“One day I’ll put that collection together. It can be done.”
The #57 Rebel Corvette is one of the most recognizable race cars of all time thanks to its unique Stars & Bars paint scheme. Oh, and the fact that it was the only C3 to score back-to-back wins at Sebring and Daytona in the same year while achieving the highest finish for Corvette, fourth overall, at Sebring.
The 1969 Rebel #57 beautifully brought back to its Sebring livery by Corvette Repair. The high-mount mirror, auxiliary driving lights, aluminum diffuser, and covered headlights meant that this car was destined for greatness on the racetrack.
The Rebel was originally ordered from Ferman Chevrolet in Tampa, Florida, as a 1969 Daytona Yellow convertible. Corvette racer Or Costanzo ordered the car with a complete L88 racing package, one of four lightweights built under the supervision of Zora Arkus-Duntov. Unlike the other three, this one was equipped with a dual disc clutch, making it the only known example. These particular L88s were also built with aluminum open-chamber heads six months before that option became available to L88 buyers and racers. Other special racing equipment included an M22 heavy-duty 4-speed, J56 heavy-duty disc brakes (with J50 power brake option), and F41 heavy-duty suspension. A black vinyl interior came with the car, although it didn’t remain in it for very long, and a bolt-on auxiliary hardtop was tacked on.
Like most racers, much of the car’s factory options included equipment that was purposefully left off as part of the lightweight package. The heater, convertible top, sound-deadening material, and carpeting were all removed before shipping from St. Louis, Missouri, to Florida. The car that became the famous Rebel was stripped even further upon delivery, fitted with fender flares to cover wider wheels and tires, and received a header and sidepipe system to achieve maximum horsepower. This special race equipment was placed into the car at GM Engineering to be installed by the buyer. Engineers called it the “trunk option.” They also put an oil cooler in a box inside the car. Other special racing cars besides the lightweight Corvettes were given the “trunk option” as well.
Racing History
The car was driven by Costanzo and Dave Heinz in the 1969 Sebring 12-hour against the best American and European teams of the day. In its first Sebring appearance, Costanzo and Heinz achieved a surprising second-place qualifying run and a third-place finish in the GT class, major accomplishments for a team with no major sponsorship or professional drivers. The team saw continued success throughout that year’s Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) season, where it competed against purebred race cars instead of factory-built tourers. In 1970, a mechanical failure forced a dropout at Sebring after a fifth-place GT class finish at its first Daytona 24-hour.
Corvette magazines played a key role in helping Kevin find and confirm the Rebel Corvette. The first time he saw the car was on the cover of the March 1977 issue of Corvette Corner, which he purchased at a swap meet.
Corvette News next helped him to identify the car with the June/July 1972 issue that clearly shows the Le Mans sticker on the bottom left of the rear window.
It wasn’t until 1971, however, that the one-off L88 actually became The Rebel. The car was completely rebuilt with its now-famous #57 Stars & Bars treatment, which was done as a response to Greenwood Racing’s American flag paint scheme. All Dave Heinz’s previous race cars carried the number 57 (I’ll let you guess why) and Bob Johnson replaced Or Costanzo as co-driver. Although it won four of the five International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) events in 1971, and took the first-ever GTO championship, the Rebel still only finished second in the GT class at both Daytona and Sebring, although it had led Daytona for a while until an electrical fire forced a pit road repair. After the 1971 season, Dana and Toye English (son and father) purchased the car, and the team continued to make improvements in terms of lightening and performance.
The year 1972 brought the Rebel Corvette to the forefront of the racing world, even with its drivers and lack of a major sponsor. The Rebel was driven to first place in the GT class and eighth overall at the 1972 24 Hours of Daytona. Then, just a few weeks later, the Rebel took the GT class checkered flag again at Sebring and an astounding fourth-place overall finish. The only cars to finish ahead of the three-year-old Corvette at Sebring were prototype Ferraris. Not only did the 1972 season earn the Rebel the title of the only C3 Corvette with back-to-back Sebring and Daytona wins, it still holds the record for the highest finishing factory-built Corvette ever at the 12 Hours of Sebring. It had held the record for highest-placing Corvette at Daytona for 29 years until the C5-R factory team took first-place overall in 2001. It also holds the record of the most-raced Corvette at Sebring, with five total runs (it ran again in 1973).
The Rebel Corvette also served as the test bed for Goodyear’s radial tire development program. Goodyear approached the Rebel team with a deal right before Daytona. They said, “If you crash the car in the race, you don’t know us, but if you win, we’ll put you on the cover of the Wall Street Journal.” Of course, they won, and Goodyear came out with a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal championing its new radial tires.
Part of the Rebel’s lore lies in its chief competitors, the stars-and-stripes BFG Greenwood Corvettes. “When those two cars would race together,” Kevin Mackay says, “they’d say the Civil War had started again because you’ve got the American flag car and the Confederate flag car. But the Rebel car won more races not because it was the most powerful, fastest car on the track, but because it was the most durable car. You can have the fastest car on the track, but if you blow engines and rear ends and transmissions, you’re not going to win races. Even though it wasn’t as fast, it was so much more durable than the BFG Greenwood cars.”
The #49 happened to be the promotional car for BFGoodrich’s radial tire program in addition to #48 and #50. So we now know who won that top-secret matchup as well.
Lost and Found
The Rebel Corvette continued to race for some time with various owners and different paint schemes and modifications until eventually, like many glorious race cars, it was forgotten and lost to time. Then, as though fate stepped in, Kevin Mackay was at a swap meet in Mahwah, New Jersey, in the summer of 1990, looking through some old magazines for sale. The vendor had crates upon crates of Corvette magazines piled up and was selling them for $1 each. One such publication was Corvette Corner, which featured the Confederate flag race car on the cover. Kevin forked over a dollar to read the whole article once he got home. The article went in-depth about the Rebel car being one of four special lightweight L88s, this particular one having been ordered by Or Costanzo as a yellow car. Following his successes with the car, he sold it to Dana and Toye English.
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