Experimental Corvette — SS – Corvette SS Preps for Race at Sebring – 1957 Corvette SS at Sebring Race Day 1957 – Fangio and Moss win Sebring 1957
General Motors recruited engineer and race car driver, Zora Arkus Duntov, to help them inject some performance into their brands. Duntov wanted to make the Corvette competitive with sports cars from Europe like Ferrari and Maserati. To gain respect it needed to win on the track. He organized a team to build the SS or “Experimental Corvette” and took it to Sebring.
The 1957 Corvette SS ‘concept car’, was built in order to race at the 24 Hours of LeMans. Two chassis were built, ‘the Mule’ and the car to be raced. Its first race would be the test for its preparations at LeMans. This race at the 12 Hours of Sebring would determine whether it could take on the world at LeMans. Famed engineer, Zora Arkus-Duntov, had lead a team of engineers to build this ultra-lightweight (1850 lbs) and powerful (307 horsepower) racing car. They were inspired by the Mercedes 300SL Gullwing and the Birdcage Maserati. To keep weight down, they used a magnesium body that surrounded a tubular steel frame with coil-over-shock front suspension, a de Dion rear axle and aluminum drum brakes. Its fuel-injected small-block V8 could turn out 307 horsepower at 6,400 RPM.
The Chevrolet Corvette ‘SS’ is an experimental magnesium-bodied car and set a new lap record at Sebring, Florida, in 1957. It has served as the forerunner of many Corvette sports/racing models. The Corvette SS raced for the first time at Sebring, where suspension problems and other mechanical defects forced its retirement after only 23 laps. General Motors was enthusiastic about the potential of the SS based on results from practice and lap speeds. Juan Manuel Fangio, the winner at Sebring in 1957, was impressed enough with the car to test the SS under practice conditions. The results was astonishing: Fangio completed a full lap a full 3:27.4 seconds faster in a car he had never driven before than other drivers could in cars they were experienced driving.
Motorpsorts came back with a bang after World War II and the cars got faster and drivers quickly adapted to the increased speeds and improved handling. Two of the standouts in this era, bridged the the pre and post War worlds, Juan Manuel Fangio was the veteran and a young Stirling Moss was rising to the top. The Maserati team soared to victory at Sebring in 1957 with Moss #20 Maserati coming in second and Fangio and co-driver Jean Behra in the #19 Maserati taking first.
