Briggs Cunningham’s dream of conquering Le Mans with Corvette became one of the most remarkable chapters in racing history. Discover how three fuel-injected Corvettes crossed the Atlantic, battled the world’s best endurance racers, and delivered a class victory that helped put Corvette on the international racing map
Corvette is American’s Sports Car and it doesn’t get much more patriotic than our flag made up of red, white, and blue Corvettes! Dateline 8.29.18...
What’s not known is if the finished Asteroid was what Nordskog had in mind, or if he handed the new Corvette over to Barris and said, “Customize my Vette.” Custom cars tend to polarize opinions – people love them, or hate them. But from the perspective of 1963, the Asteroid was a hit. Bob Nordskog’s custom/drag Vette won Top Award at the 1963 Long Beach Motorama and the Mickey Thompson Auto Boat Speed Show. There were a few unique factors at work here. First, the Sting Ray was not just new; it looked like nothing else on the road. It was the look of “the future” in 1963. Second, the auto sport of drag racing was really beginning to gain popularity. The beach rock’n rollers, Jan & Dean used a photo of the Asteroid on the back cover of their 1963 album, “Drag City.”
The 1960 Fuel Injected Corvette famously known as the “Cunningham Le Mans Assault” car is now a movie star! It seems that for most of us, there’s a Time/Date stamp on our affection for Corvettes that coincides with that first moment we laid eyes upon the machine. For me, it was ‘66 to ‘69 big block Corvettes. For Chip Miller, it may well have been this car, the 1960 Briggs “Swift” Cunningham 1960 Fuel Injected Corvette. it’s not hard to “get” the passion. When you look at the machine, it screams “RACE CAR!” And while that is definitely correct, a closer examination of the car reveals how astonishingly close the car is to a stock ‘60 Fuelie Corvette.
If you have never been to the Carlisle, let me describe the facility. The first thing that you are aware of is that the place is HUGE! Carlisle is located in the rolling hills of south east Pennsylvania in what is known as “Pennsylvania Dutch” country. The town of Carlisle dates back to 1751, but is most known for the Carlisle War College that dates back to 1904. Carlisle is also known for the Carlisle Indian Industrial School that was started in 1879. After you enter the fairground, if you look around, you’ll see that the facility is situated in a very large bowl-shaped area. For the Corvettes show, Carlisle productions only allows Corvettes to park in the infield. So, when you are inside, all you see are CORVETTES. Aside from a few trucks and support vehicles, everywhere you look, you see CORVETTES. After four or five hours, it’s sensory overload. “Oh look! Ah, just another ZR1!”
John Fitch was already a hot shoe when Zora Arkus-Duntov hired him to drive one of the three specially prepared ‘56 265-CID Corvettes for a speed record run on the sands of Daytona Beach, Florida in January 1956. Were it not for those exciting early racing experiences, the tone and attitude of the Corvette would have been closer to a passenger car rather than a scrapper race car.And John Fitch was part of the first wave of Corvette drivers.
Passion and love bring a famous old Briggs “Swift” Cunningham 1960 Fuel Injected Corvette war horse back to life and into the lead roll in a movie!
