'Corvettes in Competition' exhibit at the Petersen is Jake's origin story

Any fans of racing, and especially of racing Chevy Corvettes and the mascot Jake, should try to get to the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles for the exhibit, “Corvettes in Competition: Racing America’s Sports Car.”

The show does every Corvette fan the favor of starting at the beginning, with Zora Arkus-Duntov. The Russian engineer considered the father of the Corvette had to rescue the Corvette before he could turn it into a beacon of the country, and he did this by taking it racing. When Chevrolet only sold 700 Corvettes in 1955, GM considered killing the car. Arkus-Duntov had convinced GM to offer the Corvette with the new small-block V8, then he got a 1956 model with a 255-horsepower 5.0-liter V8 to the Daytona Speed Trials and the 12 Hours of Sebring. The roadster set the flying-mile record on the Daytona sand, then won its class at Sebring on the way to finishing ninth overall. GM dubbed this car “The Real McCoy” in an advertising campaign touting the accomplishments, and some credit it as the car that saved the Corvette. It can be seen at the Petersen.

Then there’s the 1960 Corvette that took the model to Le Mans for the first time. Automakers had agreed not to field factory teams due to the accident at Le Mans in 1955. That meant finding other ways to support privateers. Arkus-Duntov convinced team driver and owner Briggs Cunningham to take three Corvettes to Le Mans in 1960. Car #1 crashed out, Car #2 blew an engine, Car #3 finished first in its GT class on the way to eighth overall. Now the racing world knew the name Corvette. But Cunningham, upset at not winning the race overall, sold all three cars. Car #2 is on show at the Petersen.

And then there’s the beauty above, Arkus-Duntov’s secret project to create a car that would win Sebring and Le Mans — and just as important, beat Carroll Shelby’s Cobra in the GT World Championship — the 1963 Corvette Grand Sport. Each was built with a single-layer fiberglass body over a lightweight chassis that went big on aluminum. The final coupe weighed 1,000 pounds less than a stock Corvette, and got a 485-hp, 6.2-liter V8 for motivation. Arkus-Duntov wanted to sell 125 examples, GM found out about the effort and 86’d it after five cars. Chassis #4, on loan to the Petersen from The Revs Institute, destroyed the competition — including Cobras — at the 1963 Nassau Speed Week. The same car showed up at Laguna Seca on the 50th anniversary of its birth and won three races at the 2013 Monterey Sports Reunion.  

Point being, get to the exhibit if you can, and stroll through the story of Corvettes winning the Daytona four times and Le Mans nine times and more than a dozen U.S.-based championships. If you can’t get there, check out the exhibit’s cars and some gorgeous photography at the Petersen website.