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Mid Engine Corvette: The Chevrolet CERV II

With the recent rumors that Chevrolet is planning to put the engine behind the driver and in front of the rear wheels with the eighth-generation Corvette, we thought we’d take a look at the first mid-engine Corvette, the Chevrolet Engineering Research Vehicle II”, more commonly referred to as the CERV II.

The CERV II was thought up by the father of the Corvette, Zora Arkus Duntov. It was built in an effort to keep the Corvette program competitive with other mid-engine sports cars of the era from Ferrari and eventually, Ford too. The first CERV was more a little more radical and was built in 1960 with the aim of showcasing a new open-wheel type racing car. It resembled an Indycar and the lessons the team GM engineering team learned during its development inspired them to make a second CERV.

Construction on the CERV II began in late 1961 and was intended “to incorporate all the features necessary to make it a successful contender, not only in sprints but in such long distance events as Le Mans and Sebring,” Duntov is quoted in saying. The team a combined a complex all-wheel drive system with the same 500 horsepower 377 small-block Chevrolet from the CERV I and ended up with a car capable of doing 0-60 mph in 2.8 seconds and reaching 212 mph.

Despite its absurd performance figures, Duntov and his team were never able to take the CERV II racing. Duntov ended up convincing GM to let him demonstrate the car at select events to display the company’s engineering prowess, but it was eventually placed into storage in 1970 and has since had a handful of different private owners.

The rumors that we could have the first ever production mid-engined Corvette on our hands within the next decade immediately made us think back to the CERV II. Duntov probably knew the car would not reach production, but if it had actually went racing and turned out to be an overwhelming success like Ford’s GT40, who knows what could have been?

Duntov’s forward way of thinking helped make the Corvette what it is today, which is why if the Corvette takes another big leap in going mid-engine for the C8 generation, we can’t think of a more fitting name than Zora.

Sam loves to write and has a passion for auto racing, karting and performance driving of all types.

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Comments

  1. “..had actually went racing….”

    You really need to edit the penultimate paragraph. One of the problems with it is that the second sentence ends with a question, so it should have a question mark.

    Reply
  2. They didn’t need to go any further with the CERV. Jim Hall and the Chaparral were factory backed and were extremely fast and successful .

    Reply
  3. Hall did ok but it still was not up to the level of support that Ford gave the GT program.

    Nearly everything to Hall was out the back door and has to be kept quiet.

    A good book on this topic was Chevrolet Racing? By Van Valkenburgh.

    Reply
  4. Scott, you are absolutely right! It was to be a secret but most of us knew there had to be some factory support with Chevy racing. I was fortunate to grow up when they were racing and went to several SCCA and Can Am races here in S. California. What really drew my attention to the CERV was it’s similarities to the early Chaparral’s. You can still see most of the Chaparrals at the Petroleum Museum in Midland, Texas.

    Reply
  5. Hey Scott, I see we are on the same page with Chevy building a Raptor fighter! Been waiting for 4 years!!!!

    Reply
  6. Chevy for sure was involved into racing out the back door with Penske, Yunick and Hall. But because of the rules they were restricted much and limited in what all they could do. It is surprising how much they got done covertly but one has to ponder how much they could have gotten done if they had open support of the Board.

    When you have a van full of test equipment and you have to sneak it around to do your testing unnoticed it limits what all you could have done.

    As for the Raptor fighter I was skeptical at first but we have so many running around here and Ford has kept the price reasonable. No reason GM should not challenge it.

    The only question I have is just what is GM’s plan on the half ton trucks. As I see it now thy want to move the buyers from this class to the smaller trucks and continue the full sized focused on the 3/4 ton. It is their way to beat the rules.

    The price increases we have seen are all gear to limit the volume and retain the profits. Price before has been used as a self regulating factor in sales. As it is even all aluminum is not going to single handedly save the half ton trucks. The regulations as pointed out by those in the industry back this out. I am just wondering how long till Ford brings the Ranger in. As for Ram they are still way behind in their plans as they are still recovering from the bail out. The large discounts will help them now but will do nothing to help future products.

    I am just glad I am not the one who has to make the call.

    Reply

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