All About the Grand Sport Registry

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All about the Grand Sport Registry

HISTORY: The GSR was founded in 1996 by Jim and Sherri Van Dorn of La Quinta, California, owners of Auto Masters located in Palm Desert.

Auto Masters is a very well known and respected shop for some extreme high performance Corvettes, including Grand Sports and ZR-1's. Jim literally eats, breathes, and sleeps high performance, so he was immediately drawn to such Corvettes as the ZR-1 and later, the Grand Sport.

Jim was the driving force behind the Pirate Racing Team, in its day the top SCCA/Speedvision World Challenge team with ZR-1 and LT4 (for at least one race) race cars and noted drivers such as Bill Cooper and "our own" John Heinricy behind the wheel. This was significant in that Chevrolet was not active in racing at that time. The Pirates wanted to show the world that the Corvette was a racecar, not a Golf-club touring luxury sedan.

Jim is further credited with coining the term, "Black Widow" to define the special 475HP high performance LT5's that were produced in limited quantity by Mercruiser and Doug Rippie Motorsports. Drawing on his experience with these motors, Jim developed the "Street Skinner" ZR-1 package that continue to give Viper owners cause for concern.

While he lamented the demise of the ZR-1, Jim also recognized the potential and enthusiastic following the newly introduced, limited edition Grand Sport would produce. So in 1996 he formed the Grand Sport Owners Registry and set out to gather and share as much information about these unique Corvettes and their owners as he possibly could.

With the help of just a handful of other enthusiasts (most notably Rick White and Colleen "Col" Egan), he canvassed GS owners through correspondence with Corvette clubs, participation in Corvette events, and via active support of the National Corvette Museum. An initial database of GS data and a website were created and the word spread quickly.

		Due to the growing demands of his business and family, Jim Van Dorn reluctantly had to admit he did not have the time to devote to the GSR since it was growing at a pace too rapid to keep up with. After months of discussion, it was agreed that John "Hutch" Hutchinson of Orlando, Florida, would take over the reigns of the GSR and attempt to grow it into something "JVD" himself would be proud of. And the rest as they say, is history.
	TODAY: Since those early days the Grand Sport Registry has grown to a sizable mature organization with an ever expanding list of members stretching across the country and as far away as Europe and Australia. We have tracked down certain ownership and vehicle information on nearly 90% of all 1,000 Grand Sports and have verified the RPO option data on every single car. The GSR is the only Grand Sport enthusiast organization licensed by General Motors to use its trademarks for the purpose of expanding interest in the marque and helping its members get more enjoyment out of their Corvette ownership. Membership in the Grand Sport Registry is open to all, including 1996 Z16 Grand Sport Corvette and regular production LT4 owners, 1963 GS replica owners, and for that matter, anyone with a serious interest in the Corvette Grand Sport. In addition to Regular and Lifetime members, the GSR also includes John Heinricy and the owners of the five original 1963 Grand Sports amongst its list of Honorary Lifetime Members. But like that old song goes, "We've only just begun." Hope you'll stick around for the ride. One thing for sure... its going to be fun!

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