1960 Chevrolet Corvette

To Be OFFERED AT AUCTION at RM Sothebys The Monterey Auction event, 13 - 15 August 2026.
$2,000,000 - $2,500,000 USD

• Proudly offered from the Cunningham family
• One of three Corvettes entered in the 1960 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Corvette models debut at the worlds most legendary race
• Driven by Briggs Cunningham and Bill Kimberly in the 1960 24 Hours of Le Mans, campaigned under race livery #1
• Competed at the 1960 12 Hours of Sebring and used in testing prior to Le Mans
• Meticulously restored to its 1960 configuration at the 24 Hours of Le Mans by noted marque expert Kevin Mackay, completed in 2023
• Unveiled at the 2023 Amelia Island Concours dElegance alongside Le Mans Cunningham Corvettes #2 and #3
• Three-time cover car, twice with feature story in the NCRS Corvette Restorer magazine
• Americas Sports Car, linking two legends of motorsport: Zora Arkus-Duntov and Briggs Cunningham

Briggs Swift Cunningham II, an American sportsman, inherited a significant fortune from his father, a successful businessman noted for having founded and run Citizens National Bank in addition to financing Procter & Gamble. While unable to access full control of his inheritance until age 40, Cunningham wasted no time making a name for himself in racing behind the wheel, with success in early SCCA events.

In 1950 Cunningham privately entered a pair of Cadillacs in the 24 Hours of Le Mans: A Series 61 Coupe nicknamed Petit Pataud and a custom-bodied Series 61 Spyder nicknamed Le Monstre. The cars would finish 10th and 11th overall. Despite finishing the race, the effort proved the need for a purpose-built racecar to be truly competitive with the best that Europe had to offer.

In September 1950, Briggs formed B.S. Cunningham in Palm Beach, Florida. The company would produce hand-built cars to compete directly with the likes of Ferrari on the worlds biggest stage, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Cunningham would field his own cars with American drivers at Le Mans in 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, and 1955. While 1951 saw each Cunningham entry DNF, the team would finish 4th overall and win their class in 1952 with Briggs Cunningham and William Bill Spear behind the wheel of a C-4R. The success would continue for Cunninghams upstart marque with 3rd overall finishes and class wins in both 1953 and 1954. The marques final entry at Le Mans came in 1955, with a C6-R raced by Cunningham himself as well as Sherwood Johnston. They completed 196 laps when, in hour 19, a piston failure ended their race.

Despite the successes in racing, Cunningham road car production never reached a point to cover expenses, leading Briggs Cunningham to fold his namesake car company at the end of 1955. This would not be the end, however, of Cunninghams quest to win Le Mans.

AN ALL-AMERICAN EFFORT AT LE MANS

By the mid-1950s Zora Arkus-Duntov, with the help of Corvette designer and creator Harley Earl, had managed to convince the powers at General Motors to develop a purpose-built factory racecar. With eyes set on the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Arkus-Duntov and a small team developed the 1957 Chevrolet Corvette SS. Sadly, the SS would only compete in that years 12 Hours of Sebring; the project was shelved in June of 1957 following the Automobile Manufacturers Association (AMA) racing ban. Despite the ban, Arkus-Duntov continued to support teams racing the Corvette behind the scenes.

Having witnessed the progression and successes of Cummingham and his team at Le Mans in the 1950s, Arkus-Duntov approached Briggs Cunningham in the fall of 1959 with a pitch: Cunningham would return to Le Mans and manage a team of Corvettes, which would be supported by the factory on strictly unofficial terms. An agreement was made with Cunningham on 7 January 1960, and later that same month Arkus-Duntovs team began building racing engines for the Cunningham effort.

It was important that Chevrolets involvement was not made public, as the company was still overtly adhering to the AMA ban. The project thus began with the Corvettes for Le Mans being acquired via a dealer, rather than direct from the factory. On 16 March 1960, three Corvettes were purchased by Cunninghams New York-based Jaguar distributor on Long Island from Don Allen Midtown Chevrolet in New York City proudly advertised in period as The Largest Corvette Dealer. To the untrained eye each appeared to be a normal Corvette; however, these special-order examples each featured a temperature-controlled radiator fan, quick-ratio steering, a close-ratio four-speed manual transmission, a Posi-Traction limited-slip differential, heavy-duty suspension, heavy-duty sintered-metallic brake linings, and heavy-duty brakes.

The three cars were further modified by Cunninghams friend and race team manager, Alfred Momo. It was at The Momo Corporation in Woodside, New York, a neighborhood of Queens, that Momos crew installed a set of Halibrand magnesium wheels with Firestone racing tires, added an additional front sway bar, Koni competition shock absorbers, a high-capacity fuel tank with a center-mounted Halibrand quick release fuel cap, Bendix fuel pumps (primary and backup), side-exit racing exhaust, more accurate Stewart Warner instrumentation, and two lightweight seats from a Douglas C-47 Skytrain aircraft. The stock engines were pulled and replaced with race-spec fuel-injected engines provided by Zora Arkus-Duntovs engineering team.

TESTING AND THE 12 HOURS OF SEBRING

In mid-March 1960 the GM team went to Florida for testing, initially at Sebring and then Daytona. There, over a five-day period, Zora Arkus-Duntov and Paul Goldsmith tested and fine-tuned the engine and suspension, in addition to testing different axle ratios and tires.

Shielding GM from any involvement, Cunningham entered two Corvettes under his Jaguar distributor of New York for the 1960 12 Hours of Sebring. According to NCRS Corvette Restorer magazine, the two cars were chassis 2538, competing under #1 driven by Briggs Cunningham as well as fellow American and noted Corvette driver and former team manager, John Fitch; and chassis 3535, this car, competing under #2 with Americans Dick Thompson and Fred Windridge sharing driving duties.

Sebring rules stipulated starting order was done by engine displacement, with a Le Mans-style running start for the drivers. The first six cars in the starting line were Chevrolet Corvettes, and at the very front were the two Cunningham cars: #1 (chassis 2538) and #2 (this car, chassis 3535).

The first official outing for the Cunningham Corvettes proved difficult on the challenging Sebring course. At lap 27, chassis 2538 suffered major damage following a rear hub failure, and the car flipped over. Luckily driver John Fitch, who was behind the wheel at the time, escaped major injury. Chassis 3535s day would come to an end early as well, suffering an engine failure at the hairpin turn, forcing its retirement after 41 laps. Despite the results, data gained from practice and the race itself proved valuable for the further development of the Corvette for Le Mans.

THE 1960 24 HOURS OF LE MANS

With the third Cunningham Corvette not yet completed, and chassis 2538 requiring repairs from the accident at Sebring, it is believed that this car, chassis 3535, was the car that received a 1959 engine with cast iron cylinder heads and was flown to France via Pan Am air freight from New York for the Le Mans practice session. On 9 April 1960 the Corvette completed over 520 test miles of the Circuit de la Sarthe, with Briggs Cunningham and Dick Thompson splitting driving duties. According to AOC Test Day report, the Corvette achieved a top speed of 180.617 km/h (112.5 mph) and a best lap time of 4:28.3, impressively putting the Cunningham Corvette just behind a pair of V-12 Ferraris in both categories.

Notes gathered from Florida testing, the Sebring race, and Le Mans testing were analyzed and numerous further changes were made. On 17 May 1960 at Bridgehampton, New York, the team would test for the final time on American soil prior to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. There, Zora Arkus-Duntov, John Fitch, and Bob Grossman would complete over 300 laps of the famed Long Island track, gathering additional data and making last-minute adjustments.

On 8 June 1960, the Cunningham Corvettes set sail aboard the Cunard Lines RMS Queen Elizabeth from New York to Cherbourg, France. Upon arrival on French shores the three Corvettes were each driven roughly 170 miles from the port to Le Mans. Safe to say, these loud foreign cars on the quiet French roads drew lots of attention. Once at Le Mans, the Cunningham team utilized Guillons garage for last-minute adjustments. The team cars were assigned numbers for the race with this car, chassis 3535, receiving #1. Chassis 4117 driven by Dick Thompson and Fred Windridge received #2, and chassis 2538 driven by John Fitch and Bob Grossman received #3. Briggs Cunningham found the cars hard to differentiate simply by their numbers at speed, so he assigned colored headlight covers to the cars: #1 received white headlight covers, #2 received blue headlight covers, and #3 received red headlight covers.

Zora Arkus-Duntovs dream of the Chevrolet Corvette competing at the worlds greatest race went back to the mid-1950s. The dream that was now finally coming to fruition, and with him co-driving one of the entries or so he thought. Arkus-Duntov and Cunningham had made an agreement that they would co-drive one of the Corvettes