Corvette Grand Sport Roadster

Number: HKH90-M9C0H

Year: 2023 - 8/10

Collection: HW Screen Time

Born: 1963, Detroit, Michigan

Manufacturer: Chevrolet (General Motors)

One of only 5 like it, this hand-built version was made with thin layers of fiberglass on the body and aluminum underneath. As light as they become, it was made to race, and to win.

The first-ever production Corvette coupe sported a fastback body with a long hood and a raised windsplit that ran the length of the roof and continued down the back on a pillar that bisected the rear window into right and left halves. The split backlite is usually attributed to Mitchell, who claimed to have been inspired by the 57SC Bugatti "Atlantique" coupe. The feature predated both the C2 Corvette and Bob McLean's Q-Corvette, having been used by Harley Earl on both his Oldsmobile Golden Rocket show car and his own more traditional design studies for the C2 Corvette, some of which had progressed to full-scale models. Earl's inspiration was said to have been a Scaglione-bodied Alfa Romeo coupé shown at the 1954 Turin Auto Show. A similar design would be used by the third-generation Buick Riviera that ran from 1971 to 1973.