For Sale: 1960 Chevrolet CERV I
Images thanks to RM Sotheby’s
The history of motorsport is full of incredible machines that pushed boundaries, did things differently and made motorsport what it is today. This 1960 Chevrolet CERV I is one such machine.
It’ll head to auction at RM Sotheby’s’ upcoming Monterey sale.
The CERV I is the Chevrolet Engineering Research Vehicle, originally built as a single-seat racing car on which Chevrolet engineers could experiment as they developed ideas and technology.
GM’s Director of High Performance Vehicles, Zora Arkus-Duntov, was involved in the project, and believed that it could be a competitive racer. With engineers Harold Krieger and Walt Zetya he got to work on what was known then as the ‘R Car’, building it to a broad range of specs that would allow them space to develop it for entry in the Indy 500 as well as Pikes Peak.
When they completed the car late in the summer of 1960 it had become known as CERV or Hillclimber, and it was something very special. It was built on a chromium-molybdenum steel tubular space frame that was triangulated front to rear as well as side to side and tipped the scales at a feather-light 125 pounds. The 80-pound body was designed by Larry Shinoda and Tony Lapine and molded in two layers of fiberglass. Providing power was a fuel-injected aluminum 289 cubic inch V8 with a silicon alloy block. It could put out 352 horsepower at 6,200 rpm.
The car arrived at Pikes Peak in September of 1960, with its plethora of exotic materials and trick components accumulating to just 1450 pounds.
They did some 60 runs up and down a short segment of the great hillclimb and found that, despite its incredibly advanced design and construction, CERV was not suited to hill climbs. They had built it to fit within the specifications of other disciplines, however, so off they went to test for Grand Prix.
CERV was track tested with Firestone, and Arkus-Duntov then scheduled it to test at Riverside Raceway. He, Dan Gurney and Stirling Moss all drove the car, debuting it in the public eye. Gurney and Moss both put in 2:04s, demonstrating its potential.
Arkus-Duntov took the car back home to the GM Proving Grounds, where he hit 170 miles per hour and decided to chase a 180 mile-per-hour lap of Daytona. To this end, he and the team developed at 17-psi turbocharged port-injected set up, which made 500 horsepower at a lower 6,000 rpm. The new motor could lift the car’s front wheels when you opened the taps, which necessitated some aerodynamic reworking!
By 1964 CERV II had begun development and CERV I had received its seventh engine – a Hillborn fuel-injected 377 cubic inch V8. With this setup Arkus-Duntov hit 206 miles per hour on the GM Milford Proving Grounds’ banked track, a feat not bested for 22 years and Bobby Rahal’s run in the 1986 Indy 500.
With CERV II in development, Arkus-Duntov had the car restored to its 1964 Shinoda configuration. It was gifted to Briggs Cunningham in 1972 for his museum in Costa Mesa. Cunningham sold the car in 1986 to Miles Collier, who sold it to its current owner. It has been preserved in his private museum since.
It is experimental; unique, and has played an incredibly important role in the progression of some of motorsport’s most important cars. It’s also the kind of car that may well have never found its way into private hands, making its sale at auction extremely significant.
We’re pleased to see it out and about, and hope that its sale continues that trend. It will head to sale at RM Sotheby’s’ Monterey Sale during the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance festivities over the 13th to the 15th of August, 2015. For more information, head to RM Sotheby’s official website here.
Images thanks to RM Sotheby’s
