitting as technician when the doors blew off. It seems that the air flow got under them just a bit and they just popped off.
 
After that, Jim Hall continued to benefit from the work GM did but all further development of the car went back to his facility in Texas. The cars that followed were very closely tied to the GS II(b). His Chaparral II(c) and (d) were still, more or less, versions of the Grand Sport II. Then Mike Pocobello, one of our engineers, went to work for Jim Hall. He did the II(e) high wing or "albatross" car. I think that by the time they got to the "sucker" car, the GM influence was pretty well dying off.
 
 

Corvette Concepts is not associated with GM or Chevrolet Motors Division
This site is best viewed with Mozilla Firefox