GRIBBLE-BOWRING

25

Fitter machinist

Two years

Two years

My dad, Terry Sims, Andrew Ross, Chad Golen, Johnathan Chen, Richard Fleming, Juhan Lee, Bernard Lim through a custom twin-plate clutch attached to a carbon-fibre driveshaft. The result is a near-perfect 50/50 weight distribution that keeps weight over the rear wheels and allows for sufficient grip levels when called on. You can already guess that all the componentry to mount the set-up and make it all work was whipped up on the CNC machine at Blair’s.

No matter where you cast your eye over this thing, you can be sure that hours of planning and work have been poured into making this Corvette go sideways, and do this well. It extends to the small touches you wouldn’t even think about. For example, all the room for the exhaust being swallowed up by the driveline, which is why you’ll find it shooting out to the sides halfway down the sills, curving up and over the rear wheels behind the quarters, and weaving back down and to the centre for a factory exit point.

It’s been a huge two years for Blair and the team. However, considering the level of work that’s had to go into the car, top to bottom, front to back, it’s a pretty impressive timeframe. At the time of writing, it’s just turned its first wheel in anger at one of many testing sessions. Subsequent sessions will see further improvements made, as Blair explains: “It’s constantly being developed. I want to get it to the point where I know it is highly competitive and capable of outdoing other cars before putting it into serious competition.”

This means that, while we may not see the Corvette taking on the ruling class of Japanese chassis in the national championship for a little longer, it’s definitely a scary thought to have looming over the competition as Blair dials the car into murder mode and inevitably arrives to show them just how lethal a custom American creation to this level really is.