1962 Chevrolet Corvette Gulf Oil Race Car Heads to Auction
Images thanks to RM Sotheby’s by Darin Schnabel
This gorgeous 1962 Chevrolet Corvette Gulf Oil Race Car is part of the iconic Andrews Collection and will head to auction at RM Sotheby’s’ Andrews Collection sale this May with no reserve set.
Bought with a 327/360 fuel-injected motor, 37 gallon tank and RPO 687 package, this car came from the factory ready to race. Its various upgrades gave it heavy-duty brakes and air-scoops to feed them cool air, special rear shocks and a quicker steering ratio. It was purchased by Grady Davis’ Gulf Oil racing team, and they got to work preparing it for competition in the 1962 SCAA A-Production series.
When the red lights went out on its racing career, it got well and truly stuck into things. Its first race was the Daytona National in January of 1962. Dick Thompson took it straight to a second-place finish, which would be its lowest spot on the podium in 1962.
A few weeks later it was back at Daytona for the Continental 3-Hour race, where it won its class. It won its class again in the 12 Hours of Sebring with Duncan Black and M.J.R. Wylie piloting.
Dick Thompson was back in the driver’s seat for the remaining fourteen races that year, and would win twelve times.
The car would then head back to Yenko Chevrolet and be sold to Tony Denman, who continued racing it. He would place sixth in the Daytona 250-mile race, and 22nd in the 3-Hour.
Sadly, this would mark the end of the car’s racing career. At the end of the 1963 season it was converted to street specifications and sold.
It spent two decades as a street car, passing between four owners before being rediscovered by Mike Ernst.
Ernst tracked down missing racing components, reuniting the car with its original block, cylinder heads, exhaust manifold, Yenko heavy-duty suspension, Stewart Warner gauges and roll bar and restoring it to racing glory. The final touch was its original Gulf Oil livery, which it received again in 1987.
It returned to the track for the first time in more than thirty years at the Monterey Historic Automobile Races, where it was driven once again by Tony Denman. During this time it received the NCRS’ first-ever American Heritage Award, amongst other recognitions of its history and condition.
Eventually Ernst sold the car to Vic Preisler, who restored it again and continued showing it both on and off the track. The car featured heavily in the 50th anniversary of the Corvette during 2003, displayed at the Monterey Historic Automobile Races, the Corvette 50th Anniversary celebration in Nashville, the Los Angeles Auto Show, the Petersen Automotive Museum and the Sebring Race Corvette display. It was then inducted into the Bloomington Gold Hall of Fame.
The car saw its most recent restoration in 2007 and was purchased by the Andrews in 2008. It’s sold with a comprehensive history file, and is ready to continue its historic racing career in beautiful condition.
It’ll head to auction at RM Auctions’ Andrews Collection sale on Saturday the 2nd of May, 2015 at no reserve. For more information, head to RM Auctions website here.
Images thanks to RM Sotheby’s by Darin Schnabel
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