Development
Prior to 1984, Chevrolet naturally aspirated V8s and Buick turbocharged V6s were popular engines in the GTP class for privateer teams. However General Motors (GM) saw the opportunity to enter the IMSA GT Championship for themselves in the 1984 season in an attempt to bolster their image by fighting against Jaguar, Porsche, Nissan, and Mazda, but more importantly to expand and explore the limits of the V6 engine program.
General Motors turned to Lola Cars International of the United Kingdom, who had previous experience building cars for Mazda, to build their own chassis dubbed the Corvette GTP. Following testing on an older Lola T600 with a Chevrolet V8, an all new car was built, identified as the T710. The first chassis was delivered to General Motors in 1984 and outfitted with a 3.4 litre turbocharged V6 built by Ryan Falconer, a destroked version of the 4.3 liter Chevrolet V6. A second chassis, known as T711 used a 5.7 liter naturally aspirated V8, and was campaigned by Lee Racing, and in fact was the first Corvette GTP to race.
The cars featured bodywork similar to a Chevrolet Corvette C4 at the front, with a long pontoon-style tail featuring Corvette tail lights. Large side intakes would feed the radiators while the V6 turbocharged chassis had a snorkel built into the top of the fender to feed the turbocharger. Body evolution over the next few years included a change to the side intake and exploring a short tail layout and dual element rear wing.
Read more about this topic: Chevrolet Corvette GTP
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