Whether you are fortunate enough to work within the Corvette Culture like those of us at Corvette Online or simply share a common love for America’s sports car, there never seems to be a dull moment. Whether you see an old beauty resorted from the past, the new hottest car to roll out of the factory at Bowling Green, or Corvette Racing tearing up a road course, it just continues to keep our attention. However, once in a while, there are cars that really make a stir within the car world, even with those not fully dedicated to the Corvette. Lucky for all of us, another one of these cars has rolled into the spotlight.
Recently, it was announced that a very special car, built nearly 60 years ago will be available for sale via “private treaty” by Corvette Mike. For those unfamiliar, this car was the first General Motors factory-sponsored, purpose-built, Corvette race car built under the care of both Harley Earl and Zora Arkus-Duntov. The car will be available for viewing next week at Scottsdale Sport and Classic Autocars, in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Needless to say, this car has and extremely rich history making it an extremely important piece of both Corvette and American road racing history. It is hard to say what the car will sell for, and we may never know if a private sale is conducted behind closed doors. That being said, this is one of three SR-2 Corvettes ever built and this will be the first time that any of them have been publicly offered for sale. The car is currently listed on eBay for a whopping $6,885,000, and while there are about 416 folks watching the item, nobody has clicked the “buy it now” button.
As explained in the video, the car was originally created to fill a void for an American sports car that could effectively compete amongst the European cars in road racing, well that and there was potentially a job at stake. While this may have led to sense of urgency and initial unrest, they can certainly be proud of their accomplishments as the car climbed its way through the standings and was quickly door to door with the likes of the dominating Ferraris of the era.
While the car’s days of setting lap records and rolling into winner circles are long gone, the car is none the less important today. The car did boast some impressive performance statistics for the time once the car dropped weight and received more horsepower, but we find the real treasure to be in what the car stands for in both automotive and everyday life.
This car represents the fact that the United States has long had the minds and determination to succeed, no matter the competition. With some long nights and perseverance, this team transformed a nice road worthy sports car into a competition machine that any driver would have been grateful to pilot.
The 1956 Sebring SR-2 deserves a special home and we hope it finds one in the coming days!