1963 Roger Penske Grand Sport Corvette

[MarkJ]

Finally finished after 231.5 hours . I always wanted to do this build since I was a 13 year old kid. I was into auto racing big time, and about the only source I had for news and pictures were magazines. I had a subscription to Sports Car Graphic, Motor Trend and Car and Driver. Whenever there was anything in a magazine about racing , I would cut it out and put the pictures and story in 2 scrap books. One for Stock car racing and one for Sports car racing and Indy cars. I still have the scrap books today but they are falling apart from age. I just happened to be thumbing through the sports car scrap book and spotted the story about Roger Penske's victory at the Nassau Tourist Trophy race in the Bahamas in 1964. His Grand Sport looked so awesome, I knew I had to finally build a replica of it. Turns out the race was a battle between him and Ken Miles of "Ford vs. Ferrari" fame. Mile's 390 Cobra could pull away from Penske in the straights but Penske's Grand sport would catch up in the turns. Miles Cobra finally blew up trying to stay ahead of the powerful and nimble Corvette. I  learned alot about the car. It had a 377 cubic inch all aluminum engine with 4 weber side draft carbs and hemi heads . It basically was a 327 stroked a quarter of an inch to get to 377. it pumped out 485 horsepower. This is an amt kit because I did not know there was a much better kit, until I started the build and was informed of this, so I had to do a lot of scratch building. The wip is over in the wip forum for this forum category under 1964 scca corvette if you want to see how it came together.

[Silver Foxx]

A really nice looking build , well done .

[cobraman]

Time well spent. It's a beautiful model.

[PappyD340]

Very nice, well done!

[TransAmMike]

2 hours ago, MarkJ said:

Finally finished after 231.5 hours . I always wanted to do this build since I was a 13 year old kid. I was into auto racing big time, and about the only source I had for news and pictures were magazines. I had a subscription to Sports Car Graphic, Motor Trend and Car and Driver. Whenever there was anything in a magazine about racing , I would cut it out and put the pictures and story in 2 scrap books. One for Stock car racing and one for Sports car racing and Indy cars. I still have the scrap books today but they are falling apart from age. I just happened to be thumbing through the sports car scrap book and spotted the story about Roger Penske's victory at the Nassau Tourist Trophy race in the Bahamas in 1964. His Grand Sport looked so awesome, I knew I had to finally build a replica of it. Turns out the race was a battle between him and Ken Miles of "Ford vs. Ferrari" fame. Mile's 390 Cobra could pull away from Penske in the straights but Penske's Grand sport would catch up in the turns. Miles Cobra finally blew up trying to stay ahead of the powerful and nimble Corvette. I  learned alot about the car. It had a 377 cubic inch all aluminum engine with 4 weber side draft carbs and hemi heads . It basically was a 327 stroked a quarter of an inch to get to 377. it pumped out 485 horsepower. This is an amt kit because I did not know there was a much better kit, until I started the build and was informed of this, so I had to do a lot of scratch building. The wip is over in the wip forum for this forum category under 1964 scca corvette if you want to see how it came together.

Oh my Mark, that is an awesome build??.  Love the results of your hard work. I'm gonna miss discusing the WIP with you.

[Pierre Rivard]

Unbelievable, amazing achievement.

The challenge of transforming a stock Corvette into this iconic Grand sport racer is one I would not be capable to meet, but you definitively have.

You deserve a nice OOB build to recuperate from this one.

I salute you sir!

[Gramps46]

Congratulations Mark on this build.  It really came out well.

[slusher]

Outstanding model, Mark!

[Ralph Henderson]

What a great build!!  But knowing it began as a simple "?" AMT kit and seeing all the scratch building and planning it took takes it to another level!

Fantastic!!

[Nitrobarry]

Another outstanding build! Nice!

 

[vamach1]

Very nice attention to detail and it shows.  A flip top Cobra would look nice next to it. ?

[Force]

Very nice.

[MarkJ]

I took some pictures of the pages of the old scrap book that gave me inspiration that I wanted to share and also a color picture of the car that I could not find. I needed to know what color the headlight covers were and it also let me know that the tires were white outline and lettered, not gold like I assumed they were. I want to thank and give kudos to the person who shared the photo with me, but he may not want to be revealed. Just know that he is an awesome builder of these kind of cars and we will just leave it as that. He knows who he is, and thanks again. I really appreciated the photo you shared .

 

Edited May 20, 2021 by MarkJ

[MarkJ]

The other picture is my favorite one of this car. 

[Bainford]

Wow! Outstanding build, Mark. Excellent work and great attention to detail. It looks wicked awesome. Love it!

[TransAmMike]

Again Mark, you did great?

[MarkJ]

10 hours ago, TransAmMike said:

Again Mark, you did great?

Thanks, Mike. I too enjoyed our discussions during the wip. You added clarity to some issues I was having during the build. Knowing that you were having problems with the fit on your awesome Corvette build, made me realize it was a kit issue. Thanks again for the moral support.

[TransAmMike]

2 hours ago, MarkJ said:

Thanks, Mike. I too enjoyed our discussions during the wip. You added clarity to some issues I was having during the build. Knowing that you were having problems with the fit on your awesome Corvette build, made me realize it was a kit issue. Thanks again for the moral support.

Yer welcome, after seeing the pics of the real car it make's it more impressive. Grrrr8 job.   So whats next????

Edited May 21, 2021 by TransAmMike

[Venom]

Mark, congratulations getting it finished! ... I love the fact that you did so much scratchbuilding as seen in your WIP. It turned out very nice... looks just like the photos. Certainly one to be proud of.?

[MarkJ]

Thanks guys. I really appreciate the reply's.

[ChrisR]

Very nice!

[Toys4Don2]

Very well done. Amazing conversion work. 

[MarkJ]

I forgot to post a rea shot of the model

[TransAmMike]

Looks grreat Mark, you got the hole spaced perfectly my friend.

[sflam123]

Beautiful work!!  Outstanding build!