A story about the # 4 Pratt & Miller C5R-006 that we Corvette race car enthusiasts hope might inspire more collectors to share the rewards by taking their cars for an outing at the track. Expert Corvette Race Car specialists Nigel Dobbie (UK), Jonny Bens (BEL), Marwin Moonen (NE) and Wayne Ellwood (CN) contributed to this story. Nigel Dobbie is the author of Corvette Racing The GT1 years published in 2010 by www.silverwoodbooks.uk .”This car was put through the wringer!” in the words of Dan Binks, Pratt & Miller?s esteemed Crew Chief.
# 4 Racing in the ALMS 2002/2003 with the Corvette Racing Team During the 2003 season, C5R-006 in the hands of Andy Pilgrim and Kelley Collins won the GTS class in the ALMS race at Road Atlanta on June 29.
Pratt & Miller completed chassis 006 (and sister car 005) in November 2001. It debuted at Sears Point on May 19, 2002 where Pilgrim and Collins finished second in class and won at Mosport later in the year. (Chassis 005 & 006 missed Le Mans because the team needed extra time to prep, ship overseas and test, drawing older Chassis 003 and 004 back into service).Continue reading “
From Race Car to Exotic: Preserving C5R-006 For What’s Next” →
Possibly the ONLY factory-custom Corvette for a non-executive Chevrolet employee.
The last two days we’ve been telling you about the two factory-custom Corvettes built for Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen. As if the customized ‘64 Roadster for Semon wasn’t enough, Mrs. Knudsen may have asked, “Bunkie, where’s my Corvette?” This is total humorous speculation on my part, but one “could” imagine such a conversation. Regardless, they are stunningly beautiful cars and actually, there’s another Knudsen Corvette we’ll be sharing with you soon.
The special custom cars for GM’s top honchos has been for decades a low-key topic and were it not for several of these cars going to auction, we most likely wouldn’t know about them at all. But it seems that not all GM customs were for executives. Of course, we’ll never know for certain how many customs were built and for whom, but here’s one that went to the top Corvette salesman back in the mid-’60s. In the world of Chevrolet sales, Bob Wingate was known as “Mr Corvette” because he sold more Vettes than anyone else. This is an amazing story of achievement, reward, loss, recovery, and a beauty of a restoration. I covered this car in my VETTE Magazine Illustrated Corvette Series No. 158, back in Winter of 2010. Enjoy! – Scott
Here’s the story… Illustrated Corvette Series No. 158 – 1967 FS&O 427 Corvette: “Bob Wingate’s V.I.P. Special”
Special thanks to VETTE Magazine and Wayne Ellwood. To read the feature story on VetteWeb, click the above image.
In the ‘50s and ’60s, GM had a system for taking care of its top people. Presidents, VPs, high-level managers, and other VIP types often got new cars that were specially made vehicles. These were generically called “SO” – for “Special Order” or “Shop Order” – cars. Another term was “F&SO,” for “Fleet & Special Order.” About 25 to 50 or so of these cars were made each year. However, it was unusual for a car salesman to get one. But Bob Wingate of Clippinger Chevrolet, in Covina, California wasn’t just a good car salesman. He was “Mr. Corvette.”
Wingate started at Clippinger Chevrolet in 1955 as a prep guy – the fellow who cleans the cars prior to delivery. His favorite cars to prep were Corvettes. After a few years, he worked his way into sales, and before long, he was selling more Corvettes than anyone else in California. What got Chevrolet sales managers’ attention was when Wingate ordered 100 ‘62 Corvettes for the dealership. Chevrolet had only sold 10,939 Corvettes in ’61, so they wondered, “Who is this guy?” Upper management was reluctant to send that many cars, but Chevy’s Joe Pike believed in Wingate and was not disappointed. Wingate became the highest volume Corvette salesman in ‘62 and by ’66 had sold more Corvettes than any other salesman. Chevrolet thanked Wingate by giving him the Legion of Leaders award. His reputation even got the attention of Ford’s Lee Iacocca, who offered him a job doing the same kind of work for Mustang and Cobra sales. He declined, and when Joe Pike found out, Wingate got a raise and an F&SO Corvette. He was told, “Pick what you want.” Continue reading “Another Chevrolet-built Custom Corvette – The Bob Wingate FS&O 1967 427 Corvette”→
Dateline: 8.15.11 Three guys with gasoline in their veins build a website that’s FOR CORVETTE RACE CAR LOVERS! I’ll start this out with a bold statement. Had it not been for the effort of Zora Arkus-Duntov and his team of Corvette engineers making sure that Corvette racers had plenty of go-fast parts to race with, the Corvette probably never would have made it through the ‘60s. Look at what happened to the Ford Thunderbird. It takes took about three years to design and develop a new car back then, so simple arithmetic tells you that when the ‘55 T-Bird came out, Ford was already planning and working on the ‘58 4-seater Thunderbird. That’s how committed Ford was to their sports car –NOT.
Fortunately over at Chevrolet, passion, sex drive, and “gasoline in the veins” had the upper hand and today, beautifully restored Corvette race cars command tremendous amounts of cash when they go on the block. “PASSION” is what the website, “Registry of Corvette Race Cars is all about. If you love open headers and the smell of rubber being laid down thanks to horsepower and torque, you’ll be like a “pig-in-poo” at this website.
www.RegistryOfCorvetteRaceCars.com is the place to go if you enjoy looking over Corvette race cars from the earliest days to today’s C6 Corvette racers. ROCR will be 10 years old next year. The enterprise began with two friends sharing information about Corvette race cars. Jim Gessner sent Jan Hyde a survey of C1 straight-axle Corvette racers. While info is great, how do you share it and keep it updated? A website! No one is born knowing how to make a website, so Jim and Jan had to start from scratch. Nearly 10 years later, Continue reading “CorvetteRaceCars.com – Registry – Feast Yourself on Corvette Race Cars!”→
Dateline: 8.15.15 / Story by Jan Hyde, www. RegistryofCorvetteRaceCars.com VIDEO at the bottom of this post! 
# 4 Racing in the ALMS 2002/2003 with the Corvette Racing Team
