1973/74 FIA Chevrolet Corvette C3

This fabulous, full-race, FIA-papered C3 Corvette is offered by its current owner, a well-known and respected historic racer, who purchased it in 2008 from a fellow racer based in Michigan, Ted Kovoch. Ted had raced the car in both HSR and SVDRA, and there are documents to back this up in the accompanying history file. Ted is quoted below when he sold the car to our vendor:

'This Vintage Racing Corvette is an homage to the Tony DeLorenzo/Maurice Carter entry in the 1973 Daytona 24-Hours. It was raced on the West Coast in the late 1970s through to the late 1980s and was subsequently purchased in Colorado and brought to Michigan for restoration in the late 1990s. This is a professionally built race car, rebuilt by RM Motorsports in Wixom, Michigan to recreate one of Tony DeLorenzo’s great and famous race cars. It also has GM factory-issue 'Bug Eye' headlight buckets and covers. I have raced this car in HSR and SVDRA and have a first and second finish'.

After our vendor's purchase, the Corvette was imported into the UK and delivered to Speedworks Motorsport where an assessment of the work needed to convert it to a full FIA specification was undertaken. This work was duly carried out, including an Andy Robinson full roll-cage and the car gained its first set of FIA papers shortly after coming to the UK. Throughout its competition career, here in the UK, it has been professionally looked-after, moving to TT Motors Racing when Speedworks became a BTCC team, and latterly to RW Racing in Brackley, where it's currently prepared.

As with any competition car, a programme of continuous development is necessary to remain competitive and, in this case, a variety of engine upgrades/refreshes have been tried and it's currently fitted with a zero-hours, Peter Knight, 7.4-litre V8 fuelled through a custom-built 1,000cfm Holley carb to allow smoother power delivery. Further developments include gearbox and diff oil coolers, upgraded Duntov power steering, uprated discs with custom formula brake pads, upgraded drive shafts and prop shaft, a bespoke straight-pipe exhaust system (the 105dB limit-complying exhaust is with the car), bespoke genuine Minilite wheels and additionally six American Racing alloys wearing wets. Period accuracy is supported by a correct dashboard and recreated decals, the style and positioning of which have been confirmed by Tony DeLorenzo as the original car was destroyed at Road Atlanta in April 1973 but it was featured in several Corvette race history books. This car has been feature in Classic American magazine.

Whilst in current ownership, the Corvette has been raced in the Heritage Touring Car series before moving to Masters Historic Sports cars, PRE 80s Series Thundersports and CSCC Future Classics. The car is eligible for Classic Le Mans and recently competed in the HSR 24 HR Daytona event.

It's supplied with a spare gearbox, used cylinder heads, a custom cover, and all necessary race-day spares are included in the sale and there are a couple of the original body moulds available. There is a huge file of documents to support this information, copies of invoices totalling over £80,000, all the relevant FIA paperwork and, pleasingly, there is some history from the original owner with bills, copies of entries, results and programmes.

This handsome C3 Corvette FIA racer appears to offer superb value for money and, whilst it was built to replicate the short-lived 1973 car of Tony DeLorenzo, it is not stuck in the past and has been continuously developed by some of the best V8 engineers in the business. In the right hands, it will be very competitive and offers an entry into some of the most glamorous and often prestigious motorsport events around the world. A fire-breathing, 7.4-litre, early-seventies Corvette would be welcome anywhere.