{"id":9845,"date":"2020-05-08T07:25:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-08T10:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/?page_id=9845"},"modified":"2023-02-22T13:08:09","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T16:08:09","slug":"chevrolet-corvette-stingray-76-spark-pw","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/chevrolet-corvette-stingray-76-spark-pw\/","title":{"rendered":"Chevrolet Corvette Stingray #76 &#8211; Spark (pw)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/+upload\/a-h\/chevrolet_corvette_76_04.jpg\" alt=\"Stingray\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\"><strong>1976 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray (C3)<\/strong>\nPilots: B. Darniche, J. Greenwood\nTeam: <em>IMSA Camel<\/em>\nRace: DNF (IMSA class) at Le Mans in <strong>1976<\/strong>\nSpark (pw) - HACHLM11 (diecast) <\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right has-medium-gray-color has-text-color has-small-font-size\">Published 05\/08\/20<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Born April 4th, 1945, John Greenwood grew up in Detroit and his father worked at General Motors. As a teenager, he started to build engines in his dad\u2019s garage, to race locally at small events. From the beginning, his passion was the Corvette, and with time he progressed to professional events. A few years later, now with an actual professional racing license, he opened a business. His Auto Research Engineering (ARE) did engine building and head porting, and his good work and results became recognized. He specialized in the Stingray (C3) Corvette, and almost in parallel with engine parts and improvements, he also started to offer body kits. That success came to the attention of one Zora Arkus-Duntov. Despite GM\u2019s corporate ban on racing, Zora Duntov had engineer Gib Hufstader offer unofficial technical backup to a few racing teams. And Greenwood\u2019s was one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/+upload\/a-h\/chevrolet_corvette_76_05.jpg\" alt=\"Stingray\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Greenwood did EXTENSIVE body work on the car.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>By 1970 Greenwood was racing his C3 at Sebring. His good results landed him in 1971 a sponsorship with the BF Goodrich Tire Company. In 1972 he was back to Sebring and even took a two-car team to <a aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/chevrolet-corvette-c3-72-spark\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Le Mans<\/a>. He continued developing his car, to a point where it became too powerful for current tires and chassis. His solution was to, from 1974 onward, make his own chassis with an extra wide body. Both Zora Duntov and Randy Wittine (from the GM design studio) participated in the project. When ready, it was one of the most radical Corvettes ever. Greenwood was so confident about the car that in 1976 he went back to La Sarthe again. The chassis (#Greenwood007) was hand-built and the car had coil-over suspension at all four corners. The engine was a 6997 cm\u00b3 monster V8, with everything covered by a fiberglass body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/+upload\/a-h\/chevrolet_corvette_76_06.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">From this angle it barely resembles a Corvette.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the expectations, and starting in ninth position, a split fuel tank early on lap 29 retired the car from the fray. Though it was the last C3 to race at La Sarthe, the Stingray #76 left its mark. With a patriotic theme, it can be considered one of the first <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/art-car\/\" target=\"_blank\">art cars<\/a> to race at La Sarthe. And just as important, the car still exists to <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"http:\/\/assets.superchevy.com\/f\/137685281.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">this day<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/+upload\/a-h\/chevrolet_corvette_76_07.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Altaya on top, Spark on the bottom. A heckuva upgrade from my perspective.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I first bought this Stingray in early 2017, but from <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/chevrolet-corvette-c3-stingray-76-altaya\/\" target=\"_blank\">Altaya<\/a>. Though not a thoroughly bad model, it wasn\u2019t great. So when the opportunity arose for me to get a better version, I took it. However, even though it\u2019s from Spark, it is diecast. Sold by Hachette, it\u2019s a pw model that comes with those magazines. That being so, it\u2019s definitively not the best of Sparks, though (A LOT!) better than my Altaya. And as cheery on top, it was quite cheap, so a VERY good upgrade if you ask me. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1976 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray (C3) Pilots: B. Darniche, J. Greenwood Team: IMSA Camel Race: DNF (IMSA class) at Le Mans in 1976 Spark (pw) &#8211; HACHLM11 (diecast) Published 05\/08\/20 Born April 4th, 1945, John Greenwood grew up in Detroit and his father worked at General Motors. As a teenager, he started to build engines in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/chevrolet-corvette-stingray-76-spark-pw\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Chevrolet Corvette Stingray #76 &#8211; Spark (pw)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-9845","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9845"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15330,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9845\/revisions\/15330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}