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In June 1996, I attended the Duntov tribute at the National Corvette Museum where I presented Elfi and the
museum a Scale Vision piece of history, the Penske #001 Grand Sport Roadster with a mini figurine of Zora. I
kept in touch with Elfi for many years after that, giving her surprise call’s on Mothers Day, Valentines Day, etc.
Sending gifts of cassette tapes of old German beer drinking songs, and other various classics from her time, as well
as VHS tape of archived footage of many interviews, race footage, that included Zora. During one of my many
conversations with Elfi, she mentioned how much joy my Grand Sport gift had brought to Zora and that he said it
was one of the best gifts he’s received in many years.”
In 2008 when Elfi passed, Zora’s biographer Jerry Burton informed Theune that the five car set of Grand
Sports that he’d created for Zora as a birthday present had been bestowed to the General Motors Heritage Center,
along with other personal effects of the Duntov’s. Theune’s comment, “I am Honored!” Nuff said!
Zora was kind enough to gift to Don a small supply of signed plaques. Don’s promise to Zora was, “Only on
the Good Stuff.” A few of the signed plaques accompanied Don’s donations of the #001 to #005 Grand Sports
models to the Corvettes at Carlisle Benefit Auction. The remaining Zora-signed plaque’s will accompany a very
limited production projects and significant pieces to-be-determined and set to debut at the 2013 Corvettes at Carlisle
Show.
The Grand Sport legend continues as Scale Visions is presently accepting private commissions on the 2010-
2013 Corvette Grand Sport Coupes and Convertibles. For more information on Scale Visions models, visit
www.ScaleVisions.com, or you can connect directly with the master model builder himself, Don Theune, at
Scalevisions@aol.com. If you plan to attend the 2013 Corvettes at Carlisle Show, visit Don’s booth in Building T,
across the room from the “Chip’s Choice” Corvettes.
Side Bar: Don Theune’s John Mecum Conversation
While diligently researching the Grand Sport, I placed call’s to as many individuals connected with the cars as I
could, including, Bill Tower, Delmo Johnson, and John Mecom. The most interesting of all conversations was with
John Mecom. John’s secretary returned my call and said, ” Mr. Mecom is on line for you.” I thought yea, sure. This
must be a buddy messing with me.
The next thing I hear is an older man’s voice that said, “Hello this is John Mecom.” I said, “Hey there John, thanks
for returning my call, I was wondering if you could tell me which of the Nassau Grand Sport cars had the white
stripe on the front?” The phone went silent and I hear a stern, ” I’m a very busy man, is that what you called me for?
(OOPS!) I swiftly apologized and explained that I thought I was being pranked by a wise guy pal. After smoothing
over our bumpy start, John explained that the correct color on all the Nassau cars was a 1960 Cadillac “Pelham Blue
” because Johnson Chevrolet had a left over supply of paint. Another very interesting fact Mecum shared was that
initially there were six titles (Pink Slips) written up for what was then called the “1962 Corvette Lightweights.”
Ed – This interesting detail about the “six titles” has been pointed out before and misconstrued to mean that there
were SIX Grand Sport Corvettes built. Not the case. When the ‘63 Corvette Sting Ray was close to being complete
and ready for production in early ‘62, Duntov was well aware of Shelby’s ultra lightweight Cobras. Wanting to take
the Fords head on, Duntov convinced Chevrolet general manager, Bunkie Knudsen to approve a plan to initially
build 125 lightweight Corvettes based on the new Sting Ray for FIA homologation to race against the Cobras. The
plan also called for as many as 1,000 lightweight Corvettes to be built and sold through Chevrolet dealers.
Although six titles may well have been written, only five cars and various parts were built. Some of those proposed
extra parts included a double-overhead-cam and hemi head small-block Chevy engine, along with an all-aluminum
small-block. The hemi and DOHC engines were only mocked up for photography, where as the 377 all-aluminum
engine was actually built and tested. One of a dozen or so all-aluminum SBCs survives and is on display at the
Simeone Museum in Philadelphia. Initially, the cars were just called “Lightweight Corvettes. It was only shortly
before the cars were completed that the “Grand Sport” moniker was applied to the cars.