[VIDEO] The Superformance 1963 Corvette Grand Sport Named ‘El Niño’

The 23rd annual HOT ROD Power Tour brought more than 6,000 vehicles and 100,000-plus spectators together last month.

Appropriately enough, since the event came to a close in Bowling Green, home of the Corvette, one of the drivers in the Power Tour was Roberto Berdiel, who tells us in this video about his life-long dream of owning a Corvette.

But not just any Corvette, a 1963 Grand Sport.

“I got this car inside my head when I was a kid and I saw a Matchbox toy,” Berdiel recalls. “For some reason I never saw another one after that toy.”

Fast forward 40-plus years, “and I was able to see some pictures of GM introducing this car with their new drivetrains, and we flew just to see it, see if this car is the one I’d like to (own). When I looked at it, I was convinced that this was what I wanted.”

What Berdiel wound up with was a Superformance replica of a ’63 Grand Sport, one that he dubbed “El Niño.”

“I chose the LS3 engine 525 horsepower because I thought that was a very reliable engine, it runs very smooth, it really shows off when you want to show off,” Berdiel says.

“To me it’s a very interesting integration of old technology matched to this new drivetrain that really enhances the performance of the car.”

Leaning against the front end of his Grand Sport replica, Berdiel describes the exhaust note from the sidepipes as “music to my ears,” and we’d be inclined to agree with him after listening to this video, which also happens to be full of beautiful scenery.

“You can go out and buy a new car,” Berdiel says, “or you can go out and buy a car you want, and this is the car I want.”

After getting the car, he decided to take part in the Power Tour, which is dubbed as the “nation’s biggest road trip” and covered seven days and seven cities in a week-long trip June 10-16.

“I was watching a news magazine, HOT ROD magazine, I saw this picture of these guys going down the road and everybody was waving on the side of the road,” Berdiel says.

“To me that caught my attention to the point where I told my wife, hey, listen, why don’t we do something where we can really enjoy our car and at the same time we can meet other people that do the same thing as us? That can take us away from the normal routine life and we can just be for a whole week drivers down the road, enjoying the view around us.”

And what a view it is when a Grand Sport replica is in the scene.

Source:
GM Authority

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