1976 Chevrolet Corvette Widebody Coupe

John Greenwood introduced his 'widebody' C3 race car At the Detroit Autorama show at Cobo Hall in 1974. The Corvette Sting Ray featured a Bob Riley designed chassis. The fiberglass body was designed to take advantage of nearly every horizontal surface to improve downforce. This allowed the V8 engines to transfer as much power to the track as possible. It was given full belly pans, later called rear diffusers. The new wedge-shaped 'silhouette racer' was the result of collaboration between Greenwood and several GM insiders, including Zora Arkus-Duntov, Jerry Palmer, and Randy Wittine.

The car was intended to run with BFG tire sponsorship and made its competition debut at Road Atlanta where it won the event.

The 'customer cars' were given new, steel, GM-sourced frames, triangulated and strengthened with full roll cages designed by Bob Riley. Front suspensions used reinforced Corvette A-arms. The customer was given the opportunity to specify coil-over springs and shocks; coil-over springs and shocks could also be specified by the customer for the rear suspension, depending on the series for which the car was intended. For those customers trying to conform to 'stock' specifications, a single leaf of the original steel transverse leaf spring could be left in place.

Powering the 'customer cars' were all-aluminum Chevrolet big blocks running Jim Kinsler-developed mechanical fuel injection on a cross-ram manifold. Power output was in the neighborhood of 700+ with good reliability. All four corners were Wilwood disc brakes and Greenwood-mounted, Sterling-spoked alloy wheels of a 15-inch diameter, 11-inches wide at the front and 17-inches wide at the rear.

Chassis CC007
This car was built for Chicago-area racer Rick Mancuso who had planned to run the 1976 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona and then the 12 Hours of Sebring. Unfortunately, the car was not delivered until just before the Sebring race. It was entered in the GTO category by Mancuso, with co-drivers Irwin Jann and Greenwood's brother, Burt, the car was damaged in practice and would not start the race.

Due to the oil shortage, the entry list for the 1976 LeMans race was rather thin. The race organizers and the French government arranged $55,000 in appearance money to have the Greenwood Corvettes show up. With Greenwood's car damaged at Sebring, he was without a car. So he persuaded Mancuso to lend him CC007. Mancuso was to be part of the team, along with Jacques Lafitte. Mancuso was unable to get the time off from his father's large Chevrolet dealership, so he had to decline the invitation. In his place, Greenwood brought his brother, Burt. Lafitte was also unable to attend so French rally driver Bernard Darniche was recruited to fill his place. General Motors also provided a lot of 'back door' assistance.

The car was renamed the Spirit of LeMans and it would start the race in 9th place on the grid, with a qualifying time of 3:54.6. The car was given number '76' and was adorned in American and French flag livery. Along the long Mulsanne Straight, the car consistently reached 220 mph. The car ran strongly until 8 o'clock the next morning, in its 16th hour, when a burst tire forced Spirit of Le Mans to retire. The car was classified in 49th place.

After the race, Greenwood repaired the Widebody Corvette and returned it to Mancuso, who campaigned it successfully in IMSA for several seasons, bearing his City of Chicago livery.

The car was later sold and would pass through several owners before Canadian racer Jack Boxstrom sold it to the current owner in the early 1990s. Since then, the car has been treated to a full restoration.

In 2004, it was displayed at the Greenwood Reunion hosted by Corvettes of Carlisle, and in 2011, it was invited to appear at both the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Le Mans Classic. Just prior to being shipped to England, its second restoration was completed.

This car, the Spirit of Le Mans, is currently powered by a 600 cubic-inch Chevrolet V8 engine with aluminum heads and Kinsler cross-ram mechanical fuel injection. It is estimated to produce 1,000 horsepower. There is a four-speed Muncie M21 close-ratio transmission and a Chevrolet 12-bolt rear axle. The car has been given an 18-gallon Fuel-Safe racing fuel cell, a Greenwood Racing driver's seat, and Simpson safety harnesses. Almost all of the body panels are original, and the car retains its door-mounted number-identification light that was installed for Le Mans.

By Daniel Vaughan | Jan 2014

In 1976, John Greenwood built this car for Chicago dealer Rick Mancuso. The widebody Corvette was built to run the 1976 IMSA Road Racing series. Mancuso debuted the car at the 1976 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, then went on to run the 12 Hours of Sebring in March. John Greenwood was quietly approached to field a widebody Corvette at the 1976 24 Hours of LeMans. He realized that time was too tight to build another chassis for LeMans, so he asked Mancuso to let him borrow the Mancuso-Greenwood Corvette. After arriving at LeMans, French rally driver Claude Darnish was enlisted to co-drive with John. The car qualified sixth, with a top speed of 221 mph on the Mulsanne Straight. The car lasted until the 16th hour, when a rear tire exploded, damaging the fuel cell and rear bodywork. Mancuso campaigned the car for several years in the IMSA series before retiring it. The current owner purchased the car in 1995, and it has been meticulously restored to its original condition.