Thursday 13th September 1973

The Chevrolet Corvette XP-897GT, designed by General Motor’s in-house studio and built by Pininfarina in Italy, made its debut at the Frankfurt Auto Show. The XP-897GT featured a mid-mounted 180bhp two-rotor Wankel engine mounted transversely, driving a new automatic transaxle being developed for the forthcoming X-body Chevrolet Citation. The car was built in 6 months on a modified Porsche 914 chassis. The prototype made the rounds to all the major auto shows until GM decided to cut its rotary engine program due to poor emissions and mileage. After its British Motor Show debut, it was put in storage in the UK without its Citation transaxle or its Chevrolet rotary engine.