by It is known among connoisseurs as the “most successful production racing Corvette of the C2 era,” and it’s one of the extremely few ‘Vettes to have been fitted with serial numbers assigned specifically for competition. And it’s for sale.
What you’re looking at is affectionately called Gulf One, and was once delivered directly from Yenko Chevrolet to a man named Grady Davis, vice president of Gulf Oil Research and Development. And it’s one mean Z06…
The car raced back in its day in the hands of Dick Thompson and has quite the long list of accomplishments to its name. It won its class and the single Puerto Rico Grand Prix that was ever held, was first in class at Daytona, first at the SCCA President’s Cup at Marlboro, Maryland, and first in class at Danville, Virginia, and Road America. It was also fielded at the Sebring 12 hours race.
At one point, the car of course retired from racing, and the world lost track of it as it exchanged hands. It surfaced now as it’s about to go under the Mecum hammer in January 2022 at the Kissimmee auction in Florida.
The car is now wrapped in the colors it showed up with at Sebring, having been specifically restored as such. It hides a 327ci (5.4-liter) engine under the specially designed hood, runs a positraction rear differential, and fiberglass brake cooling scoops on the rear deck.
What’s perhaps even more important for collectors is that the vehicle comes with extra goodies. Thrown into the package are letters Grady Davis sent to Don Yenko and Zora Duntov, an extensive ownership history, and magazine articles featuring the Gulf One.
The car is one of the main attractions of the Florida sale in January, but we are not being told how much its current owners (the John Justo Collection, which brings to Kissimmee a total of eight rare Corvettes) expect to fetch for it.
