The 1990 R9B Corvette Factory Racecar

    Sometimes, you can be too successful. Take the C4 Corvette. Haled by the press as one of the world's great sports cars, the C4 proved itself in competition. Between 1985 and 1987, Corvettes won 19 SCCA Showroom Stock races. Considering there were only 19 races run during that time span, that is the ultimate definition of success.

   So when manufacturers like Porsche and Mazda began to complain that they didn't have a chance to win against the Corvette, Chevrolet was politely told to go race somewhere else. So the Corvette Challenge was created, pitting outstanding drivers in nearly equal Corvettes, with the best or luckiest man winning. That lasted two years before Chevrolet had to terminate the series due to astronomical costs. Fortunately, in 1990 the SCCA revised the Escort Endurance Showroom Stock series into the Escort World Challenge, and the C4 Corvette was allowed back in to compete against the Lotus Esprit Turbo, Mazda RX7 Turbo and Porsche 944 Turbo.

   Chevrolet offered to help the established Corvette teams get into the World Challenge by building a small batch of specially prepared cars. Marketing code R9G delivered a Corvette stripped of most frills but packed with much of the equipment necessary to go World Challenge racing. Built right on the Bowling Green assembly line, R9G Corvettes came with the FX3 adjustable suspension,teamed with the Z51 heavy duty springs and brakes, a non standard combination that year. The standard cloth interior was also installed, since the seats would be replaced by a racing bucket and harness. The stock aluminum wheels were replaced with the light but tough Dymag alloy wheels that proved themselves so well in the Corvette Challenge.

   Under the hood came the standard L98 engine, but Corvette Engineering sold a specially built L98 through its Raceshop for $4500.00. This special engine was built right on the Flint engine line, making it "showroom stock." "What we've done is kind of an automated way to blueprint the engines," said Mark DuPree of the Raceshop in a 1990 interview. Corvette Engineering selected blocks, heads and crankshaft castings with better than normal production tolerances,machined them with new, sharp tools, then selected the best and sent them down the Flint assembly line. These engines produced 290hp plus or minus 1.5%, compared to the stock 235hp L98.

   Unlike the B9P Corvette Challenge cars, which were equipped with rollcages, racing seats and harnesses, fire systems and racing exhaust by contractors Protofab and Powell Motorsports, purchasers of an R9G had to turn this factory stock machine into a race car on their own. But most of the teams that bought the R9G had plenty of racing experience, either in the Escort Endurance series or the Corvette Challenge.

   The R9G package was not advertised to the public, but the major Corvette teams like Kim Baker, Doug Rippie, and Tommy Morrison certainly knew about the car and built their World Challenge efforts around them. Only 23 R9G cars were built in 1990, and Chevrolet discontinued the package after that year. Chevrolet also pulled the plug on direct support of any World Challenge team, so possibly that is why some of the 23 R9G cars were never raced. While not exactly a factory racecar, the R9G would be the last factory race package offered to the public  at least until the 1999 C5 R.