Le Mans-raced 215-mph 1969 Chevy Corvette up for auction

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One of the most famous Chevrolet Corvette race cars of all time, the “Stars and Stripes” Greenwood Corvette campaigned at Le Mans by John Greenwood, is set to cross the Mecum auction block in mid-May, the unbelievably fast C3 set to likely clear seven figures when the hammer falls.

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The car would be rare enough racing provenance aside, being one of just 116 Corvettes fitted with the L88 V-8 in 1969. Originally a BFGoodrich-branded show car, No. 49 found itself shoved into the motorsports world when its No. 50 sister car was totalled in a crash, and Greenwood found himself in need of a replacement. A conversion to full competition spec ensued, including the swapping out of the said legendary L88 for a race-prepped ZL-1 motor.

Other mods including backing that mill with a Muncie close-ratio four-speed manual, as well as kitting out the ‘Vette with Greenwood’s own hotted-up suspension pieces front and rear. Clear Plexiglas headlight covers replace the pop-ups, and a wide set of Minilite wheels fill out the massive rubber.

All of those bits worked together to allow drivers like John Greenwood, Dick Smothers, Bob Johnson, and Don Yenko to take home plenty of hardware in the GT class. In 1973, for example, No. 49 saw action in the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Daytona 24 Hours, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. At Le Mans, the Greenwood Corvette would even set a GT-class top-speed record down the Mulsanne straight, getting itself up to 215 mph (346 km/h).

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The kind of trophies the Greenwood Corvette takes home these days are more often from concours, especially since the car underwent an extremely thorough restoration to bring it back to its red-white-and-blue-est. The V8 underhood at the moment is neither an L88 nor the ZL-1 it raced with, but a period-correct ZL-1 built by Traco Engineering apparently good for 750 horsepower or so.

The iconic ‘Vette will cross the block at Mecum’s upcoming Indy 2023 auction, which runs from May 12 to 20. Pinning down a value on a car like this isn’t easy, but considering a stock ’69 L88 in concours-spec goes for roughly CDN$750,000, per insurer Hagerty, we’d figure you can expect it to return at least that much, and very likely a seven-figure sum instead. We’ll update this post once it sells.