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Widebody Madness: Remembering the Epic Race-Bred Greenwood Corvettes

During the early years of the Malaise era when a major oil crisis forced all major automakers to build grossly underpowered road cars, John Greenwood and his brother Burt kept the notion of a high-performance, American-built sports car alive with their wickedly-fast, star-spangled widebody Corvette race cars.
Greeenwood Corvette "Spirit of Sebring '75" 18 photos
Photo: Bonhams
Greeenwood Corvette "Spirit of Sebring '75"Greeenwood Corvette "Spirit of Sebring '75"Greeenwood Corvette "Spirit of Sebring '75"Greeenwood Corvette "Spirit of Sebring '75"Greeenwood Corvette "Spirit of Sebring '75"Greeenwood Corvette "Spirit of Sebring '75"Greeenwood Corvette "Spirit of Sebring '75"Greeenwood Corvette "Spirit of Sebring '75"Greeenwood Corvette "Spirit of Sebring '75"Greeenwood Corvette "Spirit of Sebring '75"Greeenwood Corvette "Spirit of Sebring '75"Greeenwood Corvette "Spirit of Sebring '75"Greeenwood Corvette "Spirit of Sebring '75"Greeenwood Corvette "Spirit of Le Mans"Greeenwood Corvette "Spirit of Sebring '76"John GreenwoodBurt (left) and John (right) Greenwood
Born in Detroit, Michigan, the heartland of the American automotive industry, John and Burt Greenwood fell in love with cars from an early age. Their dad, Hank, was a member of the GM Tech Center staff and often took the brothers to work where fascinating prototypes helped seed a lifelong passion in their hearts.

Both would grow up to become self-taught engineering wizards, but John’s talents behind the wheel would pave the way for a professional racing career. He started putting his skills to the test during his teenage years and quickly made a name for himself as a street racer. Driving a ‘64 Corvette that he and his brother would constantly tune, John became a legend on Woodward Avenue – the epicenter of pure (and totally illegal) street racing during that time.

As you can imagine, speed-addicted Corvette owners wanted the mods that John’s car had under its hood, and they were willing to pay good money for the privilege. This led the brothers to open a shop called Auto Research Engineering, a successful business that helped fund John’s ambition to become a professional racing driver.

John Greenwood
Photo: BF Goodrich - initially appeared in a 1970s ad
With Burt as an integral part of his team, John went pro in 1969, winning SCCA National championships a year later. Driving several Corvettes that he modified himself, he began running a patriotic livery for endurance races in 1971, winning his class at both Sebring and Watkins Glen that year. He then added the 1974 and 1975 IMSA GT Daytona three-hour, as well as several 24-Hour of Le Mans entries to his list of achievements.

Although he was a terrific driver, John Greenwood, who sadly passed away in 2015 at the age of 71 was even better at building ridiculously fast Corvettes. Arguably his greatest achievement as a constructor was a series of widebody C3s that became American racing icons during the second part of the 1970s.

With the 1973 oil crisis bringing American automakers to the brink of extinction, motorsport-related projects were relegated to the bottom of the list of priorities, or, in some cases scrapped altogether.

Greeenwood Corvette "Spirit of Sebring '75"
Photo: Bonhams
Since they wanted to continue improving race-bread versions of their beloved sports car, Zora Arkus-Duntov, Randy Wittine, and other important figures inside the Corvette program decided to covertly help the Greenwoods who were already successfully campaigning modified C3s.

With assistance from the aforementioned GM legends, John and Burt introduced an all-new race weapon at the 1974 Detroit International Auto Show. With humongous fender extensions and a swoopy, mean-looking nose, the car was quickly nicknamed Batmobile by the automotive press.

Back then, this Corvette was one of the very first race cars to feature a full, fiberglass widebody as well as ground-effect undertray and diffusers tailored for aerodynamic supremacy. It was built around an acid-dipped, full-frame chassis designed by Ron Fournier and featured a coil-over suspension setup on all four corners courtesy of Bob Riley.

Greeenwood Corvette "Spirit of Sebring '75"
Photo: Bonhams
Other similar cars followed but this particular example would become the most famous. It was run in several configurations as a test mule for John and Burt’s ongoing developments with the most notable being the "Spirit of Sebring ‘75". In this spec, it was raced by John himself as a Greenwood team entry on several occasions, including the Daytona finale in late 1974 when John won the IMSA title.

Painted white with an American flag on the hood, it was powered by a Chevy big-block that received a Kinsler cross-ram fuel injection system and many other improvements that helped it spit out over 700 hp. The powerplant, along with the aerodynamic body made the car a missile on wheels. It became the world’s fastest Corvette in 1975 when it reached 236 mph (379 kph) at Daytona.

Another famous Greenwood Corvette was actually a follow-up of the aforementioned car and decorated much like its sibling, it would become famous as the “Spirit of Sebring ‘76”.

Greeenwood Corvette "Spirit of Sebring '76"
Photo: greenwoodcorvettes.com
It was originally built in 1975 for Jim Levitt, a wealthy businessman from California who wanted to get into racing. Levitt never actually drove it but ran it through his own team during the 1975 season finale as well as the full 1976 IMSA season with various drivers (including John) at the helm.

Apart from these examples which share the same architecture, the Greenwoods built a series of customer cars that were sold in somewhat-tamer configurations. They featured less-bespoke, GM-sourced frames and in most cases, conventional-style front suspension setups with springs and shocks mounted as separate units.

The most well-known customer version was chassis number seven which was built in 1976 for one of John’s friends, Chicago-area racer Rick Mancuso.

Legend has it that the 24 Hours of Le Mans organizers invited John to return to France since the oil crisis had drastically thinned the list of entries for that year’s race. John obliged, but his own widebody had been damaged in a previous race and he didn’t have enough time to repair it. Thus, he borrowed Mancuso’s car, inviting him to join the tram as one of the drivers. Unfortunately, Mancuso couldn’t make it, so John along with French rally driver Bernard Darniche ended up driving the car on the Circuit de la Sarthe.

Greeenwood Corvette "Spirit of Le Mans"
Photo: RM Sotheby's
Donning a patriotic livery and the number “76” to celebrate America’s bicentennial, the car nicknamed “Spirit of Le Mans”, showed a lot of promise during practice and qualifying sessions, consistently topping 220 mph (354 kph) on the long Mulsanne Straight. This carried over to the race where the powerful and aerodynamically-efficient Corvette proved a worthy opponent for the sea of Porsches which were considered favorites. Unfortunately, a burst tire eventually forced it to retire and John’s last Le Mans endeavor finished about eight hours earlier than he would have liked.

All these three “Spirit” cars have survived and were restored to their original configuration. The Sebring ’75 and the Spirit of Le Mans have gone under the hammer and although six-figure sums were offered, in both cases, the reserve was not met.

Although they were far from the most successful American race cars ever built, the Greenwood Corvettes were blisteringly fast and seriously cool thanks to their innovative widebodies. These cars earned cult hero status during the 1970s and remain some of the most influential  race-bred Corvettes ever built.

John and Burt were inducted into the Corvette Hall of Fame in 2018 and you can take a virtual tour of two of their most iconic cars in the video below by corvettemuseum.

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About the author: Vlad Radu
Vlad Radu profile photo

Vlad's first car was custom coach built: an exotic he made out of wood, cardboard and a borrowed steering wheel at the age of five. Combining his previous experience in writing and car dealership years, his articles focus in depth on special cars of past and present times.
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