Mid-Engine Sports Car Showcase At The 2019 Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance

February 4, 2019 by Amelia Island Concours

Jacksonville, FL – A striking mid-engine Corvette prototype will be featured as a part of the 2019 Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance's Mid-Engine sports car class. The display is also scheduled to include examples from DeTomaso, Ferrari and Lamborghini.

The 1973 Chevrolet Corvette XP-897 GT was one of two mid-engine Corvette prototypes designed by General Motors Styling Division to promote the smooth and high revving Wankel Rotary engine. The rotary was intended to power GM passenger cars from 1976, so both cars were shown at the major worldwide auto shows from September 1973 to April 1974. Unfortunately the rotary Wankel engine proved to be both thirsty and polluting compared to the conventional piston-in-cylinder engine so the simultaneous gasoline shortage and strict Federal emission legislation sealed its fate.

After the last show appearance in Europe the XP-897 GT lost the rotary engine and was sealed in a plywood case and stored at the British GM Division Vauxhall Motors Design Centre in Bedford, England. Scheduled to be crushed in the early 1980s, it was rescued by Corvette author Tom Falconer with the assistance of then GM Head of Design, Chuck Jordan, and has been displayed in Kent, England until recently.

On March 10, 2019, the XP-897 GT will be displayed alongside a recently-acquired 1973 GM rotary engine at The 24th Annual Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance.

Tickets for the 24th Annual Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance, March 7-10, 2019, are available online.

For more info and to purchase tickets visit, https://www.ameliaconcours.org/shop/tickets

About The Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance

THE AMELIA will be held March 7-10, 2019 at The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island and The Golf Club of Amelia Island. For the Amelia's full events schedule, including Saturday's Cars & Coffee at the Concours and Sunday's premier Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance, visit www.ameliaconcours.org. The show's Foundation has donated over $3.45 million to Community Hospice & Palliative Care and other charities on Florida's First Coast since its inception in 1996.