Chris Drake has had his ‘Big Tank’ Corvette for twelve years, but it’s only for the last two that he has been competing with it. “The engine has spent more time out of the car than in it,” comments his mechanic, but the car is behaving itself today, having completed qualifying without incident.
It has taken quite a lot of effort to get it to Goodwood following problems during testing here a fortnight ago. On that outing, it threw a belt and, it’s suspected, overheated as a consequence. “We got the engine out in an hour and ten minutes, we’re quite good at it now!” The ‘Big Tank’ nickname came about because the cars were fitted with 36.5-gallon fuel tanks – although of more interest to us is the 327cu in V8 that helps to empty it.
Little is known of this particular car’s competition history, although it did race in the States throughout the 1960s. Today is its first race at Goodwood, where it will be vying for track space with Jaguar E-types and Cobras.
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