The Camoradi Corvette that raced at Le Mans and won at The Amelia

Want a car with a proven track record? Sure, this Camoradi Corvette has in-period competition experience at storied places like Le Mans, Sebring and the Nürburgring. However, last year it won major awards: The NCRS American Heritage, the Audrain Sporting Choice and the Grand Sport Trophy at The Amelia. Here’s why.

Camoradi’s owner Lloyd “Lucky” Casner teamed up with driver Fred Gamble to create an all-American team, and what’s more American than a Corvette? Unfortunately, this came after the American automakers agreed to ban involvement in motorsport. However, Zora Arkus-Duntov provided Camoradi with two competition-optioned Corvettes under the auspices of a testing contract. (Note: This is the sole surviving example of those two Corvettes delivered to Camoradi.)

Its in-period competition came to an end in Sweden. Racer Bob Wallace was driving the car to the Goodwood RAC Tourist Trophy after it had competed in the Swedish GP. The Corvette left the road in Ljungby, overturned and damaged the bodywork in the process. Wallace was unharmed, the engine and transmission were removed, driver’s seat and steering wheel given to the responding police officer and the car was abandoned.

Arizona-based Corvette enthusiast Loren Lundberg had just arranged the showing of one of the Cunningham Fuelies that competed against Camoradi in 1960. The owner of that Cunningham car noted that Lundberg had lived near Wallace. After contacting Wallace, Lundberg went on a mission to find the Camoradi car. He, “contacted, in no particular order, Fred Gamble, the Swedish and French Consulates, the Swedish Embassy, French-American Chamber of Commerce, the ACO, the AvD, his member of Congress, and multiple police departments within jurisdictions along the probable route from Karlskoga to Goodwood.” Lundberg finally found a sympathetic spirit, Ljungby police officer Stig Johansson. Armed with a range of chassis numbers, Johansson found an individual who had a 1960 Corvette matching one of them. It had been returned to the street in 1966 with the story of it once being raced at Le Mans, and passed to the then-current owner in 1979. Lundberg acquired the car and returned it to the U.S. in 1995. He held onto it, telling its story wherever it went, until his death in 2021. After that the Camoradi Corvette underwent an accurate restoration, resulting in the aforementioned awards, all earned in 2024.