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Here's the story:
Illustrated Corvette Series No. 100 1996 Grand Sport Corvette -
"'Finally, A Production Grand Sport"
The new
C5 Corvette was behind schedule, but that didn't stop Dave Hill and his
crew from dishing up the stunning '96 Grand Sport option. The 1963
Grand Sport was arguably the ultimate "could have been great" Corvette.
And while the '96 Grand Sport option was a long way from the
2,000-pound 1963 road racer, it was "official" and available to the
public.
There were three hot-ticket options for the '96 Corvette. As an interim
step for the C5 model, there was the new LT4 engine that was available
on all manual transmission Corvettes. This 330-horsepower option put
the '96 Corvette in the 13.5-second quarter-mile range. Then there was
the Collector's Edition with its Sebring Silver paint and ZR-1-style
17-inch wheels. And for the historic racing crowd, there was the Grand
Sport option.
In 1963, then Chief Engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov, built five, 2,000-pound
Corvette replica race cars to battle Carroll Shelby's 298 Cobras. When
the GM brass found out about Duntov's back door racing program, the axe
fell and the five Grand Sports were thankfully sold and not put into
the crusher.
In the late '80s Corvette racer and engineer Dick Guldstrand built
modified Corvettes that he called "Grand Sport 80," followed by his
stunning "GS90 Corvette" in the mid-'90s. But for some odd reason,
Chevrolet stayed away from using the Grand Sport tag until 1996.
The Grand Sport option was available on the coupe for $$3,250 and on
the roadster for $2,880. Included with the Grand Sport option was the
$1,450 optional LT4 engine with 330-horsepower. The most noticeable
features were the Admiral Blue paint and bold white stripe that ran
over the hood, top, and tail, and the blacked-out ZR-1 5-spoke wheels
that wore Goodyear P255/45ZR17 tires in the front and P315/35ZR17 tires
in the rear. Rather than use the ZR-1's wide rear body parts, the rear
tires were covered with fender flares designed for Japanese export
Corvettes. The roadsters all had smaller tires and no rear fender
flares. The interior could be either all black, or red and black with
unbraided "Grand Sport" trim. Other GS details included black brake
calibers with raised Corvette lettering and special serial number
sequences, similar to the ZR-1. Red hash marks were added to the
driver's side front fender as a salute to the racing '63 Grand Sports.
The new LT4 engine also saluted the Grand Sport with a bright red
throttle body with "Grand Sport" lettering. All of the other Corvette
performance options were available with the Grand Sport.
A loaded Grand Sport coupe cost nearly $45,000 and a roadster went for
over $53,000. To insure exclusivity, only 1,000 Grand Sports were built
- 810 coupes and 190 roadsters. The Grand Sport option was part of the
3-part swan song for the C4 Corvette. Duntov would have been very happy.
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