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What is the scoop with grand sports? I've searched Hemmings Motor Sport on the web and come up with 63-64 grand sports ranging from 30K-75K. Some are roadsters, others coups. Why would someone pay 75K if they can have 2 for the same price? All seem nicely restored clones. Is a tubular frame worth more than an original frame? What about modern engine/drive train vs more authentic? Is there a big market?
Thanks,
Ron
The Grand Sport was a restricted production 'factory race car' with MANY 'one-of' features. In '63 there were a whooping quantity of FIVE produced for hand picked customers. You can see a pretty good pictorial/text description of this unique car in M.F. Dobbins' Vette Vues Fact Book of the 1963-67 Stingray.
Today there are body 'kits' to convert a standard production car to the exterior look of the Grand Sport. These are primarily purchased by serious drivers wanting to compete on the Vintage circuit(s) in friendly wheel-to-wheel competition. The original car was NEVER intended for traditional use on public highways!
Any Grand Sport you see in Hemmings (or anywhere else) was either built from scratch as a tube-frame kit (D&D), or is a front/rear clip conversion of a production coupe body on either a tube frame or a production frame (Mid-America Industries). D&D built about 80 kits and turnkey cars (they are now out of business), and Mid-America is the only source left. The D&D tooling was sold, but the purchaser was shut down recently by GM, who has apparently decided that the Grand Sport is enough of an American icon that its "trade dress" is worthy of protection, much as Ferrari has done very zealously over the last few years. The market value of a completed Grand Sport kit is very much related to how accurately it replicates the details of the original cars and the livery in which they were raced; "touring"-type Grand Sports (as opposed to "race"-type Grand Sports) bring far less than those that replicate the competition appearance of the originals.
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