Seen at the 2023 Rolex 24, the Z06 GT3.R is the first Corvette built to full FIA GT3 rules and the first sold to customer teams. Chassis, suspension, aero and how much it shares with the street Z06.
CORVETTE MODELS
Corvette Race Cars:
Racing Corvettes (1956 to Today)
The Corvettes built to race, from Duntov’s 1956 Daytona car and the Sebring SRs through the SS, the Stingray Racer, the five Grand Sports, the L88s, Greenwood’s wide-bodies, the GTP prototypes and the Corvette Challenge cars to the factory C5-R, C6.R, C7.R and C8.R that won Le Mans eight times and the customer Z06 GT3.R that won it a ninth: thirty-one cars by era, each with its picture, what it was, its record and its guide.
Quick Nav: Overview · The Story · The Record · C1 · C2 · C3 · C4 · C5 · C6 · C7 · C8 · All Race Cars · Racing News · FAQs
The Basics
What This Is: A catalog of the Corvette race cars the site has guides for, by era, with each car’s record; the racing page carries the news, the results and the history
How Many: Thirty-one, from the 1956 Daytona Flyer to the Z06 GT3.R
The Factory Cars: C5-R (1999–2004), C6.R GT1 (2005–09) and GT2 (2009–13), C7.R (2014–19), C8.R (2020–23), all built and run by Pratt & Miller; the Z06 GT3.R (2024–) built by Pratt Miller for customers
Le Mans: Nine class wins: 1960 (Cunningham), 2001, 2002, 2004 (C5-R), 2006, 2009 (C6.R GT1), 2011 (C6.R GT2), 2015 (C7.R), 2025 (Z06 GT3.R)
Before the Factory: Sebring 1956, the SR-2s and the SS, the Stingray Racer’s 1960 title, the Grand Sports at Nassau, the L88 class wins at Sebring, Daytona and Le Mans, Greenwood, the GTP cars and the 116 Corvette Challenge cars
Related Pages: The racing page (news, results, by race), the concepts (the SS, the Stingray Racer and the GS-II began as engineering cars), the special editions (the Z06, L88 and ZL1 packages), the generation hubs’ racing tables
The Overview
The Corvette raced for forty-three years before Chevrolet admitted it. Duntov took a 1956 to Daytona Beach and John Fitch took four to Sebring that spring; the SR-2s and the SS followed before the 1957 AMA ban drove the factory’s help underground, where it stayed through Bill Mitchell’s Stingray Racer, Briggs Cunningham’s Le Mans class win of 1960, the five Grand Sports GM killed, the L88s that were built to race and the Greenwood, GTP and Corvette Challenge cars of the 1970s and 1980s. In 1999 the C5-R made it official, and the C5-R, C6.R, C7.R and C8.R took eight class wins at Le Mans and championships in every series they entered before the Z06 GT3.R made the Corvette a customer race car in 2024.
This page catalogs the cars themselves, thirty-one of them by era, with the car’s own picture, a line on what it was and who raced it, its record and its guide; the racing page carries the news from the current season, the results by race and the history as a story. The cars that began as engineering or show cars (the SS, the Stingray Racer, the GS-II) appear on the concepts page too; the production racing packages (the 1963 Z06, the L88, the ZL1, the ZR1) are in the special editions.
Records are the headline results: class wins at Le Mans, Sebring and Daytona, the championships and the national titles. The guides have the full seasons, the chassis numbers where known and what became of each car.
Seventy Years of Corvette Race Cars
Six eras of cars, from a modified roadster on the sand to a customer GT3 car sold by the dozen.
The first racers, 1956–57
The 1955 V-8 made the Corvette a possible race car and Zora Arkus-Duntov made it one: a flying mile at Daytona Beach in January 1956 (150.583 mph), four factory-prepared SRs at Sebring in March with John Fitch (a class win and the “Real McCoy” ad), the three SR-2s with their fins and long noses for 1956–57, and the SS of 1957, a magnesium-bodied, tube-framed purpose-built racer that ran 23 laps at Sebring before the AMA’s ban on factory racing ended the program in June. The SS sold for $7.7 million in 2025.
The ban years, 1958–66
With the factory officially out, the racing went to privateers with quiet help: Jim Jeffords’s Purple People Eater won the SCCA B-Production title in 1958 and 1959; Mitchell’s Stingray Racer, built on the SS mule and campaigned as his own car, won C-Modified in 1960; Cunningham’s three 1960s went to Le Mans and the #3 won its class; Grady Davis’s Gulf Oil cars raced A-Production with Dick Thompson and Don Yenko. Then Duntov built the Grand Sport, a lightweight Sting Ray to beat the Cobra, and GM stopped him at five cars; they raced at Nassau in 1963 and privately for years, and all five survive, one of them the most expensive Corvette ever sold.
The L88 and Greenwood, 1967–82
The L88 of 1967–69 was a race car sold with a license plate, and the Sunray DX, Dana and Owens-Corning cars won their classes at Sebring and Daytona and at Le Mans in 1968; John Greenwood’s aluminum-engined Stingray of 1971 began the wide-body IMSA Corvettes that defined the 1970s. The factory stayed away through the emissions years.
The C4: showroom stock, the Challenge and the GTP cars, 1984–96
The C4 won every SCCA Showroom Stock race from 1985 to 1987 and was banned for it, which produced the Corvette Challenge of 1988–89, 116 identical cars in a series of their own; the Corvette GTP prototypes (Lola chassis, turbocharged Chevrolet engines) wore the name in IMSA and won twice in 1986; the Trans-Am cars raced the tube-frame era; and Doug Rippie took a ZR-1 to Le Mans in 1995, the only C4 to race there.
The factory era: C5-R to C8.R, 1999–2023
Chevrolet’s first factory race car, the C5-R, debuted at Daytona in January 1999 and won Le Mans in 2001, 2002 and 2004 and Daytona outright in 2001; the C6.R won Le Mans in GT1 (2006, 2009) and GT2 (2011) and the championships of both classes; the C7.R won Le Mans in 2015 and three IMSA GTLM titles; the C8.R, the first mid-engine Corvette racer, won the IMSA championship in its first season and the two after. Pratt & Miller built and ran every one from New Hudson, Michigan, with the Z06-R GT3 and Callaway’s C7 GT3-R serving the customers in Europe.
The customer era: the Z06 GT3.R, 2024 on
With the GT3 rules the factory program ended and Chevrolet built a car to sell: the Z06 GT3.R, derived from the C8 Z06 and its flat-plane LT6, run by Pratt Miller Motorsports, AWA and DXDT in IMSA and TF Sport in the WEC. It won at Detroit in 2025, won its class at Le Mans in 2025 and took the 2026 IMSA manufacturers’ championship; the racing page follows every round.
MORE: THE RACING PAGE: NEWS AND RESULTS / THE CORVETTE’S RACING LEGACY / THE CONCEPTS
1957 Chevy Corvette SS. W57HV_008
Front 7/8 view of 2024 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R parked in a race car garage. Pre-production model shown. Actual production model may vary. Model year 2024 Corvette Z06 GT3.R will be available later this year.
The Record at a Glance
The Corvette’s racing record by era: who raced, where, and what they won. The era sections below give every car with its picture and its guide; the racing page gives the results by race.
| ERA | THE CARS | THE RECORD | READ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1956–57 | Daytona Flyer, SR, SR-2, SS | 150 mph at Daytona Beach; Sebring class win 1956; the SS at Sebring 1957; the AMA ban | Racing page |
| 1958–66 | Purple People Eater, Stingray Racer, Cunningham’s Le Mans cars, Gulf Oil cars, Grand Sport, Cheetah | SCCA titles 1958–60; Le Mans class win 1960; the Grand Sports at Nassau 1963 | The Grand Sport |
| 1967–82 | L88 race cars, Greenwood Stingray ZL1 | Sebring GT class 1967; Le Mans class win 1968; Sebring GT 1971; Greenwood’s IMSA wide-bodies | The L88 guide |
| 1984–96 | Corvette GTP, Trans-Am, Corvette Challenge, ZR-1 GT1 | Showroom stock 1985–87; two GTP wins 1986; the Challenge 1988–89; Le Mans 1995 | The Challenge |
| 1999–2013 | C5-R, C6.R GT1, C6.R GT2, Z06-R GT3, C6 GT4, Daytona Prototype | Le Mans 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2011; Daytona overall 2001; ALMS titles; Rolex 24 wins 2014–15 | The C5-R |
| 2014–23 | C7.R, Callaway C7 GT3-R, C8.R | Le Mans 2015; IMSA GTLM titles 2016–18, 2020–21; GTD Pro 2022; ADAC GT Masters 2017 | The C8.R |
| 2024– | Z06 GT3.R | Detroit and Le Mans 2025; IMSA manufacturers’ championship 2026 | The Z06 GT3.R |
C1-Era Corvette Race Cars, 1953–1962
Eleven cars from the decade the Corvette learned to race: Duntov’s Daytona car, the Sebring SRs and SR-2s, the SS, the Stingray Racer, the Purple People Eater, Cunningham’s Le Mans cars and the Gulf Oil Corvettes.
MORE: THE C1 HUB / ALL C1-ERA RACE POSTS / THE C1 HUB
| THE RACE CAR | YEARS | THE RECORD | |
|---|---|---|---|
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Daytona Flyer Duntov’s modified 1956 at Daytona Beach Speed Weeks in January 1956: a 150.583-mph flying mile and the Corvette’s first headline as a performance car The guide / Year page |
1956 | 150 mph on the sand, 1956 |
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Corvette SR (Sebring Racers) The four factory-prepared 1956s John Fitch took to Sebring in March 1956: a class win, ninth overall and the “Real McCoy” advertisement The guide / Year page |
1956 | Sebring 1956 class win |
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Corvette SR-2 Three purpose-built racers with the finned headrest and the long nose, for Jerry Earl, Bill Mitchell and Harlow Curtice; Sebring, Daytona and Road America The guide / Year page |
1956–57 | Sebring and Daytona, 1957 |
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Corvette SS (XP-64) Duntov’s magnesium-bodied, tube-framed racer, driven at Sebring by Fitch and Taruffi and retired after 23 laps; the AMA ban ended it, and its mule became the Stingray Racer The guide / Year page |
1957 | Sebring 1957; sold for $7.7M in 2025 |
 |
Stingray Racer (XP-87) Bill Mitchell’s privately campaigned racer on the SS mule’s chassis, Dr. Dick Thompson driving, and the shape of the 1963 car The guide / Year page |
1959–60 | SCCA C-Modified champion, 1960 |
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Purple People Eater Jim Jeffords’s Nickey Chevrolet Corvette, the purple car that won two national championships running The guide / Year page |
1958–59 | SCCA B-Production champion, 1958 and 1959 |
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Cunningham’s Le Mans Corvettes Briggs Cunningham’s three 1960s at Le Mans, prepared by Chevrolet through the back door; the #3 of Fitch and Grossman won the class and finished eighth overall The guide / Year page |
1960 | Le Mans 1960 class win |
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The American Dream A 1960 Corvette racer and the story of the people who raced it The guide / Year page |
1960 | — |
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“Race Rat” Coupe A 1960 Corvette built into a racing coupe The guide / Year page |
1960 | — |
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Gulf Oil Corvette Gulf Oil executive Grady Davis’s Corvettes, raced by Dr. Dick Thompson and Don Yenko in SCCA A-Production The guide / Year page |
1961–62 | SCCA A-Production, 1961–62 |
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Sebring Corvette Racers The Corvettes of the 1962 12 Hours of Sebring, the last race for the solid-axle car before the Sting Ray The guide / Year page |
1962 | Sebring 1962 |
C2-Era Corvette Race Cars, 1963–1967
The Sting Ray years: the five Grand Sports, Bill Thomas’s Cheetah and the first L88 race cars at Sebring, Daytona and Le Mans.
MORE: THE C2 HUB / ALL C2-ERA RACE POSTS / THE C2 HUB
| THE RACE CAR | YEARS | THE RECORD | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Corvette Grand Sport Duntov’s five lightweight Sting Rays built to beat the Cobra, stopped by GM at five of a planned 125; Nassau 1963 with Penske, Hall and Pabst, then years of private racing; all five survive The guide / Year page |
1963–66 | Nassau 1963; GS 003 sold for $18.7M, 2026 |
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Cheetah Bill Thomas’s Corvette-powered Cobra-killer, built with Chevrolet parts and quiet help until the ban; about two dozen made The guide / Year page |
1964 | SCCA and USRRC, 1964 |
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L88 Race Cars The first L88s to race: the Sunray DX cars at Sebring and Daytona, the Dana Chevrolet car at Le Mans with Guldstrand and Bondurant, leading the class before the engine let go The guide / Year page |
1967 | Sebring 1967 GT class win; Le Mans 1967 |
C3-Era Corvette Race Cars, 1968–1982
The L88s in the new body and the Le Mans class win of 1968, and John Greenwood’s ZL1 Stingray, the start of the wide-body IMSA Corvettes.
MORE: THE C3 HUB / ALL C3-ERA RACE POSTS / THE C3 HUB
| THE RACE CAR | YEARS | THE RECORD | |
|---|---|---|---|
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L88 Race Cars The L88 in the new body: the Sunray DX and Owens-Corning cars in the SCCA and at Sebring and Daytona, and the Le Mans class win of 1968 The guide / Year page |
1968–69 | Le Mans 1968 class win |
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Greenwood Stingray ZL1 John Greenwood’s aluminum-engined Corvette, the start of the wide-body IMSA cars that made him the Corvette racer of the 1970s The guide / Year page |
1971–72 | Sebring 1971 GT class win |
C4-Era Corvette Race Cars, 1984–1996
The GTP prototypes, the Trans-Am cars, the three seasons of the Corvette Challenge story and the only C4 to race at Le Mans.
MORE: THE C4 HUB / ALL C4-ERA RACE POSTS / THE C4 HUB
| THE RACE CAR | YEARS | THE RECORD | |
|---|---|---|---|
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Corvette GTP The Lola T710 and T711 prototypes with turbocharged Chevrolet V-6s and V-8s that carried the Corvette name in IMSA Camel GTP; two wins in 1986 and a string of poles The guide / Year page |
1984–88 | IMSA GTP wins, Road Atlanta and Palm Beach 1986 |
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SCCA Trans-Am Corvette The tube-frame Trans-Am Corvettes of the late 1980s The guide / Year page |
1987–88 | SCCA Trans-Am, 1987–88 |
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Corvette Challenge (1988) The one-make series created after the showroom-stock Corvettes were banned for winning everything: 56 identically prepared 1988s The guide / Year page |
1988 | 56 cars; the first season |
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Corvette Challenge (1989) The second and last season, 60 cars with engines built and sealed by Chevrolet The guide / Year page |
1989 | 60 cars; the last season |
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Corvette Challenge (1990) What became of the Challenge program after the series ended The guide / Year page |
1990 | — |
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ZR-1 GT1 (Le Mans) Doug Rippie’s ZR-1, the only C4 to race at Le Mans, in the GT1 class of 1995 The guide / The video / Year page |
1995 | Le Mans 1995 |
C5-Era Corvette Race Cars, 1997–2004
One car and the start of the factory era: the C5-R, Daytona 2001 outright and Le Mans three times.
MORE: THE C5 HUB / ALL C5-ERA RACE POSTS / THE C5 HUB
| THE RACE CAR | YEARS | THE RECORD | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Corvette C5-R Chevrolet’s first factory race car, built by Pratt & Miller: Daytona debut in 1999, the Daytona 24 overall win of 2001, Le Mans class wins in 2001, 2002 and 2004 and the ALMS GTS championships The guide / Year page |
1999–2004 | Le Mans 2001, 2002, 2004; Daytona 2001 overall |
C6-Era Corvette Race Cars, 2005–2013
The C6.R in GT1 and GT2, the customer Z06-R GT3 and C6 GT4, and the Corvette Daytona Prototype that won the Rolex 24 two years running.
MORE: THE C6 HUB / ALL C6-ERA RACE POSTS / THE C6 HUB
| THE RACE CAR | YEARS | THE RECORD | |
|---|---|---|---|
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Corvette C6.R (GT1) The GT1 car that followed the C5-R: Le Mans class wins in 2006 and 2009 and four straight ALMS GT1 championships The guide / Year page |
2005–09 | Le Mans 2006, 2009; ALMS GT1 titles 2005–08 |
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Corvette Z06-R GT3 The customer GT3 Corvette built by Callaway Competition in Germany for the ADAC GT Masters and the FIA GT3 championship The guide / Year page |
2006–13 | ADAC GT Masters, 2007–13 |
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Corvette C6 GT4 The GT4-class customer Corvette of 2008 The guide / Year page |
2008 | GT4, 2008 |
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Corvette C6.R (GT2) The production-based GT2 car, with the 5.5-liter engine that previewed the Z06 GT3.R’s: Le Mans class win in 2011 and the last ALMS GT championships The guide / Year page |
2009–13 | Le Mans 2011; ALMS GT titles 2012–13 |
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Corvette Daytona Prototype The Grand-Am prototype with a Corvette face on Dallara, Coyote and Riley chassis; back-to-back Rolex 24 wins The guide / Year page |
2012–16 | Rolex 24 at Daytona, 2014 and 2015 |
C7-Era Corvette Race Cars, 2014–2019
The C7.R and Callaway’s C7 GT3-R: Le Mans 2015, three IMSA titles and the ADAC GT Masters.
MORE: THE C7 HUB / ALL C7-ERA RACE POSTS / THE C7 HUB
| THE RACE CAR | YEARS | THE RECORD | |
|---|---|---|---|
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Corvette C7.R Pratt & Miller’s GTLM car on the C7 aluminum frame: the Daytona 1–2s of 2015 and 2016, the Le Mans class win of 2015 and three IMSA GTLM championships The guide / Year page |
2014–19 | Le Mans 2015; IMSA GTLM titles 2016–18 |
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Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R Callaway Competition’s GT3 car on the C7, the ADAC GT Masters champion of 2017 The guide / Year page |
2016–19 | ADAC GT Masters champion, 2017 |
C8-Era Corvette Race Cars, 2020–present
The C8.R, the first mid-engine Corvette racer, and the Z06 GT3.R that replaced the factory team with customers and won Le Mans in 2025.
MORE: THE C8 HUB / ALL C8-ERA RACE POSTS / THE C8 HUB
| THE RACE CAR | YEARS | THE RECORD | |
|---|---|---|---|
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Corvette C8.R The first mid-engine Corvette racer, with the flat-plane 5.5-liter engine that became the Z06’s LT6: IMSA GTLM champion in its first season and the two after, and a podium at Le Mans The guide / Year page |
2020–23 | IMSA titles 2020, 2021, 2022 |
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Corvette Z06 GT3.R Chevrolet’s customer GT3 car, built by Pratt Miller and run by Pratt Miller Motorsports, AWA and DXDT in IMSA and TF Sport in the WEC; the Detroit and Le Mans wins of 2025 and the 2026 IMSA manufacturers’ title The guide / Year page |
2024– | Le Mans 2025 class win; IMSA manufacturers’ champion 2026 |
Every Race-Car Post
The guides, the race cars for sale, the Corvette of the Day race cars and the features, newest first.
MORE: THE RACING PAGE
The Latest From Corvette Racing
Race reports and results from IMSA, the WEC and everywhere else a Corvette races, newest first.
FAQs
What was the first Corvette race car?
Duntov’s modified 1956, which ran a 150.583-mph flying mile at Daytona Beach in January 1956, and the four SRs John Fitch took to Sebring that March, where one won its class. The three SR-2s and the 1957 SS were the first purpose-built Corvette racers.
Which Corvette race cars won Le Mans?
Nine class wins: Cunningham’s 1960 (Fitch and Grossman, eighth overall), the C5-R (2001, 2002, 2004), the C6.R in GT1 (2006, 2009) and GT2 (2011), the C7.R (2015) and TF Sport’s Z06 GT3.R (2025). The L88s won their class in 1968 as well. No Corvette has won overall.
What is the most valuable Corvette race car?
Grand Sport 003, sold for $18.7 million in August 2026, the most ever paid for a Corvette; the 1957 Corvette SS brought $7.7 million in 2025. The L88 race cars and the Cunningham Le Mans cars are the next tier.
What is the difference between the C5-R, C6.R, C7.R and C8.R?
The factory Corvette Racing cars of each generation, all built and run by Pratt & Miller: the C5-R (1999–2004) in GTS, the C6.R in GT1 (2005–09) and then GT2/GTE (2009–13), the C7.R (2014–19) in GTLM and the C8.R (2020–23), the first mid-engine one, in GTLM and GTD Pro. Each has a guide in its era’s table.
Is the Z06 GT3.R a factory car?
No; it is a customer car. Chevrolet and Pratt Miller build it and sell it to teams (Pratt Miller Motorsports, AWA and DXDT in IMSA, TF Sport in the WEC), with factory support but no factory team, since the GT3 rules replaced GTE and GTLM. It won Le Mans in 2025 and the 2026 IMSA manufacturers’ championship.
What was the Corvette Challenge?
A one-make SCCA series of 1988 and 1989 for identically prepared C4 Corvettes, created after the showroom-stock Corvettes were banned for winning every race from 1985 to 1987: 56 cars in 1988 and 60 in 1989, with sealed engines. The survivors are collected, and the guides track them.
Did Chevrolet race the Corvette before 1999?
Officially no, from the 1957 AMA ban until the C5-R; unofficially yes, through parts, engineering help and cars handed to privateers: the Stingray Racer, the Cunningham Le Mans cars, the Grand Sports, the L88s, the GTP prototypes and the Corvette Challenge all had the factory behind them to some degree.
Where are the race results and the news?
On the racing page: the news feed from the current season, the results by race (Le Mans, Sebring, Daytona, Petit Le Mans, the Indianapolis pace cars) and the history. This page is the catalog of the cars.
