Exclusive: C8 Corvette Grand Sport Revealed at Sebring with Roger Penske’s Help

Thursday afternoon we were on a roped-off taxiway at the Sebring Regional Airport, close enough to Sebring International Raceway to hear cars on the track, practicing for today’s 74th annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Roger Penske is 89, and according to Forbes magazine, his net worth is upwards of $6 billion. He has distractions, which go hand in hand with making money, but his favorite distraction is racing. It has been for a very long time.

For 2026, he is celebrating Team Penske’s 60th anniversary, and the celebration began in January with a win at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona by one of his two Penske Porsche 963 GTP cars. In last year’s Twelve Hours of Sebring, his Porsches finished first and second, and are heavy favorites to repeat today. Team Penske is also celebrating Porsche’s 75th year in motorsports, plus a 2025 season championship.

So it’s a little surprising to see Penske wearing a hat with a Chevrolet logo, leaning against this blue Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport, chassis number 001—it’s number one of only five C2 Grand Sports built—which his race team acquired in 1966. Penske is here for a photo shoot for the 2027 Corvette Grand Sport, which at the moment, is parked about six feet away from 001. You can see the new Grand Sport in a couple of these photos.

We wondered aloud if Porsche was all right with its most visible global racing partner, team owner, and franchise holder participating in a big Chevrolet publicity event. “I would hope that they understand,” Penske said. “After all, I am a Chevrolet dealer.”

Indeed, if we were at an IndyCar race, it would have made perfect sense to see Penske with a Chevrolet hat, as the three Dallara cars he runs have long been powered by Chevy. If we were at a NASCAR Cup race, he might be wearing a Ford hat, as his three drivers run Ford Mustang Dark Horses—or at least what NASCAR hopes we believe have some connection, however remote, to an actual Mustang Dark Horse.

While Penske, like many team owners, is pretty manufacturer-agnostic, he is loyal to his brands. He won the NASCAR Cup championship for Dodge in 2012 with driver Brad Keselowski, only to have that manufacturer promptly ditch its NASCAR program after accepting the trophy, so Penske moved to Ford. But Sebring seems like it should be Penske Porsche territory, except for right now, apparently.

If all went according to Chevrolet’s secret Saturday schedule—and we don’t know yet if it did, because this is being written late Friday night—the beyond-eagerly-awaited Grand Sport, which until today existed only as an unconfirmed rumor, made its initial public debut at 8:50 a.m., when, unannounced, it took to the Sebring track for a single lap, along with 001 and several later-model Corvette Grand Sports that you also see in these photos. (Editor’s note: It did happen!)

We were invited to look the 2027 Corvette Grand Sport over, though Chevrolet executives present were authorized to confirm only two things: Yes, it exists, and yes, it’s powered by a new V-8 engine. As we reported in December of 2025 (which, continuing the anniversary theme, was the 70th birthday of the then-revolutionary small-block V-8 engine), the Grand Sport is very likely to be powered by a 6.7-liter pushrod V-8 dubbed the LS6, recognizing that it’s the sixth-generation Chevy small-block. There’s no evidence that a manual transmission will be available, reportedly in part because Corvette couldn’t find a suitable one. The Grand Sport we saw was definitely an automatic.

Like in the C6 and C7 generations, it is a wide-body iteration, in part to accommodate the fat 21-inch tires and wheels out back, 20-inchers up front. The Grand Sport may be the most handsome C8 Corvette yet, with a very clean and sanitary appearance, but still maintaining a ready-to-pounce stance. You’ll note that there is no massive rear spoiler, and you’ll also see that the twin red hash marks have moved from the front fender to the rear. Multiple rumors have suggested that Chevrolet was trying to keep the Grand Sport’s starting price under $100,000; hopefully we’ll know in a few days.

This is where we circle back to the C2 Grand Sport number 001, and Penske’s history with the car. Before the 16th annual Twelve Hours of Sebring, held on March 26, 1966, Penske’s team yanked out the small-block Chevy engine and crammed a 427-cubic-inch V-8 under the hood—or actually a new, taller hood, because the old one no longer fit—and entered the race. That was 60 years ago, almost to the day. Anniversaries abound: Next year is the 75th annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

For the 1966 race, Sebring’s eclectic grid was full of Shelby Cobras, Ford GT40s, various Porsches and Ferraris, even a pair of Chaparrals built by Penske’s old racing partner, Jim Hall. The entry list was a who’s who of the top drivers of the era—Mario Andretti, Dan Gurney, Bob Bondurant, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, Phil Hill, Masten Gregory, Sam Posey, Bob Tullius, Briggs Cunningham, John Fitch, A.J. Foyt, Ken Miles, Lloyd Ruby, and Mark Donohue.

Roger Penske belongs on that list—he was named the Sports Illustrated driver of the year in 1961—but he quit driving race cars in 1965, completing his transition to team owner. We’ll explain why that happened in a moment.

The 1966 Sebring race was a brutal one. Twenty-four cars finished the race; 40 did not, including chassis 001, which completed only 65 laps on the then-5.2-mile track. The winner, a Shelby American Ford GT40 X1 roadster driven by Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby, completed 228 laps. That was largely lost in the news of the tragedy that occurred: Five people were killed in the race—one driver and four spectators.

It’s amazing Dan Gurney survived: He was battling for the lead when, on the last lap, in pitch dark, his engine quit. Gurney got out and pushed his GT40 to the finish line. Somehow the other cars avoided him. Despite his heroic efforts, his second-place finish was disqualified. That year the Sebring track initiated a series of safety improvements, which continue to this day. But this is racing, and sometimes people get hurt. Hopefully no one will today.

As for Roger Penske, who identified himself as a Chevrolet dealer, he’s a little more than that. He is the chairman and CEO of Penske Automotive Group, which has 352 dealerships in nine countries, with 28,700 total employees. Besides Chevrolet, PAG handles more than 30 brands—Bentley to BMW to Bugatti, Ferrari to Fiat to Freightliner.

It all started, though, when he was allowed to buy a Chevrolet dealership in Philadelphia in 1965. Penske had eased into the world of amateur racing in the late 1950s, most of it in a Corvette, which he drove for five years, winning a lot of Sports Car Club of America races.

“Then in the ‘60s, I had the opportunity to drive the lightweight Corvette,” he told Hagerty. “I remember being here in ’64, driving with Jim Hall, to race in the Twelve Hours. I led the first lap, against the Ferraris, if you can believe it, going down into turn 9, sliding the car sideways. Getting in front of them—I thought they were going to run me over!

“We finished first in our class, then went on to Nassau, where we won the Tourist Trophy. The Ferraris were there, Ken Miles was there in a Cobra—it was a big win for us and the lightweight Corvette. The car was a monster. If you could hold onto it, you could win.”

So why did he quit? “I had the opportunity, ironically, to become a Chevrolet dealer, and one of the stipulations for General Motors was I couldn’t be a race driver. I couldn’t get insurance, I couldn’t get a loan from a bank if I was a race driver, and I couldn’t get a franchise. So the decision was pretty easy for me.”

Still, Penske has never been far from motorsports, and he marveled at the changes he’s seen. “Those days you had a station wagon and a two-wheel trailer, not a $300,000 bus to take to the track.”

Penske owns the IndyCar series, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the NASCAR team, the IndyCar team, and a two-car IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship Porsche team that is the favorite to win again today here at Sebring. Expect Penske himself to be on top of the pit box for all 12 hours; after all, he was up for the whole Rolex 24 at Daytona, as usual.

“It’s still fun,” Penske said, “but a different kind of fun. And winning—it never gets old.”

Penske slid off chassis 001, and hustled to a golf cart: He has to get back to his team. This immaculate car is now owned by Harry Yeaggy, a Cincinnati businessman and car collector, who bought it in 2002 for a reported $4.2 million. What’s it worth 24 years later? Our best guess is: More.

“Corvettes have always been about value,” Penske said.