Is there anything rumblier than a Corvette? Yes – a Greenwood Corvette! At a time when Corvettes were struggling to make any significant impact on the world stage brothers John and Burt Greenwood took the ailing American legends and turned them into fully-fledged racing legends.
So fully-fledged in fact that we featured one of this earthquake-machines at the 76th Members' Meeting earlier this year as part of our awesome Group 5 Special Production demo. The oil-crisis of the '70s affected much of the fuel-guzzling American muscle market, causing these big-engined brutes to become more and more timid as the years went by – to the point that the Corvette found itself with just 165hp in 1985... Thankfully the Greenwood brothers found some proper sponsorship and were able to enhance those most American of machines to a state where they really deserved to fly the star-spangled banner.
What resulted was a fire-breathing 750bhp monster with a wide body to match that almighty grunt. In fact in later iterations the Greenwood 'Vettes would appear with north of 1,000bhp... So could there be a car more apt for a thrashing around Daytona as part of the Classic 24 Hour meeting? Our friends at Historic Sportscar Racing (who run the brilliant event) were able to stick a GoPro in with French GT ace Jules Gounon as he took this wonderful brute out for a drive on those iconic high banks. It's so American it feels like there should be an Eagle perched on his shoulder.
To find out more about the Classic 24 Hour at Daytona click here.
Historic Sportscar Racing
Classic Daytona 24
Jules Gounon
Corvette