750hp 1987 IMSA Corvette GTO Driven by Ron Fellows

[@oakmanrob]

We need more videos of Ron Fellows driving things fast.

[@boyfrmnewyork]

I raced with Ron back in the 70s when we were all young guns. Great guy and racer in whatever he drove. Nice to see he still has the magic especially in a Corvette!

[@thevettboy]

Paul, I'm with on that one. I saw those cars back in the day and they were your typical thundering V8 sounds that all us Corvette guys liked to experience. I was also hoping to hear the history of those cars from our good friend Marshall Pruett, maybe he will be there over the weekend. His tours in the paddock make the weekend for me.

[@vgbondarev]

Deliberated over this all night, decided to call a buddy at Pratt & Miller. Car originally had a 6L V8, Dan Binks swapped a Corvette GTP engine, a Buick Indy V6, into it with the help of P&M engineers.

[@kev0721]

@@vgbondarev Mostly correct, but this car did run the V6 Turbo in 1987. Pickett had two chassis, a V8 and this V6 car that ran the Falconer V6 from the Corvette GTP. It was a little known story that he had two cars, but if you look at pictures from 87 you can see the different hood and exhaust configurations for different races. Like the GTP car, they never got the reliability sorted out, but it's was very fast. A lot of pole, fastest lap, DNF results. The car eventually went to Central America and the V6 was removed. The car came back a few years ago when Binks started on the restoration. Pratt helped with the details to recreate the V6 setup, but also still had some original parts that were put back in the car. The original V6 mounts were still in the car, the intercooler, gearbox, rear end are all original and just rebuilt. Huge project to rebuild the car and the detail is incredible, but just wanted to clarify that it isn't a recent idea to put the V6 in, Protofab had this car back in the day, just not a lot of people know the story. The reliability eventually forced them back to just the V8 (the team's other V8 car is in this race in the Polyvoltac livery), so it wasn't long lived, but a unique bit of corvette history.

[@vgbondarev]

@@kev0721 Damn, Sherlock! Thanks for the info on this. I scoured every book in my library but couldn't find shit about it.

[@vnitto]

4.5 liter V6, those are some big pistons!

[@GPharaod9]

I’m thinking it’s the 4.3 bored out

[@Michael_Lorenson]

Excellent, thanks

[@Sdpartscenter]

[@EternalBlade8228]

Earth called, it want's it's air back!

[@kenxiong6830]

Darn I wish they had shown the RPMs and Speed

[@paul721]

I don’t recall this car running with a turbo v6…when was that?

[@vgbondarev]

87. Buick V6 if I recall.

[@corystansbury]

​@@vgbondarevPretty sure it was a 4.3 base (i.e. 3/4 small block).

[@vgbondarev]

@@corystansbury did some research last night. It was a Buick Indy V6. They started in the Corvette GTP with that engine in various iterations (4.5, 3.4, 3.0, all with 600+ hp) before they moved that car onto a 6.0l V8 in 1987 for reliability reasons.

[@corystansbury]

@@vgbondarev Everything I've seen suggests all variants were 4.3 based, with the first ones being Ryan Falconer creations. I have a hard time believing a Buick V6 would survive being bore/stroked to 4.5 + boost in an endurance application. The Buick Indy engines certainly never lasted long enough to win anything and that was at stock displacement.

[@vgbondarev]

@@corystansbury the information I got was from Martin and Fuller's "GTP Race Cars". Fantastic book if you can find a copy. The book said they were indeed Indy V6s pushing 90 inches of boost in their 4.5l form. I agree with you though. The Indy wasn't that reliable, and the Corvette GTP was incredibly fast but could never finish a race.

[@spookydog6959]

😁wow