Vette Magazine – November 2019

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the St. Louis assembly plant and shipped
to GM’s styling center in Warren, Michigan,
for a complete makeover. Designer Bob
Cumberford is credited with the overall
design of the car, but all told, more than 17
engineers worked on it.
Modifications were made to the body
in the name of slicker aerodynamics. The
nose was lengthened, cone-shaped covers
went over the headlights and a stabiliz-
ing fin was mounted to the center of the
trunk. The body was placed on a beefed-
up Sebring race chassis with heavy-duty
brakes and suspension.

No one knows for certain, but some

theorize that the car’s name was a nod to

the Sebring race team that came before it:

Sebring Racer, version 2.

The assembly of Jerry Earl’s race car was

done in just weeks, a hurry-up deadline

imposed so he could debut the SR-2 at the

June Sprints at Road America. Earl report-

edly spun the car in practice but didn’t

damage it, then Dick Thompson took over

and “moved up to a fairly respectable posi-

tion,” wrote Cumberford in an article for

Petersen’s Sportscar Quarterly magazine.

Earl would race the SR-2 for the rest of

1956 and into 1957 in the SCCA’s Central

Region. Feedback from Thompson, that

the car was too heavy and needed more

power, prompted changes made between

the 1956 and 1957 racing seasons. Its stock

interior was removed, and lightweight

fiberglass door panels and Porsche bucket

seats were installed. The center-mount

fin was replaced by a taller fin behind the

driver, housing a roll bar and the filler cap

for a 36-gallon fuel tank. Under the hood

went a 331-inch small-block with a pro-

totype dual-meter fuel-injection system;

behind it was mounted one of the new-

for-1957 four-speed transmissions.

The SR-2 as we know it today, now part

of Irwin Kroiz’s collection, is restored to

that configuration. VETTE

Thanks to the GM Her-

itage Center, we have

photos of the SR-

under construction.

This photo, dated May

25, 1956, shows styl-

ists starting the pro-

cess on what looks

like a clay model of a

1956 Corvette. Note

the photos of the aero-

dynamic (and mostly

European) race and

sports cars tacked on

the wall at left.

This is the chassis that the SR-2 body would drop on. Similar to the cars modified to
race at Sebring, it featured heavy-duty suspension components and aluminum drum
brakes with metallic linings. Note, too, the carbureted V-8. Complaints by Dick Thomp-
son would prompt an upgrade to a fuel-injected engine in 1957.

The finished SR-2, wearing its SCCA-assigned

racing number, poses with a production 1956

Vette to show off their differences.

When completed, the SR-2 had a

nearly stock interior—including a radio!

Much of this would be stripped out a

year later to shave weight off the car.

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