Superformance 社製　コルベット　グランスポーツ

Now you can relive the glory of that era. You can be Roger Penske winning at Nassau or Dr. Dick Thompson winning the SCCA Nationals at Watkins Glen. The Superformance Grand Sport – one of the best arguments for the new small-volume manufacturer law – is built around an “original-style” tube chassis with a lightweight fiberglass body all sliced up with vents and louvers to get all that air out and make it go faster. Of the five originals this replica looks most like #003, with side exhausts, wide fender flares to accommodate nine inch-wide tires and even the rear differential cooler mounted on the rear deck. The deep blue paint and white racing stripe finish it off.

Since it’s technically a kit, it’s sold minus the engine and transmission for $99,900. Owners can put in whatever powertrain they want. Ours had a mighty Katech LS3 making 550 hp mated to a five-speed manual trans. In the parking lot of Hillbank Motor Corporation in Irvine, Calif, 3,000 miles from Nassau, we clambered in.

The Grand Sport is crude, yes, and brutal, of course, yet powerfully glorious. Push the beefy, meaty clutch pedal down — go on, push it you wimp! All the way! This ain’t no Miata with “lightweight pedal action.” There’s no damned bud vase in here. Fire the big bore bruiser under the hood with a satisfying ker-whap! and listen to each explosion in each of the eight cylinders. Whapwhapwhapwheeeeee… Put it in gear, let out the clutch like it was some kind of weight machine at the gym where you’ve placed the pin way too low and whoosh, you’re off. 1963 never felt so good. The power comes on way down low on the tach. There’s no waiting politely for turbos to spool up or VTEC to do some high-tech whatever. All the power you will ever get – all the power this nation will ever want – is right there on the right. Just step on it.