Monterey Car Week in California has concluded and auction prices are getting more outrageous every year. One of the most anticipated vehicles that was offered at the auction was the 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport sold by RM Sotheby's. This special vehicle was expected to sell for around $11 million to $13 million but ended up going for an astounding $18,705,000. That makes this car the most expensive Corvette ever sold and the third-most expensive American car to be sold at auction.
What makes the Grand Sport so special
Corvette generations offer several trims with the Stingray being the base model and the Z06 being the more powerful version. Back in the 1960s, the Grand Sport was the top of the line. The original Grand Sport was made in secret since General Motors withdrew
from factory racing after the success of its small block V8 in 1955. Even though corporate support was limited, the man known as "The Father of the Corvette," Zora Arkus-Duntov, was working on a masterpiece behind the scenes.
The small block V8 was replaced with a 377-cubic-inch V8 that had an estimated output of 600 horsepower and over 600 pound-feet of torque. While the modern Grand Sports are road cars, the original was meant for racing and was not built for regular roads.
One of the most important changes to this car compared to the road-going variants was the lightweight fiberglass body, thinner panels, fixed headlamps and other weight-saving additions. Most of the steel in the car was replaced with aluminum and the wheels lighter-weight magnesium. While the regular Corvettes of this era weighed around 3,200 pounds, the Grand Sport trimmed down to 1,900 pounds.
How does a Corvette command this big of a price tag?
The Corvette is referred to by many as the working man's sports car. It offers the performance to compete with the best performing cars from Europe while being a fraction of the price. While that is still somewhat true today when focusing on the lower trims, auction vehicles are in a different class.
The 1963 Grand Sport is one of five models built by the secret Chevrolet racing program under Arkus-Duntov. It's a purpose-built race car that was made to compete with the Shelby Cobra on the track and defeated it, earning the nickname "Snake Eaters."
Race cars of this tier get sold at auction for high prices because of how rare they are and what they accomplished. The 1963 Grand Sport is a legend in American motorsports history and likely won't be driven much by whoever wins the auction. The 1963 is even rarer than other legendary race cars such as the Ferrari 250 GTO and Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe.
Gord Duff, president of RM Sotheby's, spoke in a video on the auction company's website about what makes this Corvette Grand Sport so valuable. "The greatest competition cars are not valued just on rarity alone. Yes, it's one of five but they need great provenance, they need great drivers, they need great engineering and they need to win races. This car has all of those features," Duff said.
Keenan Thompson is a car culture reporter for the Detroit Free Press. Contact Keenan at kthompson@freepress.com. Follow him on Instagram at @keenanautos. To sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Monterey Car Week: 1963 Corvette Grand Sport sells for $18,705,000
