Back in the mid 90's , General Motors was looking at developing a plan to have a factory team build a full spec GTS (GT1) class racer that could be a world challenger in the top GT championships in the world. General Motors also was eying a return to the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans in France hoping to capture another win for Corvette. GM had previously been against approving factory support for Corvette racing programs,but that all changed with the introduction of the
C5 road car in 1997.


GM chose to show the performance capabilities of the new car by using a more production-based racing car instead of the Corvette GTP of the 80's. Their intentions were to take on Dodge and Porsche, who were already running in the
category at the time.

General Motors picked the the Pratt & Miller group based in Michigan to construct and develop the new racing cars, as well as running the team in its debut season. Riley & Scott also assisted in the project, running a second team for a year. Due to ACO regulations that limit most of the cars elements be based on the street versions, the team used heavily modified road cars to test out various components to later use in the C5R.

11 C5R chassis were built between 1998 and 2004. In total, 4 cars are in the hands of collectors, 5 still in the hands of private teams, and 2 owned by Pratt & Miller or GM.

Starting in 2002, customer teams began looking at this ultra competitive Corvette for competition. SRT in Belgium was the first to get delivery of a new chassis (007), which is the only C5R chassis not originally run by the factory.

The car has proven to be a long lasting racer, as teams are still running these cars today, and have finished as high as 3rd place in both Le Mans and Spa in 2006 and 2007.

(click image for team listing)