CERV III: The First True Modern Hypercar

In the midst of a dire financial situation and corporate restructuring, GM produces an automotive engineering masterpiece: CERV III.

The year is 1986. The public continues to demand ever-more technologically advanced sports cars. And increasingly experimental and ludicrously fast racing series are becoming more prominent. For the racing fans reading this, this is the tail-end of Group B  and the heyday of silhouette cars, turbocharged 1,000 horsepower Formula 1 monstrosities, and Group C endurance racing. A time when speed frequently outpaced technology, with F1 engines being written off after a single race, as an example. This ushered in a technological arms race, leading to some of the most radical, beautiful, and fastest cars of all time. Enter CERV III, GM’s first true modern supercar.

CERV Resurfaces

Corvette Indy

By the mid-1980s, Chevrolet engines roared across circuits all over the world. The Corvette in particular enjoyed a spotlight in US motorsports, having raced since the grassroots of the SCCA. Along with those came numerous prototype and experimental cars, culminating in 1986 with the Corvette Indy. This was a radical concept car powered by a transverse mid-mounted 2.6L twin-turbo Ilmor-Chevrolet IndyCar engine producing 600+ horsepower. Which was, frankly, so mad that it’s fantastic that such a vehicle exists.

However, by the late 80s, GM was in dire financial straits across the board because they actually sold too many cars (a bit of history we covered here in our C5 Corvette History article). By this point, the Corvette remained practically the only car they produced worthy of magazine covers. Yet, this was also the dawn of the Supercar Era. And GM wanted a new horse in the race. In an effort to get back in the game, therefore, they revived the CERV project with the aim of creating the first true modern American supercar.

Everything but the Kitchen Sink

CERV III debuted in 1990 at the Detroit Auto Show. Much like its previous iterations, GM intended CERV III as a rolling test bed, filled with the latest technology (circa the late-80s). However, none of these were to be outside the realms of possibility for the time. You had a mid-engine configuration, for starters. Jerry Palmer designed the body with effective freedom, ending with a design that’s only vaguely reminiscent of a Corvette. Bear in mind, the C5 was still on the drawing board at this time, so going from a C4 to this was a massive leap.

Taking a page out of Calloway’s handbook,  the team twin-turbocharged an LT-5 from a C4 ZR-1, tuned by Lotus. With that, the driver now had a 650-horsepower V8 sitting right behind them. But a supercar isn’t defined just by having a powerful engine. It’s a package deal, with all the latest performance-oriented technology.

The most prominent example culminated in an extremely novel (and complicated) gearbox and AWD system. Instead of using a single six-speed, GM instead opted for two transmissions feeding into one another: a three-speed Hydramatic linked to a two-speed automatic. This effectively gave it six gears and acted as a step-down mechanism for the engine’s torque.

The titanium suspension was, of course, tuned by Lotus and carried over most features from the ZR-1, just significantly stiffened and lightened. With the exception of a mechanical rear-wheel steering system, similar to the one found on a Mitsubishi Galant VR-4, for better low-speed cornering. And finishing off the running gear, you have carbon-ceramic brakes, which were absolutely necessary for a vehicle traveling at a claimed 225-mph top speed.

Interior-wise was much the same story. People consider supercars quite luxurious, after all, and for good reason. And CERV III actually incorporated not just the latest, but yet-to-be-developed technologies. The most prominent of which was a CRT display in the dashboard which featured a moving-map display in advertisements. Mind you, GPS hadn’t actually been developed by this point. Elsewhere, you had scissor-doors (of course), and a remarkable level of trim and finish, certainly for a Corvette of this era.

Likewise, GM gave the body a similar treatment, utilizing a variety of lightweight and durable materials like carbon fiber (quite expensive at the time), Kevlar, and Nomex. Essentially, wherever you look at the car, you will see a novel piece of tech, or an exotic material, or a finely crafted handmade piece of engineering. Now we’re out of the realm of supercars, and encroaching on hypercar territory.

The First Hypercar

A hypercar represents a culmination of extreme performance and cutting-edge technology in a road-legal and usable package. In layman’s terms, a super-supercar. Many people consider the McLaren F1 as the world’s first true hypercar. And if we’re going off actual production cars, then that’s certainly a fair case.

However, three years prior to its debut, GM produced this mechanical marvel. It was more powerful, hit 60 in less than 4 seconds, had even more advanced features, boasted a laundry list of exotic components and manufacturing techniques, and most certainly looked the part. Plus, though it never left the prototype stage, GM certainly teased CERV III as a potential production vehicle. And if it were four or five years down the road, it very well might have. The car sat comfortably between the McLaren and the Jaguar XJ-220 on raw figures, and had the reliability pedigree of GM behind it.

What mainly killed CERV III wasn’t the technological demonstration it was. GM incorporated these technologies into other Corvettes, the latest of which being the C8’s engine position. Rather, these were pre-hypercar days. So the public couldn’t really swallow an eye-watering price tag of $400,000+ for what was essentially a gimmick car. So GM unfortunately axed the project, in spite of how well-received it was at car shows and the lessons it taught. However, it certainly left its mark on the enthusiast community. And it represents one of the first-ever supercars, perhaps even the first hypercar, to drive under its own power.