Yeah...
Oh man.
This is a car that encourages you to
make really bad decisions. Really bad
decisions.
I'm Kyle Cheromcha, West Coast editor of The Drive
and it might look like I'm
surrounded by millions and millions of
dollars in priceless automotive history
right now, but every single car you see
in front of you including this 1963
Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport is
actually a recreation, a continuation car
made new again in the 21st century by
Superformance.
Give me the story of Superformance.
Superformance started actually
30-plus years ago in South
Africa, the factory's in South Africa, and
the initial idea was... The owner of
Hi-tech, the factory in South Africa
wanted a Cobra and he looked around at what
was available in South Africa and it was
nothing that they know that the quality
was terrible so he hops in an aeroplane to
the US, had a look around and he wasn't
happy with what he saw there and he said
I gotta do it better, you know he's a
total perfectionist this guy, and
he bought what he thought was the best
that he could find where he brought it
back to South Africa and then reworked
everything you know he went from one
side the other side and then I've got to
admit that the first two performances
built would that good either they
weren't so thank goodness six thousand
vehicles plus minus later we say yeah
we've got approximately four and a half
thousand cobras built between
superformance cobras and Shelby Cobra's
and then of course we've done about 350
g2 bodies and Ford only built 80 to 100
rights back in the 60s there were those
we weigh about yeah and then Daytona's
that there were only six we built about
too close to 200 Daytona 100 yeah
and of course I knew a new sweetheart
covet grant sport it's a slow starter
we've just started selling them a few
years back and I think we over 30
already a 35 I believe but it's
something is pretty special you might be
able to tell it's a little loud in here
kind of hard to have a conversation
probably not the most efficient daily
driver but damn
I cannot imagine something that would be
more fun to tool around at this
here we go
I'm telling you that does not get old
that is a smile maker right there
you know what's amazing we're in this
you know it again it was built less than
two years ago because it's a
continuation car but everything about
this this whole interior it all screams
1963 and yet I have ice cold air
conditioning blowing at my face
I'm sitting in an adjustable seats I
have power windows and most of all I'm
not terrified about crashing a priceless
vintage muscle car having the freedom of
a replica car a continuation car to just
enjoy the drive man it's like you're
here back in 1963 and this is just any
old car that you're driving it really
it's really remarkable
they were only ever five of them done
originally and there's you know that
I've got the blueprints upstairs we had
to help a lot of help from a wonderful
guy
Robert ash Bhavesh from racing icons he
had two storage units full of
development parts for grand sports he's
restored I believe three out of the the
ridge tree of the original grand sports
out of the five and I know he's probably
touched the others also we were very
lucky that he had actually worked on car
number three that always raced with the
number two uh so it was actually car
number three and we managed to get all
the tooling it made that the plaster
cast molds that he had taken off that
car we got all that we got a body that
he had made the beat and body the same
as original Grand Sport we got that from
him then there was you know all the
tooling for the brakes for the side
vents for all the little details on how
the handle was put it because Corvettes
never had a handle like that that was
from a truck actually and that was
August Dunlop's idea of aerodynamics by
putting the handle butch in I see you
know the BRIT where the brake Vince went
for the cooling the coupe the dip cooler
that's on the back there's so much
detail we copied the original drawings
on how to a ghost on top altered the
original 63 Corvette suspension for the
grandpa we did all that now we've made
some safety changes better brakes and
what they had and of course we've gone
to a rat not a steering box
and if you come up to the car you'll see
that we've managed to get the gaps to be
really nice and also the door oh yes
there's no old 63 bit that's door closes
well that sounds a lot more solid you
know right down to your double seal and
then on the original grant sports that
of course had the leather straps we've
copied that too that's there now this
one is set up actually with a modern
lingo Faldo engine mm-hmm but it's got
something beautiful and it's what we
call men's jewelry when you look at it
it has the eight stack ah yes and yeah
men have here you go
men get excited when they see that you
know if we could we could wear that on
our finger or on our arms we were it's
true that's men's jewelry as pretty as
beautiful that's the real deal and as I
said you could see the power steering
air condition and was there any trouble
fitting it in the original engine bay
without modifying at all or was that the
larger hood from the Grand Sport made it
possible
yeah now the larger hood from a Grand
Sport and the two of the grand sports
the final years of racing raced with big
blocks in there so we can't fit the big
block in yet - you can go all the way to
502 and larger we'll go in in the car
yeah the sound is just amazing I mean
there's no radio in here your right foot
is the deejay
and
talented one of that
suspension is very its I wouldn't call
it soft because you do you can bounce a
little bit but it's also not very
connected the damping is not what it
would be in a modern car so you have to
watch out for that the steering
it'll hold you on a curve but the wheel
is a little a little sloppy so it feels
very much like an old American car in
that in that perfect imprecision that
cars of this era did so well the brakes
are so much better than anything you
find in a car that's really from this
era and that head and shoulders makes
the biggest difference
for our daily driving lack of an air bag
that may concern some folks but at least
you know that you have a much greater
chance of stopping in time compared to
an original 1963 Corvette
you know this whole experience driving a
1963
continuation Corvette Grand Sport on a
beautiful winding Southern California
well Canyon mini Canyon Road I can't
even summon the words describe what a
unique crazy cool feeling this is
I'll a dream come true it really is and
that's God that is that's the whole
point isn't it
a car
that makes you feel
like you're seven years old living out
your wildest dream is
pretty magical