To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Chevrolet Corvette, the Petersen Museum will host a selection of legendary racers built around America’s sports car, which recently upgraded to full-on supercar status with the introduction of the C8 Z06.
Many iconic Corvette racers will be displayed, but we chose our five favorites. But before we get into that, it’s worth exploring how Chevy got into racing in the first place.
When the Corvette first arrived in 1953, amateur road racing was huge. The first-generation Corvette was more grand tourer than sports car, so gentleman racers kept importing cars from MG, Ferrari, and Porsche. Belgian-born engineer, Zora Arkus-Duntov, knew the Corvette had to compete and win to succeed, so he started tweaking ‘Vettes to make them more suited to racing.
The project got off to a good start, setting a new American speed record at Daytona Beach in 1956. The plan was to go racing the following year, but a tragic accident at the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans led to the Automobile Manufacturers Association racing ban in 1957.
