<< Prev Page 2 of 2 One of the Corvettes was shipped over to France for the official Le Mans test, where it was entered by Cunningham together with the prototype E2A he had on loan from Jaguar. In the United States work continued and the latest modifications were tested at Bridgehampton in May. Eventually all three Corvettes were sent over and entered in the race with an all-American driver line-up. Arkus-Duntov was also listed as a driver but he never actually spent any time behind the wheel.
In addition to the three Cunningham Corvettes, a fourth example was fielded by Lloyd 'Lucky' Casner's Camoradi team. This car was closer to standard and as it did not boast the modified V8 engine but was actually lighter than the three Cunningham Corvettes. Nevertheless, the modifications were such that the further developed cars were actually faster. With the grid set at Le Mans by displacement, the Corvettes lined up first through fourth with the the three Cunningham cars entered as #1, #2 and #3.
It proved to be an eventful race with the #1 Cunningham Corvette falling victim to a heavy rainstorm at the two-hour mark. Just one hour later the #2 car lost precious time in the pits to have accident damage repaired. The #3 car ran strongly until the engine started to overheat on Sunday morning. With the regulations limiting coolant top-ups only once every 25 laps, it seemed all over for the #3 during the closing stages. An ingenious solution was found by packing the engine bay with ice every lap during the final hour of the race.
Shared by John Fitch and Bob Grossman, the #3 Corvette crossed the line in eighth overall and first in class. It was the only Corvette to be classified as the #2 car was forced to retire with engine issues after 20 hours and the Camoradi was delayed to such an extent that it had covered insufficient distance. Despite the success at Le Mans, the Cunningham Corvettes were not raced again as the team focused on campaigning their new Maserati sports cars.
Although Corvettes were raced at Le Mans off and on during the next decades, it would take until the C5-R of 2000 before the result of the Corvette's debut at Le Mans was bettered. Even though one was long believed to be lost, all three of the Cunningham Corvettes are now known to have survived. << Prev Page 2 of 2
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One of the Corvettes was shipped over to France for the official Le Mans test, where it was entered by Cunningham together with the prototype E2A he had on loan from Jaguar. In the United States work continued and the latest modifications were tested at Bridgehampton in May. Eventually all three Corvettes were sent over and entered in the race with an all-American driver line-up. Arkus-Duntov was also listed as a driver but he never actually spent any time behind the wheel.