1960 Chevrolet CERV I

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1960 Chevrolet CERV I
High Bid $800,000
RM | Sotheby's - MONTEREY 2015
Chassis No.P-2152
The most important GM Engineering vehicle ever offered at auction
Zora Arkus-Duntov’s personal Corvette engineering test bed
Used to develop the 1963 Sting Ray’s independent suspension, among other features
Formerly of the Briggs Cunningham and Miles Collier collections
Restored in its final 1964 cosmetic and mechanical form
Innumerable awards and featured in numerous publications
The car from which the modern Corvette was born
377 cu. in. OHV aluminum experimental V-8 engine, four-speed manual transmission with a lightweight clutch, independent front and rear suspension with variable-rate coil springs, shock absorbers, and a front stabilizer bar, and four-wheel heavy-duty, iron-lined, cast-aluminum finned drum brakes. Wheelbase: 96 in.

The Chevrolet Engineering Research Vehicle (CERV) was not originally created as a Corvette test bed, nor was it created to do entirely what its name claimed. Ostensibly, it would be a functional single-seat racing vehicle on which Chevrolet engineers could experiment, developing new tricks for the entire range of Bow Tie cars. However, projects in which GM Director of High Performance Vehicles Zora Arkus-Duntov, was involved generally had an ulterior motive. In this case, it was that CERV could actually win races.

Arkus-Duntov started dreaming mid-engined at Sebring in 1957, when, driving one of the specially built Corvette SS cars, he struggled with heating problems. Initially, he looked at a Corvette with a rear transaxle, built as a prototype that year and dubbed the "Q Corvette," but when Chevrolet unofficially began to loosen their ban on racing-related activities yet also prepared to introduce the rear-engined Corvair, he was able to turn in a different direction. He proposed that a racing car with a Corvair-style drivetrain configuration could offset public skepticism about a rear-engined car.

Creating the racer was the task of Arkus-Duntov and his engineers, Harold Krieger and Walt Zetya. Initially known as the “R Car,” its specifications were purposely drawn as broadly as possible; its dimensions would make it eligible for the Indianapolis 500, but it would also fulfill its creator’s primary criteria of a vehicle suitable for climbing Pikes Peak. The “build” began in early 1960 but was not completed until late summer, due to Arkus-Duntov’s involvement with Briggs Cunningham’s Corvette Le Mans team.

At the time of its completion, the vehicle, now officially known as CERV but also as Hillclimber, for its intended purpose, was a thoroughly exotic car. Its basic skeleton was a chromium-molybdenum steel tubular space frame, resembling the Italian superleggera bodies created by Touring, triangulated both front-to-rear and laterally and weighing a mere 125 pounds. The body, designed by Larry Shinoda and Tony Lapine, was molded in two layers of fiberglass and weighed only 80 pounds.

Originally powering this ultralight shell was a fuel-injected, all-aluminum, 289-cubic inch V-8, based upon an earlier Corvette prototype engine with a silicon alloy block (enabling the use of production Corvette pistons directly in the cylinder bores, without the use of cylinder liners) and mostly aluminum engine accessories, including the flywheel, pressure plate, and water pump housing. Other components were even lighter, with magnesium used for the clutch housing and ultralight intake setup. Being rear-mounted, the intake could be as tall as Zora wanted and sprouted 16-inch-tall stacks and a finned plenum atop, which gulped cool air from inlets at the back of the pod behind the headrest. Based upon an earlier Arkus-Duntov design for a 315-brake horsepower 289 V-8, it proved to make 112 percent of that horsepower at 6,200 rpm.

Due to packing requirements, the drivetrain was at least somewhat conventional, with a hydraulic clutch and reverse-geared four-speed transmission hung off the back. Corvette SS-derived quick-change gearing provided 13 optional ratios, from 2.63:1 to 4.80:1. The rear halfshafts were stressed members, with the SS’s Halibrand inboard Corvette 11-inch brakes. An entire Corvette SS front suspension assembly was used, including a steering rack with a quick-ratio Saginaw box.

The finished CERV, weighing 1,450 pounds dry, showed up at Pikes Peak in September 1960 and began what would be an extremely varied life.

Robert Myrick Photography©

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