In 1956 the Corvette got a new cleaner look. The tail fins and the "eggcrate" headlight grills were gone. As well, two-tone paint was an option in 1956. The toothed grill had 13 vertical bars and many racers considered the Corvette unlucky because of this. However, this grill was a Corvette trademark until 1961. The optional engines had 9 fins on the valve covers. These covers would eventually be phased out and in 1958 all fined valve covers had 7 fins. The '56 Corvette also had a signal seeking all transistor radio. Overall, a slow year for the Corvette. GM was enjoying the Corvette's growing success.

With the arrival of the V-8 in 1955, Corvette set its sights on establishing itself on the race course. GM had only one employee that had any racing experience. That was Zora Arkus-Duntov. Under his direction, Corvette became a legitimate upstart racing team in '56. His theory on selling high performance sports cars centered around winning at the track. Duntov pushed himself and the Corvette into the spotlight in February '56 by making the Corvette the first American sports car to top 150 mph at Daytona Beach. His average was 150.583 mph. His feat was made possible by one of his inventions, the "Duntov" cam. This cam was a low-lift design with wide overlaps and increased the V-8's horsepower to 250. Corvette received some much needed, free publicity and racing Corvettes was finally seen as a way to peak the public's interest in an American sports car.

The next major racing event for the Corvette was Sebring. Duntov had done amazing things at Daytona, but one area of concern was the Corvette's braking system. He wanted to revamp the system to increase safety. GM decided against it and Duntov pulled himself from the racing team in disgust. Chevrolet pushed on without him and sent 4 cars to the 12 hour race. 3 cars used the same set-up as the Daytona car and one used a bored out 307 CI engine. The 307 CI car finished 9th, one car finished 15th and the other two broke. This limited success gave GM hope that the Corvette could be made into a competitive racer and may individuals started their own racing teams.

After an accident in April at the Milford Proving Grounds, Duntov was sidelined to the design studio. In May, he built the Corvette SR-2 Sebring Racer and in July work began on the XP-64, eventually dubbed the Corvette SS. Of his two racing teams that he started in '56, his second effort, a C-production Corvette, won the 1956 SCCA C-production national championship. Once again, Duntov helped gain more free publicity for the Corvette.

DID YOU KNOW?: A rare option was the special high-lift camshaft which provided an (unofficial) output of 240 hp!